Five category wins for Bidfood and three for Britvic were the standout performances at this year’s FWD Gold Medal awards for food and drink wholesalers and their suppliers.
The 850 guests at Old Billingsgate on the banks of the Thames saw the foodservice distributor win two company awards, Best Out of Home Wholesaler and Green Wholesaler for its subsidiary Direct Seafoods.
Members of the Bidfood team also picked up Gold Medals for Customer Development, Telesales Star and Emerging Talent, the last going to Research and Insight Manager Holly Rogers.
The judges described Holly as “exactly the bright talent the sector needs, managing scores of research projects and influencing decisions to invest in external insight.”
There were individual medal wins for Bestway Brighton’s Manager Steve Shaw, for his stunning turnaround of the troubled depot, and Matthew Norman from the Confex, head office team, who oversaw the introduction and rollout of the CORE foodservice brand.
Britvic led the field in the supplier awards, which were voted for by FWD’s wholesale members. The company won the Service to Wholesale, Process Innovation and Digital Innovation awards.
Molson Coors’ Madrí Excepcional took both the Licenced Brand and the Best New Retail Product award, making it the wholesalers’ choice of launch of the year.
Outgoing FWD Chairman Coral Rose said: “Our winners and finalists tonight represent the very best of an extraordinary crop of nominations – whether they are for products, services, innovations, teams or individuals. The Gold Medals are a showcase for outstanding achievement, and a reward for outstanding service.
Addressing the finalists for the indvidual awards, which include Star Driver and Wholesale Star, she said: “It’s the nature of awards ceremonies that only one person takes the medal home, but there are no losers here tonight. All our finalists are stars of the sector and we are so proud of them.”
Awards for Wholesalers
Digital Innovation
JJ Foodservice
Henderson Foodservice
Millennium Group
A multiple winner of this award, JJ continues to set the standards in digital innovation, with this year’s additions to its service including the JJ Advance Order virtual marketplace, and new website, app, live chat, and shopping list offers. Not only does Advance Order bring in an additional £20-24K per week to JJ sales, it is also helping foodservice business reduce staff costs by offering pre-marinated and pre-cut meats.
Best Use of Data & Insight
AF Blakemore & Son
Woods Foodservice
United Wholesale Scotland
Project Utopia is a data-driven investigation which aimed to maximise trading profit and reduce promotional frequency to create more effective, less complex promotional strategies. It analyses the profit contribution of every promoted product in a store by combining live sales data and case costs, and incorporates supplier trading agreements to give a complete view of profitability. In trial stores, consistent profit improvements were achieved of between 1-2%.
Out of Home Wholesaler
Bidfood
Henderson Foodservice
JJ Foodservice
Engaging across the supply chain, Bidfood highlighted challenges with government, and collaborated with suppliers and customers to overcome them. Time-saving tools took the stress out of new legislation for customers, and digitised processes from orders to deliveries streamlined its service. The company implemented a successful recruitment campaign, bringing in more than 950 new HGV drivers.
Retail Wholesaler
Bestway Wholesale
JW Filshill
Time Wholesale Services
Bestway’s partnerships with suppliers helped to deliver outstanding availability levels during the toughest trading period, through buying ahead, collaborative joint forecasting, backhauling stock to mitigate suppliers’ driver shortages, and adding significantly to its central ordering department.
Customer Development
Susan Justice, Bidfood
Matthew Peat, Bidfood
Natalie Hudd, Direct Seafoods
Head of business development in the North East region, Susan worked tirelessly through the pandemic to support her customers, resulting in incredible margin growth on her portfolio of 34% vs pre-Covid, as well as brokering £68,000 of support for more than 14 charities over the last two years. Susan plays a crucial role in building Bidfood’s reputation in the North East, driven by her passion for not just promoting Bidfood, but engaging with communities.
Star Driver
Peter Taylor, Dunsters Farm
Robert Marlor, Dunsters Farm
Martin Cook Jnr, Bidfood
Peter understands that a driver at a foodservice business can often be the only personal touchpoint customers have with their wholesaler. He has requested additional training and insight into other areas of the Dunsters Farm operation, to ensure he’s a well-informed and respected representative of the company. Happily taking on the most difficult driving routes, Peter is also equally committed to customers, receiving extremely positive feedback from all those who work with him.
Wholesale Manager
Stuart Shaw, Bestway Wholesale,
Brighton
Mohammed Tasveer, Bestway
Wholesale
Mohammed Ali, Bestway Wholesale
The only one of tonight’s winners to be the top choice of every single judge, Stuart has overseen a remarkable transformation at Bestway’s Brighton depot. In less than a year in charge, he has turned around the site and hit every KPI, including zero stock loses, and extremely low pick errors. He now has a highly motivated, passionate and energetic workforce working for him, and has forged brilliant relationships with customers and suppliers.
Telesales Star
Denise Collison, Bidfood
Shaniece Oates, Creed Foodservice
Amarjeet Kaur, United Wholesale
Grocers
Denise is described by her team and customers as supportive, hardworking, knowledgeable and an absolutely fantastic baker. Having previously been a Chef and a Business Manager, she only wishes that she started her job with Bidfood sooner. Denise lives and breathes her job and treats every single one of her 276 customers as if they’re her only one. An encyclopaedia of knowledge across every food category, she will always do her utmost to make sure everything is fulfilled for customer deliveries.
Emerging Talent (Wholesale)
Holly Rogers, Bidfood
Chloe Staniforth, Pricecheck
Katie Rea, Henderson Foodservice
Research and Insight manager Holly is exactly the bright talent the sector needs, managing scores of research projects and influencing decisions to invest in external insight. Creating digestible and meaningful summaries of each report, she saves colleagues across several departments time, and keeps them up to speed on the market. Holly is also leading a landmark piece of research intended to help shape the food and drink offer for hospital patients across the country, and one large customer was so impressed with her they say she was a key factor in extending their contract.
Wholesale Star
Matthew Norman, Confex
Jessica Ray, Pricecheck
Catherine Deakin, Bidfood
Matt is an integral and much-valued member of the Confex head office team. In his role as foodservice buyer, he has taken on the amazing feat of launching Confex’s Own Foodservice Brand CORE from inception to production. He managed the launch of the brand, logo and products to the Confex membership, with impressive success. The brand has grown to nearly 200 skus and £7m sales in just 18 months.
Smaller Wholesaler
Failte Foods
Small Beer
Mevalco
Failte’s support for customers coming out of the lockdowns was exemplary – extending credit, managing availability issues, and sending field reps out as temporary van drivers to meet demand. It provided fridges to meet peak storage demand, and re-routed vehicles to accommodate revised opening times. Customers responded to this loyalty with a 35% increase in turnover from 2021.
Green Wholesaler
Direct Seafooods
The judge for this award, Silvana Centy of the Carbon Trust, praised a flexible approach to planning and optimisation across the whole range of fish and seafood, and engaging with variety of industry bodies. She highlighted Direct Seafoods’ expansion with a range of MCS product suppliers, and their work with suppliers to ensure traceability.
Awards for Suppliers
Green Supplier Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is working towards achieving net zero targets by 2040 and has put together a strategy across the business to manage its carbon emissions through approved Net Zero Targets. The judge for this award, Silvana Centy of The Carbon trust, highlighted how CCEP is helping 150 of its suppliers to set their own science-based net zero targets by 2023.
Emerging Talent (Supplier)
Amy Beirne, Halewood Artisanal Spirits Dominic Stoddart, Cereal Partners Worldwide William Houghton, Pladis Global
Our winner has progressed from working in the field directly with retailers to running national accounts, and now drives new products from wholesalers to retailers. They build excellent relationships, always going above and beyond. This person’s colleagues say they do great work with retailers, educating them on the benefit of stocking premium spirits, and tirelessly offering sampling to their customers.
GM Grocery Brand
Monster, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Madrí Excepcional, Molson Coors
Brewing Company
GM Licenced Brand
Madrí Excepcional, Molson Coors
Brewing Company
Birra Moretti, Heineken UK
Peroni, Asahi UK
GM Foodservic
e Brand Bisto, Premier Foods
Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Garden Gourmet, Nestlé Professional
GM Service to Wholesale
Britvic
Nestlé UK
Thatchers Cider
GM Best New Product (Retail)
Madrí Excepcional, Molson Coors
Brewing Company
Jaffa Donuts, Pladis Global
KitKat Chunky Lotus Biscoff, Nestlé UK
GM Best New Product (FS)
Radnor 125ml Tetra Pak, Radnor Hills
Garden Gourmet, Nestlé Professional
St Pierre, St Pierre Groupe
GM Best Use of Data & Insight
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
KP Snacks
Unilever Food Solutions
GM Process Innovation
Britvic
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Heineken UK
GM Digital Innovation
Britvic
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
PepsiCo UK
Outstanding Contribution
Dr Andrew Kemp MBE
Executive Director, Bidcorp UK
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