A few short years ago, Nisa was better known as a buying group. However, its flourishing symbol fascia has gone from strength to strength in recent times, with Nisa gaining 60 stores last year alone - taking it past the 850 mark.

So it’s fitting that Nisa becomes the first winner of our new symbol retailer of the year award. Nisa’s recruitment boom has been aided by the brand’s debut television advertising campaign in December 2010, which was repeated last September.

But it’s not just a case of slapping the Nisa fascia on a store for this company. Nisa offers full support to its retailers, with new initiatives introduced in the past year including help with test purchasing, a fresh produce scheme and a chilled initiative.

Nisa also has a Symbol Group Development Fund to reward loyal members. Last year, £3.7m was placed into the fund, which members can withdraw to make improvements to their stores.