Companies of all sizes scoop Beacon Supplier Awards
Suppliers large and small, local and national, were honoured at the second annual Beacon Supplier Awards held at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales last week.
The awards were designed to recognise excellence among the suppliers of purchasing consortium Beacon in the areas valued most by their customers, who voted in their hundreds for the companies they felt distinguished themselves in the key areas of Outstanding Customer Service, Most Reliable Supplier, and Exceptional Staff Member. A new award for Best Product was included to recognise what customers used most, or found most useful and innovative.
A judging panel of leading hospitality figures, including Brian Turner CBE, chose the winners for the Green Award, endorsed by Green Business UK, and the 2010 Beacon Award for the company most engaged and supportive of Beacon's philosophy and brand.
The Green Tourism Award went to fresh fruit and vegetable suppliers, Fresh Direct Local, with Office Depot and Cadbury sharing the highly commended prize. The Beacon Award was scooped by national drinks distributor Matthew Clark, with independent wine merchants Bibendum and Fresh Direct highly commended.
Alliance, suppliers of catering equipment and non-food products, won the Most Reliable Supplier award for the second year running, with Gilchrist and Soames, purveyors of luxury toiletries, winning the highly commended prize.
Brodies, the specialist suppliers of coffee and coffee equipment, took home the prize for Outstanding Customer Service - also for the second year running - and the company's Ian Hannah walked away with the Exceptional Staff Member Award, having been praised by customers for always going the extra mile, and a fantastic manner. It was a close contest, and the judges decided to award the highly commended prize for customer service to HHL Linen, with the company's Elaine Owen highly commended for her courtesy and product knowledge.
The Best Product Award was split between regional butchers Browns for the overall quality of their meat, and Unilever, which was recognised for its Knorr purée herbs.
Commenting on the awards, Chris Durant, director of Beacon, said, ‘We are delighted about the quantity and quality of the award entries to our second Beacon Supplier Awards, which are clearly growing in prestige. Matthew Clark, our Beacon Award winner, has been an exceptional partner, and fantastic to collaborate with, and the services they have been providing to our customers are just growing better and bigger with time. The fact that both Alliance and Brodies scooped the same awards they did last year says something about the commitment to consistently high quality and standards among beacon suppliers."
