This week has been dominated by The Grocer Gold Awards on Tuesday, the culmination of a huge endeavour to recognise and celebrate the wide ranging achievements of individuals, teams and enterprises (big and small) over the past year through the selection of 33 awards.
So what are the lessons? First, these awards matter. For some the recognition is the highlight of their careers, whether that’s for Grocer Cup winner Alex Whitehouse or Store Manager of the Year Chloe Summons from Morrisons Norwich. And there can be no better expression of their importance than Bio&Me’s Jon Walsh proudly taking his two awards to the Wimbledon tennis championships the following day.
Second, the industry is changing. That’s reflected in some new winners this year. The success of Deliveroo, the online service of the year, and Uber Eats, in its partnership with Waitrose, highlights how on-demand grocery has come of age as a route to market for grocery retailers of all shapes and size. Other new winners include Hunt’s Food Group, Crosta Mollica, Gousto, Drylock, Pilgrim’s Europe, Fussy and Omega Pressery. Each has a story to tell. But even where there are serial winners they’ve not done so by standing still. Continuous evolution has been crucial to the continued success of Tesco. The fact that Waitrose has won the Grocer 33 customer service award six years running, or Henderson Spar is independent retailer for the fifth time in six years, or Londis was symbol of the year once again isn’t because they’ve kept doing what they always do. They constantly adapt, evolve and improve.
And my final lesson is the importance of brilliant basics – as demonstrated by two other first-time winners. The success of Red Bull, our soft drinks brand of the year, is a testament to superb execution of NPD and activation within a buoyant category. The same applies to KP snacks, our supplier of the year, even more so. In the static bagged snacks category, it’s delivered fabulous growth through tailored strategies for each of its brands – and a refusal to pander to peer pressure.
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