Sponsorship & Events

Hamlyns of Scotland has an active events and PR programme, and you can see us at a variety of locations in Scotland throughout the year.

We will be taking our Exhibition Stand to a wide variety of shows and events during 2006 - watch this space for details. Come along and talk to us about our products, we'll even give you a free sample of porridge oats or oatmeal to take home!

World Porridge Making Championships

Hamlyns are proud to be the main sponsor of the annual World Porridge Making Championships, organised by Carrbridge and Vicinity Community Council, which is now in its 14th year. The competition attracts entries from chefs, bed and breakfast owners, farmers and other keen porridge makers from throughout Scotland, and further afield.

The title of 'World Porridge Making Champion' is awarded to the chef who is judged to have made the best traditional porridge, made from oatmeal.

2005 World Porridge Making Champion, Lynne Benge, used Hamlyns Scottish Oatmeal in her world beating porridge recipe.

Visit the website to see details of previous competitions, and if you fancy yourself as a champion porridge maker, you can find out how to enter this year's competition!

Farmhouse Breakfast Week

Farmhouse Breakfast Week is a UK-wide event, which aims to encourage more people to start the day with a healthy breakfast, and promoted regional breakfast specialities. Hamlyns is an enthusiastic supporter of the campaign. Watch this space to find out how Hamlyns will be supporting the 2007 event, which takes place from 21st -27th January.

Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile

Hamlyns are supporting this fantastic event through providing sample bags to an estimated 4,000 runners, who are participating in the Glasgow event on Saturday 15th July.

Taste of Grampian

Hamlyns are regular supporters of this fantastic event at the Thainstone Centre in Inverurie. Details of the 2006 event on Saturday 10th June, including details of the celebrity chefs who will be demonstrating their skills at the event can be found on the website.

Design an Oat Product

This is now an annual competition organised by the Home Economics department at Our Lady and St Patrick's Secondary School in Dumbarton.

Pupils in S1 and S2 undertake a project to design a healthy product using oats. The level of planning involved in the competition is very impressive and pupils are required to undertake research into the health benefits of porridge oats, use brainstorming techniques for product development and design packaging for their product. Our judges have been very impressed with the huge amount of effort that goes into the competition, and the quality of work submitted.

This year's final took place in February with pupils creating diverse recipes for biscuits and cakes, scones, pizzas, cereal products, truffles, pastries, oaty chicken, fish dishes and a winning 'Oatie Orange Cheesecake' recipe by Danielle Henderson.

Hamlyns are keen to support other schools who are organising healthy eating competitions or events. Please email us if you are seeking support for such an event in your school.

Barnardo's

Since 2002 we have been supporting children's charity, Barnardo's, to organise a series of Playdays for children with special needs and their siblings in a number of their projects and play schemes throughout Scotland. The playdays include games and songs, magicians, puppeteers, balloon modeling, face painting and of course plenty to eat and drink. The response from the children and their carers is always excellent, and we are pleased to be working with Barnardo's again this year, with playdays in three locations in Scotland.

Barnardo's Scotland works in partnership with others to provide 60 community-based services, supporting around 7,000 of Scotland's most vulnerable children, young people and families each year who face disadvantage due to a wide range of contemporary issues including HIV, disability, abuse, homelessness and poverty.

Competitions

During the year, we run competitions in local, regional and national newspapers and magazines to win healthy breaks, Hamlyns aprons, or one of our lovely Hamlyns teddy bears.

Our Hamlyn Bears are not for sale in the shops, and we always have a huge response from teddy bear fans who are keen to get their hands on these limited edition bears! Watch out for a competition in a local paper near you!

‘Enjoy the Taste of Scotland’

Hamlyns was delighted to be invited to exhibit at Tesco’s inaugural ‘Enjoy the Taste of Scotland’ event at the Hub in Edinburgh in April. Over 9,000 visitors attended the three day show, and sampled products from some 60 Scottish food and drink producers who participated in the event.

Stirrin’ Stuff also did a cookery demonstration ‘Kids Kitchen – Cooking with Oats’ at the show. Some of the recipes will shortly be available on this website – as you can see, our young helpers enjoyed making them…and eating them too!