14|Retail News|May 2021|www.retailnews.ie
ECR Heroes Awards 2021
Awards recognise grocery heroes
The ECR Heroes Awards recognised and celebrated those individuals and organisations in the Irish grocery sector who have stepped up to the plate and delivered above and beyond the call of duty during the difficult months of the Covid-19 pandemic. THE ECR Heroes Awards 2021 celebrated people and organisations in the Irish grocery sector who have gone above and beyond during these most turbulent times. All the people and organisations nominated demonstrated tremendous commitment to their colleagues and community and helped us all get through these extremely difficult months. “We are here to celebrate the amazing efforts undertaken by those in the grocery sector over the last 12 months,” explained Damien English TD, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, in his keynote address. “It has been an extremely difficult 12 months, but the grocery sector has adapted and met many challenges.” The Minister acknowledged that many grocery retailers have developed or greatly increased their delivery options, as well as expanding their online presence. “Although very challenging, the last 12 months has seen a massive acceleration of development of the digital economy in grocery retail and the Government will look to support that development further in the future,” Minister English insisted. “The Government also very much wants to see a recovery in the bricks-and-mortar elements of the sector as well,” the Minister noted, highlighting how grocery retail is the largest private employer in the country and its success goes hand in hand with the success of the nation. He stressed the Government’s plans for Ireland as a nation to be more resource efficient in how we develop as we transition to a low carbon economy. “We want to support the grocery sector to come back stronger and more efficient than you were before this pandemic and help you to build a better tomorrow,” the Minister said. He concluded by thanking everyone working in the grocery sector for all their hard work over the past 12 months: “You have been a key partner for the Government in guiding our nation through this crisis, and you have provided your communities, especially the most vulnerable, with the support they have needed in these extremely challenging times. All the people and organisations nominated really are winners and we thank you all for your efforts.” Heroes for Shoppers Musgrave’s Human Resources department was nominated in the Heroes for Shoppers category for how it adapted to the urgent need for new personnel that the group experienced following the huge spike in demand at the start of the pandemic.
Donnybrook Fair’s Naomi Turner and Signe Ryan, Overall Winners, are pictured with Declan Carolan, General Manager, ECR Ireland. Also nominated in this category was the customer service team in Tesco’s head office for its work on dedicated shopping hours. The plan needed to be developed quickly, be easy to follow and practical to implement quickly across all Tesco stores in Ireland. Tesco’s supply chain team were also nominated for the way they adapted to massive changes over the course of the last 12 months, including panic buying spikes, as well as longer term impacts. However, Kerry Foods’ field operations team were named as the winners of the Heroes for Shoppers Award. The Kerry Foods field operations team has worked tirelessly over the past 12 months with a variety of large and small retailers, supporting shops on the ground, making sure food and vital supplies were available around the country. This meant that the sales team worked long and hard to ensure shop-keepers nationwide could keep meeting the urgent needs of their customers.
