Electrical retailers and manufacturers celebrate at ERT Industry Awards 2010

The ERT Industry Awards 2010 took place in London yesterday (October 7), with retailers and manufacturers from all over the UK coming together to celebrate excellence and outstanding achievements in the electrical retailing sector.

Organised by ERT magazine, the awards, which are in their third year, are aimed at raising standards among retailers and manufacturers and rewarding them for their efforts.

Winning retailers this year included Barretts Digital World, Canterbury; Carters Domestic Appliances, Brighton; RGB in Ilford, Stellisons in Benfleet and Fortuna Jersey, Channel Islands.

Manufacturers who scooped awards were Sony, Samsung, Humax, Bosch, Alphason and Peerless.

There was also a Special Achievement award, which was won by independent retailer Graham Knight of Knights TV and Computers in Aberdeen, Scotland.

With a record-breaking number of entries, around 200 people attended the lunchtime event, which was held at the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel in London’s High Holborn.

The ceremony, which was co-hosted by ERT's editor Sean Hannam and managing editor Andrew Davies, was divided into two sections – the Retailer Awards and Manufacturer Awards.

In the Retailer Awards section, independent and multiple electrical retailers were asked to nominate themselves in various categories.

New for this year, manufacturers could also nominate their standout retailers.

In the Manufacturer Awards section, distributors and manufacturers could all take part in the nomination process.

Nominations were then whittled down to a shortlist of finalists by a panel of judges made up of industry experts.

New for 2010 was the Green Supplier Award, which recognised one manufacturer or distributor that had made an outstanding commitment to addressing environmental issues. This award was won by Sony.

Said Mr Hannam: “It was great to see everyone from the industry coming together to celebrate at the awards, which have now established themselves as the premier event in the electrical retailing calendar.

"The mission of the ERT Industry Awards is to recognise the achievements of both retailers and manufacturers.

"This year, we received a record number of entries and the judges were faced with a hard task of whittling them down to come up with a shortlist of finalists. Congratulations to all of the winners.”

Mr Hannam then went on to thank the event sponsors for their support – Domestic and General, Amdea, Armour Home, GfK, Intellect, LG, Panasonic, Retra, ShopJimmy, Sony and Vogel’s. Associate sponsors were Liebherr and Roberts.