AACS Awards celebrate excellence within the convenience industry

The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) celebrated its annual awards this week at a glamourous black tie dinner held at Crown Melbourne.

The AACS awards are a celebration of excellence within the convenience industry and showcase the very best in terms of performance for both suppliers and retailers throughout the industry.

Theo Foukkare, CEO of AACS, emphasised that the AACS awards are not just an award for one night, they recognise the hard work, commitment, passion, and ongoing innovation that the suppliers and retailers undertake each day of the year.

“Our awards are not easy to win, they really do recognise the best performance over an extensive review process that measures performance and results over the prior 12 month period. I personally want to congratulate all winners and finalists for continuing to move this great convenience industry forward.”

The Retailer and Suppler awards are evaluated through the CMA Convenience Pulse program, which benchmarks supplier and retailer performance over the entire 12-month period, a very detailed and exhaustive process.

The Store of the Year awards and Excellence awards are judged by a selected panel of eight industry leaders, which recognises best in class retail operations.

Major award winners were New Sunrise – Retailer of the Year, Frucor Suntory – Supplier of the Year, and Mood Food Kempton, by Bennett’s Petroleum – Overall Store of the Year.

Deborah Cooper, Head of P&C at Frucor Suntory, said she is beyond proud of her team and all of their business partners who have supported them in achieving this prestigious award.

“We set ourselves a goal 12 months ago to drive customer centricity in all aspects of our business. I know just how much work everyone at Frucor Suntory have put in to deliver this goal. To be awarded best supplier overall recognises of all that hard work, which definitely makes a little emotional.”

Steve Cardinale, Managing Director at New Sunrise, said the AACS Retailer of the Year award is for all of the New Sunrise family.

“This includes, first and foremost, our members, who are at the heart of their communities and the heart of New Sunrise. They are often first to open and last to close, particularly in times of distress in their communities. They continue to inspire, innovate and support their communities every day.

“The New Sunrise family includes our supplier partners, and we thank them for their ongoing support. Our partners have adopted our pillars of Mutuality, Visibility, Execution and Growth and together, we have been able to achieve year on year growth in the network. We work together to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes, we embrace and understand strategy to drive growth for the network, we do what’s in the best interest of our retailers, category and consumers and we truly value true our partnerships and recognise honest collaboration.”

Here are all the winners:

Retailer of the Year

Winner: New Sunrise

Finalists: Chevron Australia, Ampol