RETAIL HEROES WIN BIG AT RETAIL WEEK AWARDS
M&S Falkirk store manager Brian Torley (pictured above) is the winner of Hero Award at the 27th annual Retail Week Awards. The Hero Award recognises everyday shop workers for their heroism, community spirit and selflessness on the frontline of retail.
Brian has led a team of 80 colleagues at M&S Falkirk to every success whilst working to bring the local community together following the tragic of two long-serving staff members. This includes setting up a book of condolences for well-known store worker Mr Falkirk which saw colleagues and customers flock to the store to remember him and donate more than £8,000 for his family.
He then had to deal with the passing of his own sister during the height of the store’s major expansion work, which saw him taking on the primary role of support for his family in arranging the funeral and looking after his mum who suffers from dementia. But Brian was determined to return to work and achieve his ambition of the store becoming one of the UK’s top performing M&S foodhalls, something it has consistently achieved since its relaunch in September last year.
Retail Week Awards sponsored by Salesforce aims to showcase Britain’s shopworkers and delivery drivers have been celebrated along with retail giants
The awards celebrate retail’s frontline heroes, biggest innovations and most successful businesses in what has been another challenging year for the sector, with Tesco, HelloFresh and ASOS being awarded top prizes during the sparkling London ceremony that was held on the 26th May.
This year’s judging panel was made up of an impressive line-up of 15 experts, such as Liz Evans, Managing Director of Asda, John Lyttle, CEO of Boohoo, Manju Malhotra, CEO of Harvey Nichols and Pano Christou, CEO of Pret.
Accepting the award, he said: “It’s so humbling. We lost two colleagues at work and a very short time after I lost my sister. I have to dedicate this award to the three people who are not here anymore. It’s for them, not for me, and it’s for the rest of the team.
I have worked at M&S for 11 years and retail for 43 years and to be recognised at the Retail Week Awards is the pinnacle of my career. Everyone who works in retail is a hero, particularly after the last two years. It’s just a shame they can’t all be celebrated like this.”
Another winner is John Mark Brown who has been awarded Silver in the American Express Distribution and Delivery Hero Award at the Retail Week Awards 2022 after preventing a life-threatening fire from engulfing a Co-op store and neighbouring buildings and businesses in Alloway, near Ayr.
When the delivery driver discovered smoke was billowing from behind the freezer door of his trailer as he unloaded items at the Co-op’s Alloway store he acted quickly to move the vehicle away from the store’s delivery bay and surrounding buildings before unhooking the unit from his trailer, which was now engulfed in flames.
The fire-warden who later attended the scene confirmed that both the store and the businesses on the same unit, a family-run restaurant and village chip shop, could have all been damaged beyond or repair or lost in the fire without John quick actions.
John said: “I quickly knew something was wrong and I had to take action. I generally take things in my stride, so was able to remain calm and just instinctively knew to move the van out of the way, where it could cause the least amount of damage to people and property. It was only afterwards it hit me as to the scale of damage which could have been caused, so I’m pleased my experience and calm approach kicked in.
I’m really pleased to be shortlisted in the Retail Week Awards, but for me, the most important thing was that everybody remained unharmed and safe, so I feel that was the biggest win of all.”
Andy Baird, General Manager, Newhouse Depot, Co-op added: “Under massive pressure and dangerous circumstances, John Mark was able to remain calm and perform a number of critical steps, all safely in order to save the building and the vehicle unit, as well as keep people out of harms’ way – he even drove the unit back to the depot later that day.
His actions have reverberated around the network, with his manager receiving countless emails on the back of the incident report and John’s heroic actions. The Newhouse Depot is very proud to have John Mark on the team.”
