Squeeze Wheatgrass based in Warrenpoint, Co. Down, has picked up the AgriFood Business of the Year Award at the prestigious Business Eye First Trust Small Business Awards. The business was recently recognized on 11 June at the Ulster Grocer Marketing Awards when they were awarded the Artisan Producer Marketing Award.
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Squeeze Wheatgrass is fast becoming a very trendy health drink.[/caption]
This dynamic award winning company is the only UK producer of a Ready to Drink wheatgrass shot with 12-week shelf life and delivers 2,000-3,000 wheatgrass shots across the UK and Europe every week through its e-commerce website and wholesale network. The Wheatgrass shots contain no additives or preservatives. They are not frozen or heated treated.
This business was set up when Managing Director Jacquelyn Stewart who was diagnosed with skin cancer. Jacquelyn became interested in wheatgrass and its benefits and decided to grow and juice her own wheatgrass as part of her treatment programme.
“I’d read studies about wheatgrass and its high level of alkaline properties, how it supports the immune system, oxygenates the blood and boosts red blood cell production. I’d read about how the disease can’t grow in an alkaline environment so I thought it would be worth trying.
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Jacquelyn Stewart, managing director of Squeeze Wheatgrass, has won a Business Eye Award.[/caption]
“Wheatgrass is widely known in Europe and America and a number of health benefits have attributed to regular ingestion of the juice as far back as the 1940’s, including boosting red blood cell production, stabilisation of blood sugars, improved circulation, increased energy and detoxification.
“The grass which is too difficult to ingest directly, is juiced using a special method and contains over 90 minerals, including high concentrations of the most alkaline minerals: potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium; and 19 amino acids.”
For Jacquelyn, wheatgrass has been a part of her beauty and health regime for seven years now. She added: “What I would say to people is just try it… test it for a month and then look at your skin, how your body feels/performs and the increase in energy levels and then decide for yourself.”
While many of Jacquelyn’s customers are using wheatgrass to treat illnesses and cancers, Jacquelyn is quick to point out that she does not sell or promote the juice as some kind of ‘miracle cure’ and does not advocate it as a replacement for modern medicine. She said: “I believe it brings huge benefits to a body and an immune system struggling with illness, supporting the body in challenges. Beyond that, the individual most decide for themselves.”
The company grows the wheatgrass without soil, feeding the plant directly through the roots so the result is cleaner grass, it removes the risk of soil borne bacteria and it is actually sweeter as they can cut it closer to the root.
The company has been chosen by Tesco as one of a select number of Northern Ireland companies to take part a pioneering initiative to market-test their product range.
Over the next 12 months the select group will be offered free exhibition space in Tesco stores across the province to promote their brands and products. The local sampling initiative is part of the ongoing Tesco Taste Northern Ireland campaign aimed at supporting Northern Ireland food and its producers.
Additionally Squeeze Wheatgrass is one of only three Northern Ireland companies to successfully secure Connected competitive funding to carry out innovative research with the Southern Regional College and the University of Ulster. The project will be led by SRC’s Food Research Lecturer Brenda Kelleghan alongside Dr Amy Burns and Dr Lynsey Hollywood from Ulster University Business School and will complete research into the nutritional composition of fresh wheatgrass juice to enhance the marketability of the product along with identifying new product development opportunities for incorporating wheatgrass into mainstream products.
Jacquelyn Stewart said: “Our future is very bright and very green. We are currently testing a new product range which we hope to bring to market later this year. These are certainly exciting times for the company”.
She has won a number of prestigious awards to date with Squeeze Wheatgrass:
* an IGD Food Industry Award Winner
* Ulster Tatler Business Woman of the Year
* UTV Business Eye Highly Commended SME
* Nectar Small Business Finalist
* Belfast Telegraph Business Woman of the Year Finalist
* Free From Foods Awards Finalist
* Ulster Grocer Artisan Producer Marketing Winner
* Business Eye AgriFood Business of the Year Winner.
(In 1931 Dr Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for proving that cancer could thrive in acidic conditions but not survive in an alkaline environment. He made it clear that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency, which creates an acidic state in the human body. Dr. Warburg also discovered that cancer cells are anaerobic (do not breathe oxygen) and cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen, as found in an alkaline state).
Contact Jacquelyn Stewart at: jacquelyn.squeeze@gmail.com
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