Our Festival Place heroes shine as Gold Awards winners are revealed

Our Festival Place heroes shine as Gold Awards winners are revealed

Our Festival Place heroes shine as Gold Awards winners are revealed

We’re delighted to reveal the winners of our 2021 Festival Place Gold Retailer Awards, with Festival Street Kitchen staff named Outstanding Team of the Year for their hard work and dedication to the local community during the pandemic.

The sixth year of the Gold Awards competition saw customers vote online for their star employees and favourite retailers at our vast range of stores, restaurants and leisure facilities.

Festival Street Kitchen’s small, dedicated team were hailed for the work they did during lockdown, providing meals to hospital staff, local children from low income families, and homeless people around Basingstoke.

Nandos was named runner-up in the Outstanding Team of the Year category.

Other big winners included Vision Express for Hero of the Year – winning praise for the team acting quickly to prevent a medical eye emergency – and Essential Retailer of the Year M&S, with customers saying they always felt safe in store and staff were always willing to go the extra mile, offering extended opening hours for NHS staff and donating food to the local community.

A firm favourite for the fourth year in a row, Hair Lab was named Store of the Year, Fashion and Health & Beauty Retailer of the Year, and Independent Retailer of the Year, with runner-up spots in the Manager of the Year and Service with a Smile Award categories going to Chigz Hirani and Sing Hock Pwa.

Jewellery store Pandora manager Bianca Payne won Manager of the Year and the store was also runner-up Fashion and Health & Beauty Retailer of the Year.

Paperchase was named Specialist Store of the Year and National Retailer of the Year and was runner-up in the Store of the Year category.

Wagamama picked up Food & Beverage Retailer of the Year, and Entertainment and Leisure Retailer of the Year went to Vue Cinema.

The Service with a Smile Award was won by Angharad Stephens at Your Home Your World, with customers praising her for always being helpful, and caring about environmental sustainably and social responsibility.

The winners in each category have won a £200 gift card, with a £250 gift card award going to the Store of the Year.

Festival Place Business Performance Manager Rachel Carter said: “These awards recognise and reward the hard-working individuals and teams who help make our centre such a success.

“The 2021 awards have been more important than ever in recognising the efforts our amazing retailers have made to keep Festival Place safe for all our loyal customers, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to all those who took the time to vote for their favourites.

“We value their opinions, and these awards are a brilliant way to learn more about their experience with us.

“We have so many heroes in our teams who continue to go above and beyond, and we are incredibly proud of the way they have risen to the challenges they have faced over the last couple of years.”

The FP 2021 Gold Award winners and runners up are:

Fashion, Jewellery and Health & Beauty Retailer of the Year

Winner: Hair Lab

Runner-up: Pandora

Entertainment and Leisure Retailer of the Year

Winner: Vue Cinema

Runner-up: Build a Bear

Specialist Retailer of the Year

Winner: Paperchase

Runner-up: Yankee Candle

Food & Beverage Retailer of the Year

Winner: Wagamama

Runner-up: Festival Street Kitchen

Independent Retailer of the Year

Winner: Hair Lab

Runner-up: Festival Street Kitchen

National Retailer of the Year

Winner: Paperchase

Runner-up: Build a Bear

Essential Retailer of the Year

Winner: Marks & Spencer

Runner-up: Wagamama

Service with a Smile

Winner: Angharad - Your Home Your World

Runner-up: Sing - Hair Lab

Hero of the Year

Winner: Tariq - Vision Express

Runner-up: Charlie - Wimpy

Outstanding Team of the Year

Winner: Festival Street Kitchen

Runner-up: Nandos

Manager of the Year

Winner Bianca - Pandora

Runner-up: Chigz - Hair Lab

Store of the Year

Winner: Hair Lab

Runner-up: Paperchase