The NACS Asia Pacific Convenience Retailer of the Year awards were held in Bangkok for 2023 with bp Bayside Gateway receiving an honourable mention and being named runner-up for the major award.
Founded in 1961, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) is based in the US and is the largest and oldest representative for convenience and fuel retailers globally.
NACS segments its global retail awards into two zones – the Asia Pacific Region and the European Region. The Asia Pacific Region includes all of Asia, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
Each year, the winner from the AACS Store of the Year Award is entered into the NACS Asia Pacific Region, but as the awards were being held prior to the AACS Awards this year, AACS submitted the Corporate Store of the Year into the judging instead, which was bp Bayside Gateway, run by bp Australia.
Matt Elliott – bp Vice President Mobility & Convenience ANZ, said: “We are delighted for bp Bayside to be recognised in the Asia Pacific Convenience Retailer of the Year category. It’s testament to the efforts of our frontline team and the hard work of all our team in growing our bp convenience offer. Bayside offers our new bp pulse EV fast charge points, which bp CEO Bernard Looney launched last November.”
Theo Foukkare, CEO of AACS, was on the ground in Bangkok to accept the award on behalf of bp along with AACS board members Darren Park and Brett Barclay.
Speaking to C&I, Foukkare said that the NACS Awards are an opportunity for all retailers to submit throughout the region their leading offers and compete for the coveted award.
He highlighted the success that Australian stores have had over the past two years, with APCO Café 24/7 in Wangaratta in Victoria winning the major award last year and Urbanista Café & Convenience in NSW named runner-up.
He said: “Whilst an Australian store didn’t win the award for a second year running, bp Bayside Gateway received an honourable mention and was the runner up – a massive achievement.
“I was honoured to accept the award on bp’s behalf at the event last night, and will make sure it arrives home safely to present to the bp Australia team.
“AACS is looking forward to finalising our Store of the Year awards for our upcoming Connect 23 Awards night, where we will see the latest and greatest from Convenience Retail in Australia. I am confident that we will see an Australian whitewash at the NACS Asia Pacific Awards next year!”
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