ENTRY CRITERIA

Entrants should answer the following questions: 

• What technology did you introduce, when did you introduce it, and why? What were you trying to achieve? What was the scale of the roll-out? How much did you invest?
• What targets and objectives did you set?
• What are you doing that is different? What makes this initiative stand out?
• What were the results? Please provide key metrics, such as sales figures and growth rates, profit levels, market share, rate of return, payback period, shopper engagement, and any other relevant performance indicators.

Please supply up to 10 images to support your entry.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please answer the following questions, giving specific examples and timings wherever possible: 

• How much space is dedicated to chilled produce in your store(s)?
• What percentage of your sales are chilled?
• How do you ensure you have the optimum range to make the most of the chilled food opportunity?
• How have you tailored your chilled range to suit your customer base?
• How do you merchandise the category to make it easy to shop and maximise sales opportunities? How to you use point-of-sale material?
• How do you make use of promotions to drive additional purchases and demonstrate value to your customers?
• What changes have you made to the category in the past 12 months, and what were the results?
• Do you stock chilled produce from local or regional suppliers? If so, please give examples.
• How do you ensure operational excellence within the chilled category, including maintaining availability, cleanliness, stock rotation, and upholding food safety and hygiene standards?
• How do you manage waste within the chilled category? 

All entries should focus on achievements between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020. 

Please supply up to 10 photos to accompany your entry.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please include the following information in your PowerPoint presentation:

• Financial performance
• Store/chain development
• Range and product development (including own-label)
• Staff training and development
• Marketing, advertising and promotion
• Customer service innovation
• Community involvement
• Supplier relationships
• Logistics improvements
• Environmental efforts, eg Fairtrade, ethical policies, sustainability

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please answer as many of the following questions as you can, giving specific examples wherever possible:

• What is your company strategy for the off-licence category and how do you communicate this to customers and staff?
•       What is it that makes your business unique when it comes to the drinks category, or makes it stand out from the competition?
• What range do you offer and why? How many lines of wines, beers, ciders and spirits do you stock?
• What percentage of sales does off-licence contribute to the business and what sales growth have you seen year on year?
• What do you see as the key challenges facing the off-licence category and how are you responding to them?
• How have your relationships with suppliers contributed to the success of the category?
• What training do you provide for staff in the category and what impact has this had on the business?
• How have you increased shopper engagement in the category, through measures such as promotions, sampling, and interaction with the fixture?
• How do you drive sales of premium categories?
• Please provide examples of any specific initiatives that have contributed to the success of the off-licence category within your business.
• Please provide examples of innovative ways in which you have promoted the alcoholic drinks category and involved your staff.

Retailers are strongly advised to provide supporting materials, including up to 10 photographs, to accompany their entry.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please answer the following questions, giving specific examples and timings wherever possible: 

 • What is the extent of your in-store food-to-go offering? What does it consist of?
• How much space do you dedicate to food-to-go?
• What percentage of your sales are food-to-go?
• How do you ensure you have the optimum offer to make the most of the food-to-go opportunity?
• How have you tailored your food-to-go range to suit your customer base?
• How do you merchandise the category to maximise sales opportunities? How do you use point-of-sale material?
• How do you promote your food-to-go offer and communicate to consumers?
• What meal deals do you offer, how do they work and what have been the results?
• What changes have you made to the category in the past 12 months, and what were the results?
• How do you ensure operational excellence within your food-to-go offer, including consistency, cleanliness and upholding food safety and hygiene standards?
• How do you manage waste within the food-to-go category?

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please provide information, including specific examples, to illustrate how you or your nominated retailer has achieved the following over between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020:

• Provided great customer service

• Invested in staff training, development and motivation

• Maintained excellent site standards

• Made improvements to the business, differentiating it from the competition

• Introduced new revenue streams, such as food-to-go

• Got involved in the local community

• Made use of new technology

• Responded to the key challenges facing the forecourt sector

• Taken steps to attract new, loyal customers

• Introduced customer service initiatives

• Introduced environmental initiatives

• Taken steps to drive impulse sales

• Improved year-on-year financial performance

ENTRY CRITERIA

Judges will be looking to reward the retailer that has achieved the greatest development and success in the cut flowers category over the past 12 months.

The panel will take into account factors such as:

• Investment in staff training and development
• Commitment to improving the presentation of flowers in-store
• Range development
• Marketing innovation that encourages more customers to shop the flower category
• Use of in-store communications
• Activity surrounding seasonal occasions such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas and Easter
• Innovation that sets the retailer apart from the competition
• Sales success in the flower category.

Supporting documents may include statistics, research, examples of internal and external marketing and other consumer-facing materials.

Please supply a selection of up to 10 photographs to support your submission.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Documentation, including up to 10 colour photographs, should illustrate:

• A clear strategy for developing sales and offer in fresh produce
• Strong relationships with growers and suppliers to achieve company objectives
• Superior quality of in-store staff
• Training initiatives introduced in the category
• In-store theatre and cross-merchandising with other categories
• Range innovation
• Differentiation from the competition and examples of how this has been developed over the past 12 months
• Key challenges facing the sector and how the company has responded
• How the Fresh Produce Retailer of the Year category would be promoted should the company win

Please provide up to 10 photographs to support your entry.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please answer each of the questions in turn.

• How does your store support local good causes and how does this benefit both the business and the community?
• How do you target your community support? What groups/organisations are you involved with?
• How do you support charity fundraising or donate your time to good causes? How do you support your staff to do this?
• What innovative ideas have you initiated in order to engage with or benefit the community?
• Who leads your business’s efforts in the community? How much is paid time, and how much unpaid?
• Have you instigated any events within your community in the past 12 months?
• Have you led any successful community campaigns?
• How do you communicate your involvement with the community, both internally and externally? What role does social media play in this and which platforms do you use?
• How much money have you raised for local or charitable causes over the past year, and what donations, if any, has the business itself contributed?
• How have you worked with local bodies such as the council or the police?
• How do you work with local suppliers? How much local produce do you stock?

You should also provide the following information:

• Copy of your community support programme if you have one
• Sales area of your store
• Current average weekly gross sales
• Sales per square foot
  
• Number of staff employed
• Characteristics of your trading area
• Profile of your typical customer
• Please provide your Facebook and Twitter handles, and/or other social media you use to promote your community involvement.
  
  

You may supply up to 10 photographs to accompany your entry, as well as other supporting documents.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Retailers are required to demonstrate how they have performed between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020, providing documentation where appropriate, including a total of six photographs.

Please answer the following questions (maximum 250 words each) backing up your statements with figures and examples wherever possible:

•             How have you developed the store over the past 12 months to better meet the needs of shoppers, and what were the results? Why did you take this approach?

•             What was the most significant improvement you made?

•             What approach do you take in order to understand your shoppers’ requirements?

•             How do you support your local community?

•             How have you made use of technology to improve your business and enhance the customer experience?

•             What steps are you taking to make your business more sustainable?

•             What makes your store stand out from the competition?

•             If you are a member of a symbol/franchise, how do you go above and beyond the requirements of the group?

•             What are your top five most important categories in-store and what percentage of sales do they account for?

You will also need to provide factual details of your store, including: store size, average weekly sales, opening hours, year-on-year sales variation and services provided. Please note, accurate replies are essential. In the event that your store is shortlisted, the judges will ask you to supply EPoS data for a sample period to validate the figures.

ENTRY CRITERIA

• What shopper needs did you identify and how did you go about this?
• What actions did you take as a result?
• What were the most important improvements you made?
• How much did you invest and what is the payback period?
• What improvements did you see as a result, for example in terms of increased footfall, basket spend, sales and profitability?
• Which categories have been particularly successful?
• How did you engage your staff in the process?
• How did you communicate the improvements to your customers and potential customers?
• What makes you stand out from the competition?

Consider any improvements made in the following areas:

• Store layout
• Product range
• Use of own-label
• Stocking local/regional products
• Availability
• Pricing structure
• Communicating to shoppers
• Use of promotions
• Customer service
• Community involvement
• Use of technology

Please also provide the following information about your store:

• Sales area in square feet
• Opening hours
• Number of staff employed
• Year-on-year sales growth
• Sales per square foot
• Profitability (this information will be kept confidential for judging purposes only)

ENTRY CRITERIA

All information should relate to performance over the 12 months to 1 April 2020. Include specific examples wherever possible.

• How does your company support good causes? For example, do you partner with charities, schools or community groups?
• How do you involve your staff and educate them about the importance of building the business's presence in the community?
• How much employee time and skills do you give to the community?
• How do you keep staff informed about what you have achieved within the community?

Entrants should supply supporting material wherever possible, including up to 10 photographs to accompany your entry.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please answer the following questions, giving specific examples and timings wherever possible:

• How large is your store and what are weekly sales overall?

• What merchandising principles do you follow on Lottery products and how do you ensure merchandising standards are maintained at all times?

• How do you ensure merchandising standards are maintained on scratchcard dispensers?

• What point-of-sale materials do you display and when?

• How do you promote events such as rollovers and millionaire events?

• Outside the store, how do you advertise the fact that you sell National Lottery products?

• How do you highlight good causes in your area that have benefited from National Lottery funding?

• What have you done to grow lottery sales in the last 12 months?

Please supply up to 10 photos to accompany your entry.

Please provide a statement of no more than 750 words outlining why you think this person should be named Newcomer of the Year at the 2020 Retail Industry Awards.

The statement should include:

• When did the nominee join the business/sector?
• How have they contributed to the success of the business over the past 12 months?
• What is their approach and how does their personality/attitude make a difference?
• What new ideas have they brought to the business?
• How do they incorporate wider consumer/sector knowledge?
• How do they inspire their staff or co-workers?
• How do they combine day-to-day considerations with the need for forward planning and future thinking?

The decision is made by the editorial team of Independent Retail News and TalkingRetail.com.

This is a unique and coveted accolade that provides an opportunity for the retail sector to say thank you to an outstanding personality who has excelled in their business life. Recent winners have included:

Independent retailer Jonathan James, a former chairman of the Association of Convenience Stores, whose 20-year career in the sector has seen him go from running two stores to a chain of more than 50.

John Agnew, former chairman of Northern Ireland-base wholesaler Henderson Group in recognition of his huge contribution to convenience retailing and service to the Spar brand over 60 years

Booker chief executive Charles Wilson, who presided over a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the company he rejoined as chief executive in 2005.

James Lowman, chief executive at the Association of Convenience Stores, awarded for transforming his organisation into a truly professional and highly influential body that provides fantastic support to its members.

Sometimes there is a need to recognise the major contribution an organisation has made to the sector.

In 2017, the award went to Iceland, in recognition of its successful investment programme that has turned around customer perceptions, earning the retailer a renewed reputation for providing great food at affordable prices.

Wholesaler Bestway took the award in 2011, recognising its outstanding achievement in growing from a single store in West London to become the UK’s second-largest cash and carry operator in the course of 35 years.

Further recent winners have included the Co-op, Aldi, Spar UK, former Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King, and Costcutter founder Colin Graves. But who will follow them this year?

Although the winner is decided at the discretion of the editors, judges of all the other awards categories are asked to put forward their suggestions for consideration.

You can also email your own suggestions to david.shrimpton@emap.com

ENTRY CRITERIA

Please provide information to show how your store and post office has performed in the 12 months to 29 February 2020, including photographs.

Please answer the following questions, including specific examples where possible:

• How does the post office integrate with the retail side of your business? Explain how the two parts of the business complement each other.
• What has been the result of this coming together of post office and retail? (eg increase in sales, footfall? Please give figures)
• What steps do you take to maintain high in-store standards?
• What is your definition of excellent customer service and how do you make sure you and your staff deliver it consistently?
• The post office is regarded as the heart of the community it serves: what does your store do in order to support its local community? (eg charity, fundraising, support for the elderly)
• What innovations and improvements have you made to your post office and retail business in the past 12 months?  (These could be physical improvements to the premises or equipment, new product or services, customer promotions, use of websites or social media, staff training and development etc)
• How has your business performed financially over the past 12 months? Give up to three examples of changes you made that have cut costs or increased profits.

Please also provide the following information about your store, using EPoS data where available to support your entry:

•            Post office and store sales area in square feet
•            Current average weekly gross retail sales
•            Services provided eg ATM, lottery, car tax
•            Opening hours
•            Number of staff employed
•            Length of time you have owned or managed this branch

Entrants are strongly advised to include relevant supporting materials to accompany their entry, including up to 10 photographs.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Submissions should focus on the 12-month period to 29 February 2020.

Retailers can support their nomination by providing evidence of their achievements across the following key criteria:

• Your in-store seafood offering, use of display and how it differentiates you from your competitors
• The activity you undertake via your website to inform and educate your customers about seafood: how you source it, recommendations on purchase, preparation, cooking, etc.
• The measures you employ to encourage purchase of lesser-known species
• The activity you undertake to inform and educate your customers about seasonality with regards to fish and shellfish availability
• The procedures you have in place with regard to attempting to ensure the seafood you offer for sale is from sustainable, well-managed stocks
• Which standards you use to assess the sustainability of your supply chain
• How you communicate to your customers where you source your seafood from and whether it is sustainable
• How you communicate to your customers the meaning of various forms of product labelling (e.g. MSC)
• How you communicate pricing and promotional offers to your customers
• How your training and development programmes enable staff (from buyers to counter staff) to be competent in their roles, well informed about seafood and able to respond to customers’ needs for information
• Specific training undertaken to equip store/serving staff with knowledge about where/how product is sourced, allowing them to talk knowledgeably to customers about responsible sourcing issues, etc.
• How you communicate/promote to customers the way in which your staff are trained and what qualifications or experience they have
• What additional species you have introduced into your customer offering in the past 12 months
• Relationships you have with any seafood industry bodies and how such links are used to develop your business
• Details of any specific media activity undertaken in the past 12 months focusing on your seafood offering
• How customer feedback is used in developing future category plans – this could be either individual feedback or formal customer focus groups
• Your future plans for the seafood category
• How the Seafood Retailer of the Year award would be promoted if you were to win.

Entrants are strongly advised to include relevant supporting materials to accompany their entry, including up to 10 photographs.

ENTRY CRITERIA

All information should relate to your performance over the 12 months to 29 February 2020. Include specific examples wherever possible. Managers may nominate themselves, or store owners may submit an entry on behalf of their store manager.

Please provide the following information:

• Describe your team and the business you manage, including store size and number of staff (250 words).
• How have you (the manager) handled your team to make the business a success over the past 12 months?
• How does your management approach help differentiate your store from the competition?
• What innovations have you introduced over the last year, and how have these benefited the business?
• What challenges have you faced in the role?
• What have been your biggest achievements over the past 12 months?
• What techniques do you use to motivate your staff?
• How have you communicated new strategies to staff and customers?
• How would you promote the Store Manager of the Year award if you were to win?

Entrants are strongly advised to include relevant supporting materials to accompany their entry, including up to 10 photographs.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Entrants should provide the following information, giving examples where possible:

• Please provide up to 250 words to describe your business
• Please provide a description of your team and why they are being nominated for this award
• How the team has contributed to the success of the business, in particular over the past 12 months to February 2020
• Aspects of their work that have made a major difference to the store, and how this has translated into results
• Challenges your team have faced within the business and how these have been overcome
• Examples of ideas they have implemented in-store to improve sales or customer service
• Examples of good practice adopted by team members that have helped the store in other ways, eg preventing shop theft or under-age sales
• How the Store Team of the Year award would be promoted if you were to win

Entrants are strongly advised to include relevant supporting materials to accompany their entry, including up to 10 photographs.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Retailers can support their nomination by providing documentation of their achievements across the following key criteria:

• Financial performance
• Store/chain development
• Range and product development (including own-label)
• Staff training and development
• Marketing, advertising and promotion
• Customer service innovation
• Community involvement
• Supplier relationships
• Logistics improvements
• Environmental efforts

Submissions should concentrate on achievements in the year to February 2020, but the judges may also take into account more up-to-date information, if available.

The judges will be looking for original initiatives in areas such as: packaging and waste reduction, improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon footprint, responsible sourcing, stocking healthier choices, investing in and developing your workforce.

All entries should clearly demonstrate how retailers are pushing beyond legislative requirements, while submissions from independents should focus on initiatives that go beyond those instigated by their wholesaler/symbol group or take these to the next level.

Nominations should focus on achievements over the 12 months to 29 February 2020.

Criteria:

• What was the initiative and why was it launched?
• How did the initiative work?
• How was it received by staff/customers?
• What have been the results? What changes did it bring about? How do you measure its success?
• What are the next steps?

Entries should be submitted in the form of a PowerPoint presentation of no more than 12 slides.
Alternatively, independent retailers may submit a Word document of no more than 1,000 words.

You may also provide supporting materials, including up to 10 photographs. 

ENTRY CRITERIA

Symbol/franchise groups should submit their entries in the form of a PowerPoint presentation of no more than 14 slides. Submissions should cover the following criteria, demonstrating achievements during the 12 months to 29 February 2020:

•             Financial performance
•             Retailer support
•             Store standards
•             Store innovations
•             Retailer service levels
•             Promotional activity
•             Category management
•             Retailer development
•             Community involvement
•             Customer loyalty
•             Preparing for future challenges
•             Sustainability initiatives
•             Any further highlights from the past year

Please also provide up to 10 photographs to support the submission.

Shortlisted groups will be invited to present their business to an expert industry panel of judges and take a number of questions during a dedicated judging day in June. Shortlisted groups will be contacted to be given a timeslot.

Please provide a statement of up to 750 words illustrating how the nominee has blazed a trail in areas such as:

• Introducing and implementing new ideas

• Thinking ‘outside the box’

• Understanding and meeting changing customer needs

• Introducing environmental initiatives

• Engaging with the community

• Making the business stand out from its competitors

• Demonstrating creative and entrepreneurial thinking

• Innovative use of new technology

• Pioneering use of design

• Taking the business into new areas

• Opening up new revenue streams

• Other cutting-edge activity

Please include figures showing how these initiatives have benefited (or will benefit) the business financially.

You may provide up to 10 photographs to illustrate and support your entry.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Sales teams are asked to upload their submission in the form of a PowerPoint presentation of no more than 12 slides.

PowerPoint presentations should cover the following criteria:

•             Overall business advice
•             Quality and frequency of contact
•             Category advice
•             Innovation

Entries are open to any sales teams that service the independent convenience sector.

ENTRY CRITERIA

Seeking out good advice – and then acting on it – is a vital component in the success of any independent retailer. But that advice is not always easy to come by.

That’s why, in recent years, a variety of suppliers have stepped forward with their own business and category initiatives to provide independents with essential advice on things like merchandising and display, range, availability, best sellers, consumer insight and market trends.

Using category insight from leading analysts, often combined with guidance from top retailers and suppliers’ own research departments, such initiatives have proved invaluable in helping store owners grow sales and boost profits. Many include a website where all the advice is available to retailers 24 hours a day.

PowerPoint presentations should cover the following areas of the initiative:

• Quality of advice
• Breadth of content
• Ease of use
• Accessibility
• Innovation
• Integration with sales force and other delivery channels
• How regularly content and advice is updated