Thursday night’s SuperMeat & Fish Awards celebrated the best British supermarkets have to offer, with Tesco winning overall retailer of the year.
Tesco took home the title of Meat and Fish Retailer of the Year as well as the Head office Initiative Award.
Head judge Fred A’Court, who was impressed with the Tesco stores, said: “A high level of consistent quality in its product range, allied to attention to detail and good availability throughout its stores helped Tesco to a good win in this year’s awards. It is now making progress in creating warmer, friendlier and distinctive shopping zones in some of its stores that make customers feel comfortable and relaxed while they shop.”
Attending the prestigious event in central London Mark Green, who collected the overall retailer award for Tesco told Meatinfo.co.uk: “This is the award we wanted and why we entered.“ Tesco are committed to develop and train staff and our fresh food capability sets us apart. From a head office perspective we are committed to train our staff, over the course of the year we have trained 3,000 colleagues on how to skin our meat and fish, right through to the finished product. We are really proud of the products we sell and the service that we offer our customers.“ When you look at the competition whether it be Aldi, Lidl or Morrison’s, everybody has done a great job and it is extremely competitive, so we are extremely proud to come out on top.” Ed Bedington, editor of Meat Trades Journal which organised the awards, said: “Many congratulations to Tesco – a most deserved win. The results, which saw Tesco perform consistently well throughout, show the amount of work the retailer has been doing to improve its quality.”
A total of 13 product awards and seven regional store awards were given out at the glitzy event presented by musician and television personality Myleene Klass.
Best Overall Product was awarded to Marks & Spencer for its Steak and Old Peculier Ale Pie. Morrisons Camden scooped two awards for Best Store Team and Best Meat Counter, while Tesco Superstore, Launceston, Cornwall was awarded Best Fish Counter. The most innovative product was given to Tesco for its Beef Lollipops with a Cherry BBQ Sauce.
This year’s ceremony also played host to the Tri-Nations Butchery Awards, held earlier in the day at the Great Yorkshire Show. This saw top butchers from Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand go head-to-head for the title. The Kiwis were crowned champions for the second consecutive year.
Bedington added: “This competition is a great showcase for the supermarket sector, and this year was no different, with a superb range of entries and a close-fought battle for every category. We look forward to seeing how Tesco defend their title next year, as I know the other retailers will be itching to get their hands on the crown.”