Kenny Bradley, of Kilrea Service Station in Coleraine has beaten off stiff competition from 170 other service stations across the Island of Ireland to be named Maxol’s All-Ireland Retailer of the Year.
Kenny Bradley (foreground) of Kilrea Service Station is pictured celebrating the news that his station in Coleraine has been named Maxol’s All-Ireland Retailer of the Year after beating off stiff competition from 170 other service stations across the Island of Ireland. Also pictured is from right Brian Donaldson, General Manager Marketing and Retail of Maxol, Steven Turner of Maxol and Patrick Doody of Hendersons.
The award, which forms part of Maxol’s Annual Retail Awards, was presented to Kenny by Brian Donaldson, General Manager – Marketing and Retail of the Maxol Group at a gala award ceremony held in Belfast recently.
Organised annually by Maxol, the scheme rewards and recognises service stations that constantly deliver the best level of service and facilities to customers. Service stations are measured against a number of criteria including quality of service, variety of products available in shops and amenities and tidiness of forecourts.
Commenting on Kilrea Service Station’s excellent performance over the past year Brian said: “I would like to congratulate Kenny and his team for winning this award. It really is a tremendous achievement and one in which they can be extremely proud. Given today’s challenging economic climate it has never been more important to maintain high retail standards and special credit must be given to Kilrea Service Station which has performed outstandingly throughout the year.”
Steven Turner, Area Manager of Maxol, who was one of the judges in the scheme, said: “This award is testament to the hard work of all of the staff at Kilrea over the last year. It is very evident when visiting the Service Station just how much effort is put into every detail of the site. The result is that the high standard of the site and staff professionalism shine through. Kenny and his team should be very proud of this well deserved award. It gives me great personal satisfaction when a site takes on board the importance of our Retail Awards and the reason for their inception seven years ago.”
Kenny Bradley said: “I am really proud of Tracey who manages our SPAR Kilrea store and her team. I know they are as overwhelmed as I am winning such a fantastic award. It's great to see all their hard work and consistent high standards being acknowledged by winning this much sought after accolade.”
It has been over ten years since an Independent Retailer in Northern Ireland has won this award. It is proof of how high the standards of the competition are and I am delighted that the Kilrea team have been the one’s to bring it this side of the border.”
The award was one of a number announced at Maxol’s Annual Retailers Conference in Belfast recently. The conference brought together Maxol service station retailers from across Northern Ireland to discuss the key developments in the marketplace. Among the topics discussed were Maxol’s continued growth, both financially and in terms of service station numbers.
In 2009 Maxol added three new service stations to its network and invested over £5.4million in the knock-down and redevelopments of six stations, seven shop refits and the installation of seven new state-of-the art environmentally friendly car washes. In addition to this Maxol also made a substantial investment into its retail IT systems which has enabled the company to enhance the speed of customer transactions.