BLACK pudding manufacturer Andrew Holt has proved his puds are the best in Britain by scooping a major prize in a competition in France.

Andrew has owned R S Ireland in Waterfoot for the past 10 years and has been actively entering competitions for the last six -- with 53 major awards already to his name.

He said: "I have now decided that when I get to 100 awards I am going to retire from entering competitions and concentrate on promoting the product and judging."

When he took over the business, in Warth Old Road, he retained the established business name which had been trading for 30 years and bought out the recipe.

One thing he did change was the level of production -- which has escalated from one tonne of black puddings a week to three tonnes.

Andrew said: "If you are going to do something I believe in doing it right and winning these awards shows we have something right.

"We are very strict on the quality of our product and it is sold to prestige customers including large hotels and restaurants including Nutter's, above Edenfield and Northcote Manor, Langho and, indirectly, Fortnum and Mason."

Last year was a bad one for the industry with the foot and mouth crisis preventing British entries in international competitions unless they adhered to strict bureaucracy.

The Best in Britain competition has gone by the wayside, so Andrew has now set himself a challenge to boost the number of British entries in the international competitions.

And at this year's Montagne-au-Perche, in Normandy, 15 other black pudding manufacturers from the UK entered -- a rise of 200 per cent. But Andrew still won the trophy for the Grand Prix de Excellence for the fourth time

He said: "I feel it is important that we can show the Continent that we can make products as good, if not better, than they can."

Andrew's honours to date include 20 gold medals, 15 silver, nine bronze, first, second and third places in the Best in Britain competition 1999 to 2000 and first and third in the Best in Britain competition from 1997 to 1999.

In 2000 he was also made a chevalier du gout-boudin noir -- knight of the black pudding tasters.