BII Announces Winners Of The 2008 NITAs

In a break from tradition, BII has embraced modern technology to announce the winners via a live broadcast from its website. The eleven victorious category winners will each be presented with their awards and receive the recognition they truly deserve in front of an audience of 1,000 top industry representatives at the BII Annual Lunch at The Grosvenor House, London, in May.

The awards were hotly contested with entrants vying for the category titles from among restaurant groups, pub companies, breweries, supermarkets, convenience stores, colleges, training companies, professional trainers and individual licensees.

Each of the 41 shortlisted entrants has been assessed by a two person judging panel; one an experienced industry practitioner and the other from an academic background. Typically, judges are experts in the licensed retail sector and the field of training and development, and are experienced in the rigorous BII NITA judging process. The process involves close examination of the entrants’ training practice and judges have remarked that, yet again, the standard of entries has been extremely high.

BII Director of Marketing Sue Medhurst commented: “In this unprecedented economic climate, when purse strings are being squeezed, it’s even more important to commit to staff development so we’re delighted to see so many businesses investing time and money in their training activities. Winning a BII NITA is the ultimate endorsement of training excellence and the impressive response to this year’s NITAs clearly shows the level of commitment to training excellence as businesses see the benefits to both the company and the individuals within it.”

The NITAs are an important mechanism to raise the standards of training across the licensed retail sector and are a tool for companies to benchmark the effectiveness of their training against others in the sector. All shortlisted entrants receive feedback from the judges and this enables them to improve their training offering even further in the future.

Judges will also select a winner for the Supreme Award, which is presented to the person or organisation they consider has done the most to promote the benefits of training across the licensed retail sector, and this will be announced at the BII Annual Lunch in May.

Full List of Winners

Best licensee induction programme (sponsored by the Publican)

Winner – The Restaurant Group, Borough, London

Licensee trainer of the year in managed and non-managed estates (sponsored by Matthew Clark)

Winner – Claire Bignell FBII, The Farmers’ Bar, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Highly Commended – Sarah Fox, Frankie and Benny’s, Cambridge

Best development programme in managed estates (sponsored by Enterprise Inns)

Winner – JD Wetherspoon, Watford

Best development programme in non-managed estates (sponsored by Milestone)

Winner – Punch Taverns, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire

Social responsibilities award where consumption is on the premises (sponsored by Charles Wells Pub Company)

Winner – JD Wetherspoon, Watford

Best Development Programme in licensed retail where consumption is off the premises (sponsored by BII)

Winner – CJ Lang and Son, Dundee

Highly Commended – Highfield.co.uk and Marks & Spencer, Doncaster

Social responsibilities award where consumption is off the premises (sponsored by BIIAB)

Winner – Capper & Co, Pontyclun, Mid Glamorgan

Highly Commended – CJ Lang and Son, Dundee

Best area manager/BDM development award (sponsored by JD Wetherspoon)

Winner – Marston’s, Wolverhampton

Professional trainer of the year award (sponsored by Greene King)

Winner – Morris Lorimer FBII, Edinburgh

Highly Commended – Peter Fulton FBII, abv Training, Carlisle, Cumbria

Best training scheme run by institutions of further and higher education

in partnership with the licensed retail industry (sponsored by BII)

Winner – JD Wetherspoon in partnership with The Centre for Leisure Retailing,

Nottingham Trent University

Door supervisor training award (sponsored by BIIAB and City & Guilds)

Winner – Innpacked, Bournemouth

Contact

Joanna Buston
Email: joannab@bii.org
Telephone: 01276 417863