Earlier this month we were delighted to hold our annual Staff Awards at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds.
A rare opportunity for all of our departments to come together, dress up and enjoy a night out. We strongly believe in celebrating our people, so our annual celebration party is a great opportunity to do just this by reflecting on the past year and announcing the winners of our annual staff awards.
Three of these awards were voted for by our customers and others were voted for by our staff. We think gaining peer feedback makes these awards even more meaningful to the recipients, and really highlights those who leave a lasting, positive impact on others.
Employee of the Year and Transport Colleague of the Year
Our top award, The Employee of the Year Award, went to Laura Gilbey-Spring, who is one of our Drivers.
Laura also won Transport Colleague of the Year, voted for by our customers, and the feedback we received for Laura was phenomenal.
Here are just two examples of customer feedback:
“Always polite, smiley, friendly, helpful, a pleasure to have as our delivery driver.”
“Always polite, smiley, friendly, helpful, a pleasure to have as our delivery driver.”
“Brightens our days when they drop off our delivery. A real credit to your company!”
We are thrilled to have Laura in the team; she is as highly respected by her peers as she is by her customers. And Laura is also our only female driver – flying the flag for female HGV drivers - and she is an exceptional employee. A very worthy winner of both awards – well done Laura!
We are thrilled to have Laura in the team; she is as highly respected by her peers as she is by her customers. And Laura is also our only female driver – flying the flag for female HGV drivers - and she is an exceptional employee. A very worthy winner of both awards – well done Laura!
The other nominees for Transport Colleague of the Year were: Dave Campion, Jason Sharwood and Kirk Grimwood.
Telesales Person of the Year
Also voted for by our customers, Lizzie Game won this year’s award for Telesales Person of the Year, for being consistently absolutely brilliant!
With the nominees including Haidee Crowley, Ruth Cornes and Christina Campbell.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for our Telesales team!
Sales Person of the Year
The last of the public votes, a huge well done to Maria Hartland who won the Sales Person of the Year award.
Maria is a fantastic Area Sales Manager, who covers Hertfordshire, Stevenage and Huntingdon, and it was wonderful to receive such great feedback for Maria from customers during the awards process.
The nominees for this award included Katie Dare, who covers Suffolk, Lisa Barker, who covers Essex, and Louise Selby, who is one of our Group Account Managers.
Business Support Colleague of the Year
Voted by staff, this award went to Dawn Taylor, our Pricing and Promotions Administrator, who has worked for Thomas Ridley now for thirty years.
Dawn is absolutely brilliant at her job, a real gem to have in the team (although she prefers to stay out of the limelight) and one of our longest-serving team members. Congratulations to Dawn!
The nominees for this role were Charly Leathers, Inventory Administrator, Becky Pope, Sales Admin Team Supervisor, and Alexandra Bailey, Marketing Manager.
Star of the Year
This special Award went to Charly Leathers, who started at Thomas Ridley in Order Assembly, picking orders in our main warehouse, and has recently joined our Buying team.
Charly has an incredible knowledge of our business, our products and suppliers and is fantastic at her job. She has won the monthly Star of the Month award twice (nominated by her colleagues) – in both of her roles at Thomas Ridley and is a very well-deserved winner of this award.
Warehouse Colleague of the Year
Recognised for his work ethic and continued level of high performance, was Warehouse Operator Alistair Marshall. Well done Alistair!
Alistair couldn’t join us on the awards night but was delighted to find out he had won this award.
The nominees for this award also included Warehouse Operators Connor Barton and Darren Revell and Warehouse Forklift Driver Steve Gooderham.
Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Award
A special award, voted for by employees, this went to Steve Gooderham, one of our Warehouse Forklift Drivers, whose efforts and observations as a first aider helped to save a colleague's life, when he was in the early stages of a heart attack whilst at work.
Steve’s quick thinking meant his co-worker got to hospital quickly, received treatment and is now back at work. Well done and thank you Steve!
The nominees for this award included Hayley Cockayne, Telesales Manager, Iris Van Beest, Buyer, and Tom Frost, Order Assembly Duty Manager.
We know there are many other exceptional team members among us which help to make Thomas Ridley a great place to work!
Please look out for these awards again at the end of this year and your chance to vote and share feedback about your Thomas Ridley Team. Here for all of your foodservice needs.
