The Queen meets Castle MacLellan general manager Elaine McConnell

Castle MacLellan Foods receive Royal visit

22nd July 2010, 10:44am

Staff at Castle MacLellan Foods, the Scandinavian business owned by the Kavli Group, was honoured with a visit from The Queen last week.

Her majesty paid the visit after passing through the fishing town of Kirkcudbright to learn about the positive impact the company's pâté business provides to the local economy.

The Queen and Prince Philip visited Dumfries and Castle Douglas in the morning before travelling in the Royal motorcade on to the Harbour square in Kirkcudbright to meet the team from Castle MacLellan and the nearby West Coast Sea Products.

The private visit was organised by Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfries, Colin Warden, to demonstrate the success of two local businesses and their contribution to creating a strong local economy.

The Queen spent 20 minutes in Kirkcudbright viewing a Castle MacLellan exhibition that showcased the current product range featuring locally-sourced ingredients and details of parent company Kavli's Charitable Trust.

The company reported that The Queen showed particular interest in the use of Scottish ingredients including juniper berries, Shetland Gin, the Balmoral Honey used in Castle MacLellan's pâté.

Her Royal Highness was also described as being interested in finding out about the work of the Kavli Trust and how many local people the company employed.

The day was rounded off with the Royal party being given a selection of pâtés to take away.

General manager for Castle MacLellan, Elaine McConnell, said: "It was such an honour to meet the Queen and be able to highlight the great work done by the team at Castle MacLellan and to showcase the high quality ingredients produced in the area."

The Kavli group is a charitable organisation that was set up by the Kavli family in 1962. Profits from the group's commercial activities are used to support good causes both in the UK and around the world - ranging from disaster relief and fairtrade projects, to dementia research and the support of education and cultural projects.

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