Budgens - Best fresh and chilled convenience retailer of the year

Quality Food AwardsWinners for Musgrave GB at Quality Food Awards

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Quality Food Awards - the most prestigious awards for food and drink products on sale in the UK. For every main category there was a new award for own-label product ranges whose priority is to give consumers maximum value.

Musgrave GB had two winners:

Quality Food AwardsQuality Food AwardsGood Value Assorted Crisps - Bagged Snacks (value category)
Good Value crisps were introduced in early 2009 and appeal to consumers of all ages. Their 18g 'responsible-snack size' is appealing to many consumers and the product has no artificial flavours, colours or MSG.

"This is an excellent value-for-money product", agreed the panel. "It would be a great addition to a lunch box and at 95p for a 12-pack it is extremely good value for money", agreed the panel.

The judges commended the "good, clean and natural flavours" and also praised the clean-looking presentation. "The quality of this product has not been compromised at all as a result of the very competitive price point", concluded the panel.

Quality Food AwardsGood Value Jaffa Cakes - Biscuits (value category)
Good Value Jaffa Cakes are light sponge cakes covered in plain chocolate with orange-flavour filling. After rigorous product benchmarking and blind tasting sessions, this product was launched in early 2009.

Quality Food AwardsThe product has a great balance of tangy orange and soft sponge and the judges were overwhelmed with the amazing value that this product offered.

"Unbelievable, fantastic - they eat well, and the flavour is first class", said one judge. "This really is a tremendous product."

"The packaging is excellent, the box is striking and the chocolate is of a high quality", agreed the panel.

"At 89p per packet I will certainly be heading to the shops to buy some", added one of our judges.

Budgens wins Warburtons award

Brett and Maria Corder of Budgens, Fakenham have won the Warburtons award for the ‘local product sourcing’ category. They received their trophy and a cash prize at an awards ceremony at the Landmark Hotel, London. The couple, who won the Budgens ‘essentials store of the year’ prize earlier this year are also shortlisted for the Independent Achievers Academy award for ‘environment and sustainability’. Picture shows (left to right): Maria Corder, Andrew Skingley (Independent Retail News magazine), Brett Warburton (executive director) and Brett Corder.

Environmental award win for Budgens retailer

Congratulations to our Budgens retail partner, Andrew Thornton, who has just won the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) award for environmental excellence in the category of ‘sustainable retailer of the year’ up against a shortlist that included Asda.

Winners for Musgrave at Asian Trader Awards

Asian Trader Awards 2009Musgrave GB enjoyed a successful evening at the Asian Trader awards, where for the third year running, the overall winner and Asian Trader of the year is a Budgens retailer. This year’s champion is Raj Samani.

Other successful retail partners included:

 

Asian Trader of the year

Raj Samani, Budgens, East Barnet

Raj SamaniFrom its brown ceramic floor tiles to its silver steel tubular light fittings emitting a warm glow effect over mint green bulkheads; from its wonderful range, including fresh meat and fish, bakery, ethnic food and kosher food to premium fruit and veg, fair-trade, organic, local and specialist ranges; from the serenity of its wooden floored off-licence to the buzz of its dedicated customer service desk, trolley tills and express checkout: from its exciting sense of theatre, in-store activities, promotions, tastings, shopperfriendly spaciousness and staff courteousness - this year’s winning store has, according to the Asian Trader judges, propelled the best of UK independent c-store retailing way past even the best of the multiples.

Say the judges: “The store is of a standard that combines excellent execution of retail skills with superb décor and fixtures. On top of that it has that hardest thing of all to achieve - a warm relaxed inviting atmosphere that makes shoppers walk around with smiles on their faces.”

This 3,000sq.ft retail unit on a high street in Hertfordshire has invested £200,000 in improvements to the store.

It has close links with local schools, a career structure for staff, state-of-the-art refrigeration and regular in-store events around Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Jewish festivals and local community festivals. It offers superb availability, superb deals, superb merchandising and superb choice.

 

Asian Trader enterprise award

Sunny Hundal, Budgens, York

Sunny HundalA year and a half ago, Sunny Hundal took over a loss-making corporately owned town centre c-store. He absorbed ongoing losses of £1,000 a month as he sought the public’s views on what they required. Since implementing a raft of changes, turnover at the 2,700 sq ft unit has rocketed.

After consulting local people, Sunny overhauled the store, changing its layout and increasing the product range from 2,000 to 4,000 items. He installed new fridges and no less than six ultra modern kiosk tills for city-centre impulse customers. In the event of his winning, Sunny makes a special mention of the dedication of his staff and store manager Jessica Fox.

 

Asian Trader health and beauty retailer of the year

Kash Jaffar, Budgens, Milton Keynes

Kash JaffarThe health and beauty section can be one of the trickiest to merchandise. Kash Jaffar’s winning store offers no less than 42 linear metres of health and beauty products and no less than 500 products altogether. The seasonal opportunities of the health range are maximised with a strong focus on cold cures in winter and hayfever cures in summer. The beauty section incorporates products for both sexes, including some expensive ladies’ products that are skillfully ranged to discourage theft.

Apart from its great health and beauty range, Kashs’ store is absolutely first class in every department. This huge supermarketsized unit specialises in fresh produce, has a fully staffed deli, wonderful deals and promotions and recently underwent a £50,000 refit.


Winners for Musgrave at IGD Food Industry Awards

A successful evening for Musgrave at the IGD Food Industry Awards:

Five Winners for Musgrave GB at Retail Industry Awards

A successful evening for Musgrave GB at the Retail Industry Awards with four awards for Budgens and one for Londis.

Budgens retail partner Guy Warner won three awards:
Community Retailer of the Year, Independent - for Warner's Budgens Independent Retailer of the Year, 1001-2999 sq ft - for Warner's Budgens Broadway Independent Retailer of the Year 3000 sq ft and over - for Warner's Budgens Moreton-in-Marsh

 

Londis retail partner Dee Sedani won Independent Newsagent of the Year

Budgens won Fresh Produce Retailer of the Year, Independent Company Owned

Musgrave Retail Partners NI Gwen Patterson from Centra Moat Filling Station was Highly Commended in the Community Retailer of the Year category

Congratulations to all our winners


Musgrave GB Triumphs Again at 2009 Forecourt Trader Awards

Musgrave retail partners won 12 awards at this year's Forecourt Trader Awards, with 8 awards going to Londis Multiple Account holder Sewell Retail, including the overall winner's award of Forecourt Trader of the Year to Patrick Sewell. Last year's champions Philip & Lesley Tout of Tout's Budgens, Nailsea also won 3 awards.

Full Musgrave results as follows:

Budgens – Convenience Retailer of the Year 2009
British Sandwich Association (BSA)

On Thursday 21st May, Musgrave Retail Partners GB collected the Convenience Retailer of the Year Award for its market leading range of sandwiches. We relaunched our range in July 2008, when we reviewed and reformulated our products. This now offers our customers high quality ingredients in our sandwiches - for example baby leaf salads, and free range eggs – even in the mayonnaise!! The cheese used across the range is mature West Country Farmhouse Cheddar, and we have carefully selected all of the other premium ingredients to make sure the products taste great and are of a high quality.

We rebranded our core range using our Good to Go logo which stands for Budgens ready to eat food range. It is increasingly one of our most important offers. Our sandwich range fits into this impulse purchase area and is sited in the lunchbox fixture.

Our new premium sandwiches have more exciting flavours and differentiation, to keep the range fresh and vibrant. We wanted to add interest to this category, so a continually changing selection was felt to be important. A range of 6 Weight Watchers sandwiches and wraps is available to those customers looking for a lighter option.

Three wins for Musgrave GB at CTP awards

Musgrave Retail Partners GB scooped three awards at the annual CTP awards on 14 May.

For the fourth consecutive year Budgens won the Best Fresh Retailer Award.

Budgens also won Best BWS Alcohol Retailer.

(Musgrave’s other convenience store group Londis won Best Services Retailer)

Top Prizes For Budgens At Convenience Retail Awards

Budgens won the top prizes at the Convenience Retail Awards held in London on 19th March.

Warner's Budgens and owner Guy Warner won the overall top prize of Convenience Retailer of the Year as well as being named winner of Best Large Convenience Store at Moreton-in-Marsh.

Winner of Best Independent Convenience Store was Budgens East Bergholt and owner Alec Gardner.

Budgens Virginia Quay won the Excellence in Impulse Award.