Bunzl Catering Supplies has triumphed at yesterday’s Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) Awards, lifting the coveted FPA National Distributor of the Year Award, sponsored by global hygiene and health company, Essity. The ceremony was held at the Grand Hotel, Brighton on Thursday 9 March and hosted by comedian, Zoe Lyons, and attended by over 300 FPA members and their guests.

The judges, which consisted of an independent panel of experts across the FPA, assessed the distributors over the last 12 months performance, based on the following criteria:

• Their business performance during a very difficult and demanding trading period
• Their governance, behaving ethically in everything they do
• Investment in their business and their teams
• Their logistics ensuring they understand their customers’ requirements, supplying them efficiently and in time
• Commitment and respect for their suppliers and maintaining dialogue with them
• Their environmental based programmes and willingness to engage with others in seeking improvements including lobbying on key issues
• Working with you to develop new solutions to address environmental and legislative changes
• Their market intelligence
• Identifying new on the go food and drink opportunities
• Promoting your products to their customers
• Their CSR activities
• Their marketing and communications including their website
• Standing head and shoulders above other national distributors with regards to their day-to-day operation

Helen Cockerham, Managing Director at Bunzl Catering Supplies, commented: “Utilising our global resources and product expertise, our teams work tirelessly to deliver simplified, sustainable supply chain solutions to our customers in the hospitality industry. Our ability to adapt quickly and efficiently in a challenging trading period, has allowed us to drive quality, efficiency and value for our customers. I would like to express my thanks to the Bunzl Catering Supplies team, and to our partner suppliers, who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to providing a first-class service.”