Five of Scotmid’s local bakery partners have received awards at the 15th World Scotch Pie Championships.

Held on 15 January in Dunfermline’s Carnegie Conference Centre, prize-winners included Ashers Bakery of Nairn, Stuart’s of Buckhaven, Goodfellows of Dundee, Stephen’s of Dunfermline, and Aulds of Greenock – all of which have bakery counters inside Scotmid stores.

In the Scotch pie category, Ashers Bakery from Nairn received a gold award, while the silver went to Stuart’s the Bakers. Goodfellows picked up gold for its bridie, Ashers received the silver and both Stephen’s and Stuart’s the Bakers took away bronze awards. Goodfellows also achieved gold for its sausage roll, with the silver awarded to Stephen’s and a bronze to Ashers. Aulds received a bronze medal for its steak pie.

The competition saw more than 99 bakers and butchers from across Scotland enter 543 of their best pies, savouries and bridies.

Stephen Brown, bakery and local sourcing manager at Scotmid, said: “We would like to congratulate all of our local bakery partners for their achievements at the prestigious Scotch Pie Awards 2014. The awards demonstrate the outstanding quality of baking we have in Scotland and we are very proud to work with these award-winning bakers for many of our stores.”

The Championships aim to highlight bakers and butchers that create high-quality artisan pastry products.

Scotmid has now set up partnerships with seven Scottish craft bakers, with in-store bakery counters in almost 90 stores.

The company has partnerships with: Stephens the Bakers, Dunfermline; Goodfellow & Steven from Dundee; JG Ross in Inverurie; Aulds the Bakers in Glasgow; Stuart’s of Buckhaven; The Breadwinner Bakery from Edinburgh; and Ashers from Nairn. The retailer has also partnered with Brysons of Keswick for its new Lakes and Dales Co-operative store in Lazonby, Cumbria.