Tesco crowned Grocer of the Year in glittering Grocer Gold Awards 2026

Tesco was crowned The Grocer of the Year at this year’s The Grocer Gold Awards, capping a spectacular evening in which the industry’s multiple achievements were celebrated at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

The UK’s biggest supermarket proved a worthy winner thanks to a mix of value, innovation and insight. It achieved its highest market share for more than a decade at 28.7%, while its share price also rose despite a tough trading environment. Tesco was “a great, well-run machine of a business”, with one noting its “fantastic results, particularly share growth from a leading position”, which ”is not easy to do”. 

“Tesco delivered on every front this year: share, service, sustainability and scale,” said Adam Leyland, The Grocer’s editor-in-chief and chair of the judging panel.

Tesco also made it 10 victories in a row in the battle to be crowned Britain’s Favourite Supermarket. Its Clubcard Prices and strong everyday low pricing offer fared well, coming out on top in the survey of nearly 15,000 respondents from NIQ’s Homescan Consumer Panel. It triumphed in six out of 10 categories, and maintained its third-placed position on price, behind Aldi and Lidl.

Premier Foods CEO Alex Whitehouse was awarded the Grocer Cup, which dates back to 1923 and is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the industry both in the past year and throughout their career. 

Since joining Premier Foods in 2014 as group strategy director, Whitehouse has risen up the ranks, and the fortunes of the listed business have risen with his elevation as brands stuck in long-term decline moved into growth, innovation tackled the HFSS conundrum, and Whitehouse oversaw the successful acquisitions of The Spice Tailor, Fuel10K and Merchant Gourmet. 

In its latest financial year, Premier posted trading profits of more than £200m, with branded sales up 3.4% to £1bn. Tesco UK boss Ashwin Prasad called the award “well-deserved recognition” for Whitehouse, while Clive Black at Premier’s house broker Shore Capital said it was a great award for “one of the greatest achievements” in the history of the British food system.

Health, food and drink

Gut-health brand Bio&Me also enjoyed a double win, taking home both SME Brand of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year for its founders Dr Megan Rossi and Jon Walsh. Judges praised the “raw, honest and unique” business, adding that they were both “really commercial, but also really values-driven”.

Omega Pressery was Startup of the Year. Launched in 2024, it aims to bridge the gap between shoppers and smallholder and, despite having just three employees, has quadrupled its SKUs to eight and amassed more than 600 distribution points.

Another winning challenger brand was Fussy, with the refillable deodorant taking home the Health & Beauty Brand of the Year after turning “a worthy concept into mainstream behaviour”. Launched via Kickstarter in 2020, it is now available from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug and Ocado, boasting 30,000 distribution points in the UK alone. 

Thatchers was awarded Drinks Brand of the Year, having defied broader category struggles to deliver a 9% value sales growth in 2025 and leapfrogging Strongbow to become the biggest cider brand in the off-trade for the first time. A focus on new drinkers through flavours such as Juicy Apple has paid off, as has investment in Thatchers Zero.

Red Bull won the Soft Drinks Brand of the Year, after another stellar year of sales growth (up 15.7% in 2025) – which is “deeply impressive for a mature brand”– thanks to a focus on NPD, and terrific retail and outdoor activations. Accounting for 37.3% of the booming energy drinks category, annual sales are set to surpass £1bn for the first time in 2026.

Crosta Mollica was the Food Brand of the Year. A combination of category focus, new branding and NPD helped the Italian brand to grow sales by 48% to £104.5m and in doing so it’s become the second bestselling pizza brand in grocery. Even our Italian judge was impressed, describing its approach to innovation as “excellent”.

Functional drinks brand Trip won Exporter of the Year in a breakthrough year that saw it crack the US, delivering a 1,457% year-on-year growth rate and becoming the largest UK-owned non-alcoholic beverage business in the country.

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KP Snacks was named Supplier of the Year, with judges highlighting that the business now drives 59% of total value growth in the £5.3bn bagged snacks category despite holding a market share of less than 18%. That was proof, they said, of a company “really leading the category in terms of growth and innovation”. 

On the environmental front Charlie Bigham’s took home the Waste Not Want Not Award for reaching zero edible food waste. 

Ecosurety’s FlexCollect project won Sustainability Initiative of the Year having created a commercially driven, practical blueprint for tackling flexible plastic packaging. “This has the potential to transform the policy landscape,” said the judges.  

Danone won for Supply Chain Initiative for its Alpro British Oats project that brought sourcing, milling and production closer together.

Ahmad Tea won Social Impact Initiative for its Hand Picked Profit Shared programme that has seen more than 12,000 tea pickers receive a digital bonus that helps them set up a bank account and receive education on financial literacy.

Pilgrim’s Europe was named Employer of the Year after the launch of its Accelerate 2025 people strategy that integrated culture, safety, capability, wellbeing, recognition and engagement. Judges were impressed by the effort and the “insightful use of graduates and apprentices”. 

Retailers in the spotlight

In the Grocer 33 Awards, Asda took a resounding victory when it came to price after offering the cheapest weekly shop 29 weeks out of 50 – an increase on last year’s winning total of 22. Its margin of victory also increased, with it coming in 2.4% cheaper than Tesco, 3.7% cheaper than Sainsbury’s and 5.4% cheaper than Morrisons. 

Sainsbury’s won on availability, after 26 wins out in the 50 week period, while Waitrose won on service for the sixth year running, having notched up 15 weeks of top scores among 46 appearances.

Waitrose also won on Consumer Initiative, along with Uber Eats, for a loyalty partnership that brought the supermarket’s rewards and member pricing into the rapid delivery channel. 

Good news for Morrisons came in the form of Chloe Summons winning Store Manager of the Year. She runs the 90,000 sq ft store in Norwich and was described as “tenacious” and “ambitious”, with judges loving her belief that a culture that gets the best out of people must respect they have a life outside work, and that she “led by example” to apply this to her own career. 

Tesco also picked up another award, this time for Own-Label Range of the Year for Fred & Flo Easy Fit Pants, which have transformed the supermarket nappy category.

Hendersons won Independent Retail Chain of the Year for the fifth time in six years, while Londis picked up the Symbol/Franchise Retailer of the Year for the second year in a row.

Lidl’s development of its Lidl Plus app won the Technology Initiative of the Year.

Deliveroo won for Online Service after bringing 1,600 new stores online in 2025, with judges praising its focus on the “quality of the proposition, strength of the range and “breadth of the offering. Gousto won for Specialist Online Service having delivered a record 80 million servings in 2025. 

Among wholesalers, JJ Foodservce won National Wholesale Brand of the Year. The foodservice specialist transformed its Trustpilot score from 2.7 to 4.7 after changing its pricing model to reward fewer, larger orders – a move that resulted in weekly sales hitting £810,000, business accounts almost doubling and customers saving an average of more than £300 a month.

Cotswold Fayre took home the award for Specialist Wholesale of the Year, with a push into national accounts helping take its wholesale revenue past £30m. And Hunt’s Food Group was the Regional Wholesaler of the Year after sales increased by 30% due to a revamp of its product range and an expansion into new sectors following a number of acquisitions including The Fine Food Co.

Leyland added: “This year’s The Grocer Gold Awards showcased an industry that is innovating under real pressure, with this event recognising the very best of the grocery sector. From Tesco’s scale to Bio&Me’s rapid rise, the common thread was businesses translating insight into impressive commercial results. Congratulations to all our winners.”