Bidfood was the big winner at the annual FWD Gold Medals, with the foodservice giant picking up two company awards, Best Out of Home Wholesaler and Green Wholesaler for its subsidiary Direct Seafoods.
Members of the Bidfood team also picked up gongs for Customer Development, Telesales Star and Emerging Talent, the last going to research and insight manager Holly Rogers, with judges describing the latter 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 turnaround of the depot, and Matthew Norman from the Confex, head office team, who oversaw the introduction and rollout of the Core foodservice brand.
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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.
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.”
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Awards for wholesalers-
Digital Innovation- JJ Foodservice
Best Use of Data & Insight- AF Blakemore & Son
Out of Home Wholesaler- Bidfood
Retail Wholesaler- Bestway Wholesale
Customer Development- Susan Justice, Bidfood
Star Driver- Peter Taylor, Dunsters Farm
Wholesale Manager- Stuart Shaw, Bestway Wholesale, Brighton
Telesales Star- Denise Collison, Bidfood
Emerging Talent (Wholesale)- Holly Rogers, Bidfood
Wholesale Star- Matthew Norman, Confex
Smaller Wholesaler- Failte Foods
Green Wholesaler- Direct Seafooods
Awards for Suppliers-
Green Supplier- Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Emerging Talent (Supplier)- Amy Beirne, Halewood Artisanal Spirits
GM Grocery Brand- Monster, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
GM Licenced Brand- Madrí Excepcional, Molson Coors Brewing Company
GM Foodservice Brand- Bisto, Premier Foods
GM Service to Wholesale- Britvic
GM Best New Product (Retail)- Madrí Excepcional, Molson Coors Brewing Company
GM Best New Product (FS)- Radnor 125ml Tetra Pak, Radnor Hills
GM Best Use of Data & Insight- Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
GM Process Innovation- Britvic
GM Digital Innovation- Britvic
Outstanding Contribution- Dr Andrew Kemp MBE, executive director, Bidcorp UK
