Bunzl Catering Supplies were awarded the coveted FPA National Distributor of the Year Award for the fourth time in six years, after taking home the award in 2013, 2014 and 2016. The ceremony was held at the luxurious Grand Hotel, Brighton on Thursday 08 March and hosted by comedian, Rod Woodward, and attended by over 400 FPA members and their guests.

Matt Johnson, Managing Director, Bunzl Catering Supplies comments: “We are delighted to have been chosen again for the FPA National Distributor of the Year award, it’s a fantastic testimony to the hard work and commitment from all our people to provide the very best products and service solutions to our customers in the catering and hospitality industry. It’s our mission to help our customers deliver outstanding hospitality every time – and we do this by using our experience and expertise to deliver innovative solutions, establishing and maintaining long-term relationships based on trust, and looking to protect our customer’s brand and reputation as we would our own.”

In a year that saw a large number of entries, the judges, which consisted of an independent panel of experts across the FPA, assessed the distributors based on the following criteria:

• Effectiveness at working to develop their customers’ sales of their products
• Effectiveness at working to find new packaging solutions
• Distribution and warehousing
• Marketing and communication to their customers
• The product and customer knowledge of their staff
• The provision of customer feedback
• The ease of doing business with them

On top of our success, some of our suppliers and customers also achieved recognition at the awards. These included:

• The FPA Manufacturer of the Year Award 2018, which was awarded to our supplier – Huhtamaki
• The FPA Foodservice Operator of the Year Award 2018, which was award to our customer – Compass UK & Ireland

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners at the FPA awards.