Discount supermarket Aldi has been named Grocer of the Year at the annual Grocer Gold Awards ceremony.
The grocery retailer beat Asda and Morrisons to the top prize and also scooped the Discounter of the Year title at the event, with judges praising its approach to providing quality at low prices.
Managing director Paul Foley said the awards were testament to customer-focused operations.
The Grocer Gold accolades come in the same month that the chain was crowned the UK’s best supermarket by consumer watchdog Which? and also awarded seven titles at the British Frozen Food Federation Awards.
Other awards at the 2009 event went to online retailer Ocado, which was named Green Retailer of the Year and Online Retailer of the Year.
Morrisons scooped the awards for service and availability and also saw Mike Toth, manager of the supermarket’s Coventry branch, crowned Store Manager of the Year.
Asda won the award for price for the 12th consecutive year, Sainsburys won the Consumer Initiative of the Year for its Switch and Save campaign and Tesco picked up the consumer-voted prize for Britain’s Favourite Supermarket .
The Business Initiative of the Year and the Own-Label Range of the Year awards went to the Co-operative Group.