By Alana Mitchelson
TYNONG apple grower 9mile has won the Community Champion of the Year Award at the national Coles Supplier Awards.
Co-owner Rob Thompson and his team have supported several charity events and causes over many years including Men’s Shed, local sport clubs and the Royal Flying Doctors’ Service through distributing apples, volunteering and fund-raising.
Mr Thompson was humbled to receive the industry recognition.
“We’re delighted. We are dedicated to our community and think it’s important to get involved in local activities and provide support where we can,” he said.
Coles directors Chris Nicholas and George Dymond awarded 9mile a trophy at a gala dinner in Melbourne on Thursday 25 August attended by about 1200 Coles suppliers and team members.
Coles managing director John Durkan said 9mile was a high performing, innovative organisation committed to providing Australian customers with high quality products and also giving back to the community.
The Community Champion Award one of seven categories recognising suppliers’ excellence in providing merchandise, services and goods not-for-resale across the Coles’ business.
Other categories included Sustainable and Ethical Excellence, Product Innovation, Rising Star, Best Product Launch, Outstanding Service and Supply Chain Excellence.
Della Rosa Traditional Fresh Foods, based in Melbourne, won the Rising Star Award for its popular Coles Brand Chilled and Frozen Pizza range.
Other award recipients were as follows:
*Solaris Paper (New South Wales) – Best Product Launch Award for the development and launch of its So Soft toilet paper brand.
*Sundrop Farms (South Australia) – Sustainable and Ethical Excellence Award for establishing a state-of-the-art glasshouse which grows tomatoes using solar energy and desalinated seawater.
*Mountain Blue Farms (New South Wales) – Product Innovation Award for pioneering a new jumbo blueberry variety, the ‘Eureka’.
*Evolve Research and Consulting – Outstanding Service Award for administering 40,000 ‘Tell Coles’ customer and team member feedback surveys each week across Coles supermarkets, Liquorland, Online and Express.
*The British Sausage Company (Western Australia) – Supply Chain Excellence Award for its initiatives to deliver fresher sausages to customers by reducing the time it takes to deliver products to stores.
