The winners of the 2015 Catering Insight Awards were revealed last night at a star-studded ceremony at the exclusive Hurlingham Club in London.
More than 200 senior executives from the UK catering equipment industry were out in force to find out the recipients of the 14 awards that were presented to honour excellence in both the supplier and distributor side of the industry.
Guests were treated to a networking drinks reception under the observatory roof of the Hurlingham Club followed by a three-course meal ahead of the awards, while Robert Fox, close-up magician to the stars, kept the tables entertained and bamboozled in equal measure with his repertoire of tricks.
The Catering Insight Awards were supported by Blue Seal, Commercial Kitchen, DC Products, Falcon Foodservice Equipment, First Choice Group, Hobart, Hotelympia, Jestic and Rational. Senior management from each company were called up to the stage to present the award for their sponsored category.
There were five shortlisted finalists in each category, with the winner decided by a closed electronic vote that took place among senior executives ahead of the ceremony. To ensure transparency, suppliers were only eligible to vote for distributor categories, and distributors could only vote on supplier categories. The end result was that the winners of each category were decided exclusively by the industry.
And, in full, here are the winners of the 2015 Catering Insight Awards:
SUPPLIER CATEGORIES
Supplier of the Year: Light Equipment
Foodservice Equipment Marketing (FEM)
Supplier of the Year: Heavy Equipment (Sponsored by Hotelympia)
Falcon Foodservice Equipment
Supplier of the Year: Business Development
Rational
Supplier of the Year: Service & Support
Meiko
Supplier of the Year: Sustainability 2015 (Sponsored by Commercial Kitchen Show)
Gram
DISTRIBUTOR AWARDS
Emerging Distributor of the Year (Sponsored by Jestic)
Wilcox Burchmore
Online Distributor of the Year
Lockhart Catering Equipment
Service & Maintenance Provider of the Year (Sponsored by First Choice Group)
TAG Catering Equipment
Distributor of the Year: Project Management (Sponsored by Falcon Foodservice Equipment)
Vision Commercial Kitchens
Distributor of the Year: North of England (Sponsored by Blue Seal)
C&C Catering Equipment
Distributor of the Year: South of England (Sponsored by Hobart)
Dentons Catering Equipment
Distributor of the Year: Rest of the UK (Sponsored by DC Products)
Shine Food Machinery
Distributor of the Year: Nationwide (Sponsored by Rational)
C&C Catering Equipment
Lifetime Achievement Award
Ron Neville, CHR Equipment