These days all major top tier businesses are very clear that they only want to only sell quality products at a fair pricing point. To achieve this they need to be confident that their suppliers can provide a consistent and quality product and that the providers can demonstrate exactly why they can have such confidence that they can maintain the desired standard of delivery. The challenge for many years was how can this quality be assured. To assist buyers gain this comfort national quality standards have been developed which suppliers have to prove they have complied too. There are standards for the very biggest multinational companies but of course we as a small to medium sized group are not expected to follow these. The cost of compliance would be far too expensive. To ensure consistency of quality, however, a national standard for groups of our size has been developed. Its name is the Salsa which stands for the rather unusual definition of “Safe and Local Supplier Approval”. It is available to food and drink businesses that have less than 50 employees. It is endorsed, and in fact part-owned, by the British Retail Consortium who see this as a critical part of a retail buyers tool kit to help them be confident in their buying decisions. Indeed, many of our larger customers are now requesting that their suppliers have some sort of quality award. Salsa is a management system to ensure adequate quality is maintained in all a business’s manufactured product lines and more importantly that the paper flows supporting them is able to demonstrate we have checked to ensure that no slips are made to weaken the standards of our products. It includes within it the need to identify all major Hazards and Critical Control Points in a production process and the business must be able to demonstrate just how they can prove that there has been no control slippage. We are delighted and proud to announce that we have gained this prestigious quality award and now have our own Salsa Certification for our operations on Holy Island where we produce and bottle our Lindisfarne Meads, Liqueurs and also our Alnwick and Holy Island Rum ranges. This is tangible proof of our quality processes and dedication of our staff towards excellence. They all deserve a big thank you for their help. It’s not easy to get but it is just what you need to read as you buy your next delicious drink from us.