East Yorkshire beef business heads to Wembley for family business award

A trip to Wembley is in store for a Driffield premium beef business that has been shortlisted in a nationwide competition for family businesses.

Jonathan ShepherdTibthorpe based The Yorkshire Wagyu Company has been selected to represent the North East as a regional finalist in the Innovation category of the Red Ribbon Awards for family businesses. Organised by Family Business Place, the Red Ribbon Awards are the UK’s only national awards that recognise the achievements of family-run companies irrespective of size or sector.

Of the shortlist, The Yorkshire Wagyu Company director, Jonathan Shepherd said: “We’re very proud to be shortlisted in the Red Ribbon awards alongside much larger and more established family businesses and we’re really looking forward to the final on 15th July at Wembley Stadium!”

After two years spent establishing one of the biggest herds of full blood and cross bred Wagyu beef in the UK, Yorkshire Wolds farmers Jonathan Shepherd and Jim Bloom launched The Yorkshire Wagyu Company in 2014 to sell their premium beef direct.

Wagyu beef originates from Japan where it is renowned for its exceptional flavour and melt in your mouth tenderness and its high levels of ‘good’ monounsaturated fats that give the beef its characteristic marbling.

Jonathan Shepherd was recently commended for his grassland management when he won the Yorkshire Grassland Society Kirby Cup and The Yorkshire Wagyu Company are also finalists in the Northern Farmer Awards and the Remarkable East Yorkshire Tourist Awards.

Yorkshire Wagyu is currently available on the menu at restaurants including Wolds Village, Bainton, Whites Restaurant, Beverley and the Wolds Inn at Huggate and retail packs are available from The Balloon Tree at Gate Helmsley.