A night to remember, Currys took centre stage at this year's Retail Week Awards, being lauded with two big wins for our environmental action and amazing stores.
Whilst competition was fierce, Currys was the only retailer to bag two wins, with giants such as Amazon, Sainsburys and Boots also nominated across various categories. But the sheer excellence and passion displayed by our Newark and Beckton based teams took the top podium spots.
First up, our Newark Screening Team picked up the prestigious ‘Green Initiative of the Year’ Award. This team are a vital part of our 'Long Live Your Tech' mission to create a more circular technology sector. Also known as 'The Parts Harvesters', the team are responsible for, well, the parts harvesting process. Each week, we collect 10,000s of unwanted devices from our customers. These products have predominantly been collected through our Cash for Trash programme, which guarantees anyone £5 when they bring in any unwanted tech into a Currys store.
Pallets of this ‘tech trash’ are delivered to Newark each day, and from this point, it’s over to The Parts Harvesters to examine and extract the maximum quantity of valuable materials from over 5,000 products each week. Given that Cash for Trash is open to any tech product, that means the team is having to assess anything from UHD TVs through to tattered, post-rage Xbox controllers to over-used food processors, all of which (however implausibly) may contain precious materials that we can reuse.
The judges commended them for their impressive sustainability agenda, with one commenting: “I’m a big believer in refurb. I don’t think it’s got the penetration it needs yet, but Currys is doing so much in this area.”
Moving further south to our small but mighty east-London Beckton store, who took the much-coveted ‘Store Heroes of the Year’ Award away from last year’s winner, Ikea.
The Beckton team have a laser focus on delivering for our customers, colleagues, and the wider community - and have smashed their commercial targets out of the water. With the example being set by the supportive leadership of Store Manager, Chan Patel, the open culture and ability to demonstrate sustainable, outstanding results whilst also being huge a pillar of their community is so impressive - in fact, it's award-winning.
“The team is driven by an exceptional leader, who is as humble and caring as he is curious and entrepreneurial, the team has endless energy and an appetite to learn, try new things and keep striving to improve their performance and team culture - it's a team of outstanding brilliance.”
Lindsay Haselhurst Currys COO
Three other Currys entries were also shortlisted to the final. Sales Coach, Sobia Ali made the shortlist for SAP’s ‘Head Office Hero’. Under the ‘Responsible Retailer’ category we had two shortlisted entries: our efforts to eradicate digital poverty, led by Director of ESG, Moira Thomas and Group Social Impact Manager, Catrin Hale, as well as our wider Long Live Your Tech ambitions driven by Director of Services, David Rosenberg and Senior Sustainability Operations Manager, Chris Brown.
“Congratulations to everyone involved - as one business, we are so proud of all our shortlisted candidates and winners. From our forward-thinking and community-spirited Beckton superheroes to the inspiring Newark-based innovators supporting us in our mission to give technology a longer life, these awards are a testament to all your hard work and commitment. Here’s to continuing with all these amazing efforts in the year ahead!”
Paula Coughlan Chief People, Communications and Sustainability Officer