South Africa's Caltex Named International Convenience Retailer of the Year
LONDON -- Caltex FreshStop won the International Convenience Retailer of the Year award at the 2013 Insight NACS Convenience Retail Awards.
The South Africa-based convenience and fuel retailer was recognized for its approach to convenience retailing at its Airport City store located near Cape Town International Airport. The two-story FreshStop convenience store caters to travelers and commuters. Its offerings include a full kitchen and bakery, a large seating area, free Wi-Fi, a car wash, car repair and valet services, according to NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing.
The Caltex store also features a boardroom and meeting room facilities for business travelers.
"Caltex FreshStop stood out for exceeding its customers' expectations and capitalizing on the current market trends toward fresh foods convenience retailing," said Dan Mumford, managing director of Insight Research.
Two additional awards were also presented at the ceremony on Sept. 25:
- International Store Manager of the Year: This honor went to Jabir Pochiya, store manager of Euro Garages Beehive Service Station in Lancashire, one of the top-performing sites among the retailer's 120 locations throughout the United Kingdom.
- Global Product Availability Award: Hubtill was recognized for its technology that improves in-store efficiency, on-shelf availability, stock management, customer service, prices, margins and profits while removing the need for store owners to spend time interpreting point-of-sale reports.
The Convenience Retail Awards were presented during the Insight NACS Future of Convenience Conference, which took place Sept. 25-26 in London. The event serves as an annual forum for the European and international convenience and fuel retailing industry, and is comprised of a series of retail store tours, keynote presentations from global convenience and fuel retailers, and roundtable discussions. This year's event attracted delegates from 35 countries, according to NACS.
Twelve retailers were finalists for this year's International Convenience Retailer of the Year award. They were:
- 7-Eleven Reitan Convenience
- Caltex FreshStop
- ENoc
- Maxol Mace
- Migrolino
- Nordelta YPF
- On the Run Peregrine Corp.
- PKN Orlen
- Preem
- Sewell Retail
- Shell Deli2Go
- SPAR Parkfoot
Retailers are judged across a range of criteria including format innovation, range, people development, customer service initiatives, corporate social responsibility, technology and results.
Insight Research and NACS recently entered into an equity partnership for the Future of Convenience Conference, as CSNews Online previously reported. Under the agreement, NACS acquired a majority interest in the event, which is now positioned under the NACS Europe portfolio. Insight Research retains a substantial minority stake, and Mumford remains a long-term partner. NACS has served as a partner of the five-day conference for the past seven years.