Page 14 - HW Sept 2021

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Mitre 10’s 2021 Award winners and Hall of Famers
THE 2021 MITRE 10 Awards in August saw stores, members and trade partners come togetherinAucklandtorecogniseand celebrate the lifetime achievements of Hall of Fame inductees and the successes of finalists and award winners.
After a challenging year navigating the Covid pandemic, global supply chain disruption and extreme weather events around the country, the advantages of the co-operative business model were acknowledged by Mitre 10 Chairman Martin Dippie in his opening address:
“Our owner-operator model, with members totally focussed on their local teams and the communities they live in, was our greatest strength during the early days of the Covid crisis.
“As a collective group, we were better able to respond to the fast-changing circumstances we all found ourselves in.
“We were quick to finding new and better ways of operating and serving our customers. It has proven that our co-operative model is fit for purpose, robust and ready to thrive, no matter what the world throws at us.”
As well as celebrating its current highest achievers, in recent years the co-op has also taken time to recognise its history with the latest Hall of Fame Inductees.
This year’s Inductees are Kevin and Lee Scanlon (photo top left) of Martin’s Mitre 10 in Westport and Top of the South legends, Graeme and Shirley Hawtin (photo top right).
The Scanlon family recently celebrated the 125th anniversary of the hardware storewhichhasbeenservingWest Coasters since 1896, and which the family has owned since the 1930s.
45 years since joining the Mitre 10 co-operative, the store is now in the hands of Kevin and Lee’s son Troy and his wife Casey and scooped no less than three awards this year.
“When we first joined Mitre 10 in 1976 it was a very small group, which obviously made it a very close group. Well, it’s a big group now, but one of the things about Mitre 10 is it’s remained very tight-knit,” says Kevin.
Graeme and Shirley Hawtin have been with Mitre 10 since 1975. At the time, Graeme was working for Hopwood Wemyss & Bendall, which became
the Mitre 10 co-operative’s sixth ever member back in 1975.
The Hawtins bought Mitre 10 MEGA Marlborough in 1991 and the business is now captained by their son, David.
Graeme and Shirley ascribe their success and longevity with Mitre 10 to hard work and the relationships they’ve built with their dedicated team: “At the end of the day, taking care of our team is our number one priority, because they are the ones that take care of our customers.
“That, combined with good governance and the support from the wider Mitre 10 community, really helps drive success.”
Talking of success, the following stores
and suppliers were also recognised at the cooperative’s conference last month:
• Mitre10CEOAchievementAward
– Neil Finn-House, CEO, Mitre 10 MEGA Dunedin
• Mitre 10 Store of the Year – Mitre 10 Westport
• Mitre 10 MEGA Store of the Year – Mitre 10 MEGA Taupo
• Mitre 10 Trade Store of the Year – Mitre 10 Westport
• Mitre 10 MEGA Trade Store of the Year – Mitre 10 MEGA Hastings
• Mitre 10 Garden Centre of the Year – Mitre 10 Westport
• Mitre 10 MEGA Garden Centre of the Year – Mitre 10 MEGA Upper Hutt
• Mitre 10 Service Provider of the Year – Amazon Web Services
• Mitre 10 Expo Stand of the Year – Häfele New Zealand
• Mitre 10 Home & Garden Supply Partner of the Year – Zealandia Horticulture
• Mitre 10 Showrooms Supply Partner of the Year – Monaco Corporation
• Mitre 10 Building Products Supply Partner of the Year – Southern Pine Products
Apologies by the way for our tardy online reporting of Mitre 10’s Awards and lack of event photos, something to do with a pandemic, we understand.
www.mitre10.co.nz
12 NZHJ | SEPTEMBER 2021
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