The first day of the concurrent India Food Service Forum, and the Food & Grocery Forum held in Mumbai, concluded with the 7th edition of the Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2014 (CCGSA 2014). The awards honoured outstanding achievers in food service; and food & grocery retail sectors.
At a glittering ceremony, TATA Starbucks was declared the “IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Brand of the Year.” From the much hyped Starbucks launch in India in October 2012 that was pushed by a selected Master Class that initiated the exercise across media, a youth interaction platform on national TV, plus very high media engagement, and a grand launch which created 100 million impressions in first 3 days and engaged some top Indian personalities, the brand has today emerged as a benchmark for efficiency and excellence in service retailing. It has already rolled out 34 outlets across Mumbai, NCR, Pune and Bengaluru. A video message from Mr. Ratan Tata was played at the awards.
At the same time, Domino’s Pizza, Dunkin’ Donuts, and The Parent Jubilant Foodworks stole the show by winning three categories including the “IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year.” QSR Foreign Origin was honored to Domino’s Pizza for their achievements wherein they added 117 new stores to take their tally to 630 over the year. Domino’s sales turnover also grew by 29% over the previous year.
IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: QSR Indian Origin was awarded to Goli Vada Pav that has seen immense growth with 35 percent growth in number of outlets over the previous year.
The Awards began with singing sensation–Dilruba who is known to stir emotions and who has sang alongside Bryan Adams at Kathmandu. The audience grooved to the melodiously number “Sky is Falling”. She was also the host for the evening and for the first time ever she was joined by Mark Ashman, CEO HyperCITY, who was the co-host for the evening. The night also saw retail giants from the food and grocery sector like Devendra Chawla, CEO of Food Bazaar and Rahul Singh, Founder and CEO, The Beer Cafe, appearing on stage as the next co-hosts for the evening. Leading Comedian Anubhav Pal, who BBC considers India’s Funniest man and the New York Times calls India’s most intelligent comedian, left the audience in splits with his intelligent comedy.
The Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2014 selection process involved inviting entries from the nation’s leading food service and food & grocery retailers across multiple categories. The jury analyses key performance metrics such as growth in top line sales and retail presence, sales per square foot, average transaction values, and profitability. Jury also studies the impact of innovation, marketing, supplier relations and employee practices. The Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards (CCGSA) jury – comprising distinguished personalities in the field of research and consulting with thorough insights into the business of foodservice/ food & grocery – goes through the presentation and gives scores based on their own understanding of the nominees. The jury for Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2014 included Seema Chandra, Food Editor, NDTV Lifestyle and Convergence, Samir Kuckreja, President, NRAI, Dr. Arbind Prasad, DG, FICCI, Harish Bijoor, Brand Expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., Amit Lohani, Convenor, Forum of Indian Food Importers (FIFI), Jyoti Bhasin, Country Manager, NFS, and Amitabh Taneja, Chief Convenor of the Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards and CMD of the IMAGES Group.
IMAGES Excellence Awards are presented to brands, personalities and concepts; for exceptional initiative, outstanding/focussed performance, setting efficiency benchmarks, innovation, and broader impact to industry.
The category winners of the Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2014 are as below.
Winners under Foodservice:
1. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: QSR Indian Origin – Goli Vada Pav
2. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: QSR Foreign Origin – Domino’s Pizza
3. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: Cafes & Juice Bars – Dunkin’ Donuts
4. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year: Ice-cream & Dessert Parlours – Baskin Robins
5. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Retailer of the Year: Pubs & Bars – The Beer Cafe
6. IMAGES Most Admired Restaurant Chain of the Year: Dine-in – Punjab Grill
7. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Retail Innovation of the Year – Masala Library by Jiggs Kalra
8. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Group of the Year – Jubilant FoodWorks
IMAGES Excellence Awards: Food Service
9. IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Brand of the Year – Starbucks
Winners under the ‘Food & Grocery Retailer’ categories:
10. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Large Format – More Mega Store
11. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Speciality Chain – Natures Basket
12. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Convenience store – Sahara Q Shop
13. IMAGES Most Admired F&G Retailer of the Year: Private Label Development – HyperCITY
14. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retail Innovation of the Year – Star Bazaar
IMAGES Excellence Awards: Food & Grocery:
15. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Largest Expansion, Highest Trading Density, & Same Store Sales Growth was won by Spencer’s
Seema Gupta, Editor, Progressive Grocer India & A S Chedda, Nestle presented the award to Mr. Saikat Sarkar, Head, BFS & DCF, Spencer’s Retail
16. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Highest Per Sq. Ft. Sales – was won by Twenty Four Seven
Rakesh Gambhir, VP Food, Images Group & Sameer Kukreja, President NRAI, presented the award to Sejal Chhutani of Twenty Four Seven, Modi Enterprises
17. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Success with a new concept was won by Food Hall
Amitabh Taneja, CMD, Images Group & presented the award to, Devendra Chawla, CEO, Food Bazaar, Future Group, and Jay Jhavery, Chief Business Development, Food Hall
18. IMAGES Most Admired Food & Grocery Retailer of the Year: Effective Technology Application, Supplier’s Chain Management, Human Resource Policies/Initiatives was won by Auchan
R S Roy, Editorial Director, Images Group presented the award to Ponnu Subramanian Senior Vice President- Foods & SCM, Max Hypermarkets
The night also saw the FIFI Awards 2014 being announced. The FIFI Award aims to recognize the Excellence of Regional Retailers in the Foreign Food and Grocery Segment. Amit Lohani, Convenor FIFI presided over the ceremony.
1. Foreign Food Retailer – Goa Region: Newton’s – Mr. Newton received the award which was presented by Rakesh Banga of Banayan Fine Foods and Uday Chugh of Virddhi Specialty
2. Foreign Food Retailer – Pune region: Fine Foods – Rahul Kulkarni received the award which was presented by Dhiraj Dama of MRK and Puneet Gupta of L Comps Impex
3. Foreign Food Retailer – Delhi region: Gourmet Store – Purshotam Narang received the award which was presented by Vipin Agarwal of Grocery Impex and Harshita Gandhi of Tree Life
4. Foreign Food Retailer – Mumbai: Regal Plus – Alkesh Dedhia received the award which was presented by Jehangir Lawyer of Fortune Gourmet & Prakash Sanghavi of Delta Nutritive
5. Foreign Food Retailer – Chandigarh: Empire Stores – Subash Gulati received the award which was presented by Sanjay Bijoria, Bijoria Group and Chef Bill Marchetti
6. Foreign Food Retailer – Hyderabad: Balaji Grand Bazar’s – Pramod Aggarwal received the award which was presented by Augusto Castillinos of Trade Commissioner Columbia and Harsh Kohli of Jivo Wellness.