Talking Retail Grocery and product news for independent retailers
The awards ceremony, which will celebrate the achievements of UK grocery retailers in the year 2019 to 2020, will now take place on 26 January 2021 at the Brewery in the City of London. The Retail Industry Awards were originally due to take place on 15 September 2020.
David Shrimpton, managing editor of Independent Retail News and TalkingRetail.com, said: “The decision to move the awards was made in line with current government guidelines and following extensive conversations with the event’s sponsors and supporters.
“The health and safety of our guests, and that of our own teams, is our number one priority and we felt September would be too soon to hold a gathering on the scale of the Retail Industry Awards.”
Kim Reddick, commercial director for the Retail Industry Awards, added: “We did consider moving to a date later on this year but, given the fact that there is likely to be some level of social distancing regulations in place for the remainder of 2020, with no large gatherings taking place, rescheduling to January 2021 seemed to be the most sensible option.
“Also November and December are particularly busy months for retailers in the lead-up to Christmas, so by moving to January we believe we can provide the industry with something to look forward to after an unprecedented and extremely busy year.”
The Retail Industry Awards will return to their usual schedule in 2021. The shift this year will be a one-off in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Companies sponsoring this year’s event – which include Bestway Wholesale, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Mondelēz International, Post Office and Retail’s Best – have already been informed of the date change and are fully supportive of the move.
Everyone who had already booked a ticket to attend this year’s ceremony will have their ticket automatically transferred to the new date.
The full shortlist for this year’s awards will be announced on Monday 7 September. To view the shortlist for Product Launch of the Year and vote for your favourite click here.
For more information relating to the event, or to buy tickets, please contact Emma Parslow on 020 8253 8721 or emma.parslow@emap.com.
