Marks & Spencer triumphed at last night’s Quality Food Awards ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House hotel walking home with the prestigious Retailer of the Year award, writes Richard Siddle. But it was also a night to remember for Aldi as it picked up a host of food Q awards and was named Drink Retailer of the Year.
Once again the annual Q Awards brought the best food and drink talent across the UK grocery retail sector to London’s Park Lane to honour and reward their efforts in what has been another intensely competitive year to win the hearts – and mouths – of the great British public.
There was also strong performances from Tesco, Asda and the Co-operative picking up Q awards across a number of categories with Lidl also amongst the winners.
But it was Marks & Spencer that won the overall Retailer of the Year award that recognises the stand out performer based across all food categories using a carefully weighted scoring system. It was the unanimous choice of the Gold Q judges.
Other key Gold Q awards, chosen as the best of the best in their respective categories, included the top food award of the night, the highly acclaimed Gold Q, chosen from all the winners across every food category. This again went to Marks & Spencer for its Black Cod product that the judges thought gave its customers the chance to cook a product they can normally only get in high end restaurants.
Highly Commended in the overall Gold Q category were Manor Farm Dairy Lemon Curd Bio Live Yogurt and Marks & Spencer Somerset Butter.
Helen Lyons, head of the Q awards and group publisher of Metropolis Business Media opened the night’s ceremony. She said: “2015 was yet another record breaking year in terms of both the quality and quantity of the entries that were submitted for our panel of almost 200 expert food judges to taste and scrutinize over four weeks of judging a the University of West London in Ealing.”
The night was hosted by chef and Channel 4 presenter, Simon Rimmer and food and Q Awards consultant, Will Torrent. The team of judges were presided over by panel chairs, food consultant, Simon Wright, and industry expert, Jane Milton.
