A company has been recognised for rising to the coronavirus challenge, keeping bakeries and households stocked up with one of the most essential ingredients in the world – flour.

Internationally renowned miller Carr’s Flour, which has a factory in Maldon, scooped two gongs at the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards this month.

One was for Ingredients Manufacturing Company of the Year, and the other for Food Manufacture Site Team of the Year for its sister mill in Silloth, Cumbria.

Located on the banks of the River Chelmer since 1896, Carr’s says 70 per cent of its wheat is sourced within 30 miles of the mill and it supplies some of the best artisan bakers in London.

Essex is one of the finest wheat-growing counties in the country, with the mill’s main supply of wheat coming from Heybridge and the Dengie Peninsula.

Halstead Gazette: Carr's Flour MD Rob MunroCarr's Flour MD Rob Munro

Managing director Robert Munro said the award was unexpected but was proud of the hard work which went into it.

“It usually goes to the PepsiCos of this world, these places with vast budgets,” Mr Munro said.

“Milling is a typically British industry, but many people do not know it’s there – many people think of Windy Miller from Camberwick Green.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time in a very understated way. It’s been nice to be recognised by our peers as an industry that’s important on many levels.”

Judges said that just three weeks after a phone call from a major retailer’s head office, the Carr’s team had implemented all the criteria to supply the retailer’s stores.

Carr’s were praised as the process would usually take up to 12 months, and for executing it when there was a shortage of retail flour due to unprecedented consumer demand during the lockdown.

Halstead Gazette: Carr's Flour in Maldon. Photo: Marion SidebottomCarr's Flour in Maldon. Photo: Marion Sidebottom

Maldon is smallest of the firm’s three mills and specialises in flour for bakers, with special products for pizza dough and chapati bread.

Mr Munro added: “Maldon has been running at near capacity most of the time.

“It’s a family engagement, baking. In retail, we’ve gone from 125,000 bags a week to 100,000 a day.

“I think the business was in the right place at the right time for that spike.

“We try to keep a step ahead of where our customers are going.

“We’ve worked throughout this pandemic, we’ve not stopped.

“Putting it bluntly, if a number of mills were to close production for two or three days, you would have no bread in shops within a week.”