Five Sunshine Coast businesses have been nominated in the Brisbane Produce Market’s 13th annual Retailer of the Year Awards. In total there will be 24 small businesses competing for top honours.
The Retailer of the Year is part of the long-running Retailer Program which offers marketing and promotional support for the independent greengrocers who conduct business with the Brisbane Produce Market. The Program acknowledges fresh produce best practice and plays an important role in increasing the level of retail excellence year after year.
Sunshine Coast businesses that passed the evaluation process are: Brady’s Fruit at Palmwoods, Buderim Fruit & Veg, Get Fresh at Cotton Tree, Jeffers Market at Yandina and Pardon’s Fruit Market at Cooroy.
To compete for Retailer of the Year, greengrocers are ‘mystery shopped’ by an independent organisation and evaluated on store presentation, produce quality, range, customer service, visual merchandising, branding and marketing skills.
“For those greengrocers who elected to participate in the Retailer Program, it was quite difficult to make it into the finals as all the greengrocers strive to achieve retail excellence and there were only a few points separating the businesses,” said Andrew Young, CEO of Brisbane Markets Limited.
“The final round of mystery shopping will commence in the coming weeks and the evaluations will be even more difficult due to the caliber and closeness of all the finalists”, he said.
The much coveted Retailer of the Year winner will be announced at the Brisbane Produce Market Gala Dinner, held in Brisbane on 7 March 2014. The winner receives a $10,000 prize.
In addition two award categories will also be announced: Best in Customer Service and Best in Display/Merchandising, with the winners receiving $2,500 each.
Brisbane Produce Market’s Retailer of the Year finalists:
In alphabetical order
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Kilcoy<strong> </strong><br /> Boonah<br /> <strong>Palmwoods</strong><br /> Brunswick Heads<br /> <strong>Buderim</strong><br /> Everton Park<br /> Burleigh Heads<br /> Carrara<br /> Gympie<br /> Capalaba<br /> Chermside<br /> <strong>Cotton Tree</strong><br /> Wavell Heights<br /> <strong>Yandina</strong><br /> Middle Park<br /> Birkdale<br /> <strong>Cooroy</strong><br /> Wynnum Central<br /> Scarborough<br /> Chapel Hill<br /> Fortitude Valley<br /> Aspley<br /> Tugun<br /> Windsor
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