Everyday British store workers who put their customers, communities and colleagues ahead of themselves throughout the pandemic have been celebrated at the 26th annual Retail Week Awards sponsored by Salesforce, and supported by the Retail Trust, took place at a glittering ceremony at Battersea Evolution in London this evening.

New to the awards this year, The Retail Week Frontline Hero Awards supporting industry charity, the Retail Trust, recognised the incredible heroism and selflessness shown by the 4 million + people working in stores, head offices, distribution, and delivery across the UK retail sector.

M&S’s Becki Gorman won in the Frontline Hero Store Manager category. The judges called her ‘an amazing role model and inspiration’, praising the way she overcame a brain tumour to return to work and deliver exceptional commercial results while also volunteering for the NHS and fulfilling her role as mother and grandmother.

The silver award winner – Iceland’s Casey Abbott – was the instigator of early shopping hours for the elderly visiting Iceland stores. His idea went viral, saw him featured on Radio 4, and was subsequently rolled out to all Iceland stores.

Halford’s Mark Chisholm (The American Express Frontline Hero Store Colleague winner) drove 50 miles out late at night to fix vans needed to transport medicine out of hours. Despite suffering from lasting effects of Covid-19 himself, he single-handedly fitted 13 tyres to get the vehicles back on the road.

Boots picked up two awards on the night:

The Critizr Frontline Hero – Store Team Award went to Piccadilly Circus, London

The Salesforce Frontline Hero Initiative for supporting the UK Government with the launch of its COVID-19 drive-through testing facilities.

The judges were impressed with the way Boots:

“…turned into an extension of the NHS which was a huge pivot and a big responsibility. In a year so dominated by Covid, all of the work Boots did to support the NHS with Covid testing, by supporting the vulnerable and shielding, providing safe spaces for those suffering from domestic abuse, creating in-store methadone clinics and counselling provision, was incredible. The team in London kept the store open for 50 hours a week when London was empty of people, and everything they did, they did with kindness and may well have contributed to saving lives.”

Further individual trophies were presented to:

The Hermes Retail Leader: Matthew Moulding, CEO, The Hut Group – the northwest ecommerce unicorn, now valued at more than $5 billion

The Blue Yonder Retail Activist: British Retail Consortium CEO Helen Dickinson OBE

A very special The AlixPartners Outstanding Contribution to Retail award was presented to the 14 grocers who put competition aside and joined forces to ‘feed the nation’ throughout the pandemic: Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Costcutter, Iceland, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, McColl’s, Morrisons, Nisa, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose. Representatives from each of the supermarkets were on stage to receive the joint honour.

Pets at Home celebrated a double win, picking up awards for:

Best Retailer over £250m
The Fujitsu Best Place to Work

The judges said: “Pets at Home has done a brilliant job of pivoting to respond to customer needs, especially when you consider the rise in pet uptake over the pandemic. But what really sets Pets at Home apart is the way the business is purpose and mission driven. You know the management team asks, ‘how can we do the right thing?’, rather than ‘how can we make more money’, and everything they do links back to brand.”

Homeware online retailer Trouva, which was founded in 2013, was hailed as one of the UK’s big success stories. The company won the Emerging Retailer Award at the 2019 Retail Week Awards. This year, the online retailer took home the coveted The Clipper Best Retailer under £250m.

In a year when sustainability has rocketed up the agenda, H&M was also one of the night’s big winners when it received The Infor Responsible Retailer, with the judges commenting:

“What H&M is doing is groundbreaking. There is a real problem with throw away fashion and landfill, and H&M is tackling these issues head on and with transparency. What’s more, they haven’t tried to commercialise it, for them it’s simply about doing the right thing. For them, it’s a philosophy, not an initiative.”

Hanna Jackson, Retail Week Managing Director, commented: “This year’s Retail Week Awards was such a special occasion, as we moved away from celebrating retailers to recognising retail workers; those people who not only carried on working through the pandemic, but went out of their way to help others (often in their own time) and – ultimately – save lives.”

Michael Green, Senior Vice President and Head of Retail and TTH (Travel, Transport & Hospitality) at Salesforce UKI added “”After a year unlike any we have ever experienced before, with immense challenges and disruption in the UK retail industry we’ve also seen incredible innovation. Retailers have shifted to an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world at lighting speed. Transformational projects that once took years have been undertaken in a matter of weeks. The operating manual has been rewritten. The nominees and winners of these awards demonstrate resilience and dedication to the recovery of our industry, and it gives us great pleasure to be able to celebrate their incredible work.”

The Retail Week Awards 2021, whose headline sponsor is Salesforce, is a symbol of excellence in the retail sector, providing a platform for industry-wide recognition and a celebration of outstanding work.

This year’s winners are:

The Frontline Hero Awards

SessionM (a Mastercard company) Frontline Hero – Head Office Colleague

Winner: Louise Ortiz de Rozas, Head of Retail, Loaf
Silver: George Hayworth, Senior Digital Operations Manager, Co-op
Bronze: Rikesh Lad, Pharmacy Operations Manager, Asda

Frontline Hero – Store Manager

Winner: Becki Gorman, Store Manager, M&S
Silver: Casey Abbott, Store Manager, Iceland, The Food Warehouse

The Critizr Frontline Hero – Store Team Award

Winner: Piccadilly Circus, London, Boots
Silver: Waterfoot, Rossendale, Co-op

Frontline Hero – Delivery Colleague

Winner: Michael Perkins, Owner Driver Franchisee (ODF), DPD UK
Silver: Geoff Norris, Home Shopping Driver, Asda
Bronze: Adam Smith, Home Delivery Driver, Iceland Foods

Distribution Centre Colleague

Winner: Andrew Tilley, IT Business Partner, Distribution Centre, Homebase
Silver: Hannah Tuck, Customer Services Assistant at Co-op Cardinal Depot, Co-op

The Quadient Frontline Hero – Head Office Team

Winner: Iceland Online, Iceland Foods
Silver: Customer Care Team, The Very Group
Bronze: Business Support Team, Tesco

The Salesforce Frontline Hero Initiative

Winner: Supports UK Government with the launch of COVID-19 drive-through testing facilities, Boots
Silver: Supporting NHS frontline heroes during COVID-19, Made.com
Bronze: Sanitiser Production, Wax Lyrical

The American Express Frontline Hero – Store Colleague

Winner: Mark Chisholm, Mechanic at McConechy’s Tyre Service Limited, Halfords
Silver: Mary O’Keeffe, Assistant Manager, Dealz Store, a Poundland Company
Bronze: Donna Morris, Senior Advisor, BT Group

The following Retail Week Awards 2021 were also presented on the night:

The AlixPartners Outstanding Contribution to Retail

Feed the Nation grocers: Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Costcutter, Iceland, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, McColl’s, Morrisons, Nisa, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose

The Hermes Retail Leader of the Year

Matthew Moulding, CEO, The Hut Group

The Blue Yonder Retail Activist

Helen Dickinson OBE, CEO, British Retail Consortium

The Salesforce Be Inspired Diversity Champion Award

Olivia Overton, Designer, AllSaints

The Fujitsu Best Place to Work Award

Pets at Home

The parcelLab Customer Experience Award

Winner: Doorstep Deliveries, Morrisons
Silver: YourPret Barista, Pret a Manger

Best Retailer over £250m

Pets at Home

The Clipper Best Retailer under £250m Award

Trouva

The Infor Responsible Retailer

H&M Group

Consumer Choice Award

Amazon