Bestway Wholesale announced the 16 winners of its performance awards at a ceremony in London’s Marriot Grosvenor Square hotel last night (12 March 2020).
The event was attended by people from across the wholesale industry including suppliers, media and colleagues from Bestway and Batleys depots and head office locations.
Senior Finance Manager Charlotte John took home the award for ‘Head office colleague of the year’. She has worked for Bestway for 25 years and was described as an “excellent people manager, who always delivers on her promises and gets problems solved”.
The annual Depot of the Year award was split into ‘Hub depot of the year’ and ‘Collect depot of the year’, reflecting Bestway’s recent ‘Hub’ operations project and the company’s commitment to driving service for both delivered and collect customers. Glenn Underwood, Operations Manager for Batleys Southampton and Robbie Reid, General Manager for Bestway Team Valley picked up the respective awards.
The ‘Depot Manager of the Year’ accolade was awarded to Parvez Choudhary of Tottenham depot, who is said to have “focused on people development and exemplary store standards, resulting in a strong financial performance”.
Elsewhere around the business, winners of the depot awards included Aftab Mohammed, Operations Manager Sher, Chris Cox, Delivery Team Leader Darwen, Gaurav Brahmbhatt, Operations Manager Croydon, Sajja Amer, Operations Manager Oldbury and Selwyn Bruton, Delivery Driver Swansea.
Prizes were also awarded to Unsung Hero Nadeem Azam, Operations Manager of Birmingham depot, and to the sales team members Kevin McLelland, best-one Business Development Manager Scotland, Rob Walne, Catering Sales Manager Birmingham and Kevin Watts, Customer Sales Representative for Bestway Vans Direct in Barking. John Hepburn of best-one Scotland also received a runner up prize for Retail Salesperson of the Year. All sales personnel were recognised for the sales they drove in the 2019 financial year and for the number of new accounts they opened amidst a tough economic background for the industry.
Three suppliers who partner with the Bestway Performance Awards scheme to receive quarterly feedback from Bestway’s depots, were awarded for their improvement, innovation and as overall winner. Recipients of these awards were Budweiser, Mondelez and Coca-Cola European Partners.
All winners were presented with a certificate and trophy on stage and employee winners will receive a one-off bonus in recognition of their commitment and hard work.
The nominees and winners for all the awards were selected by colleagues from across the Bestway business, with a judging panel of colleagues excluding any of the management team. Bestway said this was a demonstration of its ‘everyone’s voice matters’ ethos, which emphasises the importance of colleagues recognising each other rather than senior management selecting the people they are most aware of to win.
Bestway Wholesale Managing Director Dawood Pervez commented: “Our colleagues are our biggest assets, and this was the greatest way to publicly celebrate each of them.”
