Lincolnshire Co-op shortlisted for 12 national awards

Lincolnshire Co-op has been shortlisted for 12 awards at the prestigious People in Retail Awards 2025.

The People in Retail Awards celebrate those who are unsung heroes in the retail operations in organisations.

This year, the awards are taking place at the London Marriott Hotel in London on Wednesday 24th September.

Our colleagues are up against national and international retailers including American Golf, Waitrose, Currys, Oliver Bonas and Adidas.

Congratulations to our nominees:

Employee of the Year – Tobias Lambert

Tobias has recently been promoted to Category Planner in the Food Support team after stepping up and embodying a leadership style role during his previous job. Recently, he led the forecasting, allocation and optimisation of the Easter 2025 seasonal range, achieving great sales results.

Employee of the Year – Bob Blake

Bob works at our Tritton Road Funeral Home. During a funeral, he went above and beyond to support a bereaved family, enabling them all to mourn in a way that was meaningful to them.

Manager of the Year – Richard Blackburn

Richard started his role as Funeral Service Manager in October 2024 and has been helping the funeral teams by introducing regular team meetings and encouraging open communication, leading to great colleague engagement.

Manager of the Year – Shannon Thompson

Shannon is regarded as one of the businesses most successful food store managers. Her store recently underwent a major refit and, with the team’s great ethos and Shannon’s exceptional leadership skills, sales impressively grew post-refit.

Manager of the Year – Carly-Ann Turner

Carly-Ann started at the business as a customer service assistant and gradually progressed into her role as Newark Road Food Store Manager. She creates a positive and consistent environment for her team, shown by the store winning Lincolnshire Co-op Christmas Store of the Year 2024.

Manager of the Year – Sarah Hutt

Sarah is the manager at one of Lincolnshire Co-op’s most demanding stores, however she consistently delivers and provides fundamental support her for team despite these pressures. She’s also become a voice for the business, raising awareness in local media of the abuse of retail workers and hosting visits for local MPs.

Team of the Year – Pharmacy OTC Implementation team

During the improvement of our pharmacy retail offering, the Pharmacy OTC (over the counter) Implementation team remerchandised nearly 1,000 bays and over 5,000 shelves, and applied 30,000 shelf edge labels by hand in just 20 working days. The work was completed out of hours, between 5pm and 3am, and has now improved customer access to health and wellbeing.

Team of the Year – Scartho Food Store team

Scartho Food Store opened in October 2024, facing and overcoming challenges from the first day. Despite this, the team worked together to break record sales for a new store opening and signed up 213 new members.

Rising Spark – Erika Stainton

Erika joined the business in a newly created role as an Apprenticeship Advisor, with the opportunity to shape the future of apprenticeships. Since then, the society’s had an 20% increase in apprenticeship uptake and directly working with the apprentices from onboarding to completion.

Executive Leader of the Year – Andy Warman

Andy joined the business in 2023 and as Head of Strategy and Transformation, he helped co-create the society’s Purpose Beyond Profit 2030 strategy, created a programme to support 30 projects and much more. He has now been promoted to the Executive Leadership Team as Chief Transformation Officer.

Community Engagement Programme of the Year – Rachel Trafford and Michelle Simfield

Heckington Food Store Customer Service Assistant’s Rachel Trafford and Michelle Simfield demonstrated community compassion during a first aid emergency, by doing the right thing in a difficult moment.

The society has also been nominated for the TRB Special Impact Award.