THE 'Made in Yorkshire' mark of quality, which flies the flag for local independent producers, is to be championed by a new team that hopes to take the brand from strength to strength.

York-based marketing company, Intandem Communications, has taken over responsibility for the Yorkshire Mark, a mark of provenance that can be used by all the county's independent food and drink producers.

The simple, unifying mark was created in 2017 by Debi and Mat Lazenby and, under their guidance, has been adopted by more than 70 local businesses, including York Cocoa House, Colemans Cider Co, Ainsty Ales, Town End farm shop and York Gin.

The team at Intandem, which is based on Petergate, plans to support and expand what they call the 'YorkshireFam' with member networking, events and workshops while working with other organisations across the region to collectively champion its homegrown food and drink industry.

Mat said: "We were thrilled with the response to the Yorkshire Mark.

"The membership grew quickly in our first year and it became very clear that it needs a larger team behind it, a team that can grow the network across the region and better respond to the needs of the membership."

Members can display branding across all of their product packaging, social media marketing, point of sale and merchandise to show customers, who have becoming increasingly supportive of locally sourced produce, that they are proud to be 'Made in Yorkshire'.

Director Rachel Goddard said: "My roots are in the agricultural and food industries and we are very excited to be getting involved to support Yorkshire food and drink producers.

"There couldn't be a better time to be shouting about the world class produce which is being grown and made here in Yorkshire."

Yorkshire Mark manager Alex Calvert added: "As a Yorkshire farmer's daughter, Yorkshire food and drink is something I am really passionate about.

"I'm really looking forward to meeting the members and helping them to spread the 'Made in Yorkshire' message far and wide."

Membership is available at £45 for small food and drink businesses and £95 for larger producers.

Partner memberships are also available for organisations who actively support independent food and drink producers.

For more information visit yorkshiremark.co.uk