On Monday night the 2009 National IGA Retailer of the Year Awards were announced in front of more than 1000 retailers and suppliers as part of the annual IGA Expo and Conference, held on the Gold Coast.
The top three supermarkets named as IGA’s Retailers of the Year were South Australia’s Norwood Foodland IGA, Queensland’s IGA New Farm and Victoria’s Blairgowrie IGA X-press.
Lou Jardin, CEO IGA distribution, said receiving a Retailer of the Year Award is considered a great honour amongst the group.
“Each year the process for choosing winners becomes more challenging due to the constant improvement in store standards within our brand,” said Jardin.
“The Retailer of the Year Award recognises the hard work, commitment and excellence in customer service these stores have demonstrated all year round.”
Two new inductees to the IGA Hall of Fame, recognised for their significant contribution to the independent grocery industry, were John Niewand OAM of Victoria and Mick Whitehead of New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory.
IGA’s Retailer of the Year Awards are a year-round process, with stores continually being visited and judged by their area’s business manager, who then nominates stores that perform well in their village network for the respective State Retailer of the Year Awards. State winners were announced earlier this year and progressed as finalists in the national round.