Page 8 - HW Dec-Jan 2023

hard news
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Mitre 10 Store Awards take flight
MITRE 10 IN August having celebrated its supplier partnerships (see our September- October issue), in mid-November the cooperative gathered at the Aviation Hall at MOTAT to recognise its members and their teams with the 2022 Mitre 10 New Zealand Store Awards.
Among the co-op’s top green fingered members, Mitre 10 Mosgiel took out Mitre 10 Garden Centre of the Year, recognising both its significant sales growth as well as its amazing visual customer displays.
Mitre 10 MEGA Garden Centre of the year went to a serial high achiever in this category, Mitre 10 MEGA Taupō., who have won this award no less than three times previously for their exceptional, world-class standards and sales growth.
Mitre 10 Trade Store of the Year is Mitre 10 Waiuku, which has “shown an outstanding commitment to delivering a world class experience for their customers while ensuring a high level of excellence in operating standards,” says Mitre 10.
“Working within the local community to build both existing and new relationships within the trade industry, they have been a fantastic ambassador for the Mitre 10 Trade brand and embody the true co-operative spirit.
“This in turn has lifted this store to new heights, building a strong, passionate and engaged team who proudly live and breathe the Mitre 10 values every day.”
Staying with the trade but stepping up a notch in terms of scale, Mitre 10 MEGA Albany received the first of two awards, being named Mitre 10 MEGA Trade Store of the Year.
Albany MEGA “delivered operational excellence whilst securing new and sustainable business targeting multi-unit residential home builders.
“The trade team were fully engaged
in all aspects of training and supplier management, teamwork and an attitude of customer first which was evident during every sales interaction.”
Mitre 10 Kerikeri is 2022’s Mitre 10 Store of the Year, for their customer- centricity and embedded health & safety culture. “The judges were left impressed with the daily experiences that customers received.”
Mitre 10 MEGA Store of the Year
is Mitre 10 MEGA Albany, whose customers are “greeted with inspiration from the moment they walk into the vestibule.”
The judges noted end displays set up to highlight how products work, dump bins used as points of interest while maintaining stock intensity, and “inspirational but shoppable experiences” in the garden centre.
Reflecting the cooperative’s “With you all the way” brand promise, positive customer messaging can be found everywhere,
not to mention the team being “clearly customer-obsessed”.
“This store is really striving for excellence,” says Mitre 10, “and has taken the Mitre 10 MEGA offer to the next level.”
Moving from teams to individuals
now, 2022’s CEO Achievement Award recognised Tracy Key, General Manager of Mitre 10 MEGA Invercargill, as “a leader who represents the true spirit of Mitre 10.”
“A true ambassador for the Mitre 10 brand,” Tracy is an active leader in her community, within her store and across the cooperative.
She makes health, safety, and wellbeing in her store an absolute priority, is always looking for better solutions and has fostered a leadership culture with a strong focus on people experience across her leadership team.
“Her one team approach is matched
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by her focus on winning in customer experience and what that looks like in our Mitre 10 of the future.”
Outside the store, her “empowering and energising approach” make her a great ambassador for Mitre 10 Helping Hands, as evidenced by her leadership of a project for the Southland Charity Hospital.
From up-and-coming leaders, we move on to this year’s Mitre 10 Hall of Fame inductees – the late Graham Grove and Warren Grove.
Graham and Warren’s father, Nelson Grove, started Grove Hardware in the basement of a building in Fanshawe Street in 1930, and opened his second branch in Barry’s Point Road in the 1950s.
Graham joined the business straight from school in 1946, and brother Warren followed suit in the mid-1960s.
The city store moved out to Onehunga in 1967 and the Takapuna store moved to its huge Glenfield premises in 1976.
Grove Hardware joined the Mitre 10 group in 1977 with Graham and Warren contributing significantly to the success of the cooperative over the decades.
Now involving the third generation of Groves, the Grove company has always been about family. Indeed, Graham’s son David became Managing Director of Grove Hardware in the mid-1990s and served
on the Mitre 10 Board for 25 years, before retiring as a Director this year.
www.mitre10.co.nz
6 NZHJ | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023
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