Reflecting on our Everyday Heroes Awards

Reflecting on our Everyday Heroes Awards

29th March saw the Roadchef team return to Alton Towers Resort in Staffordshire for their annual Management Conference and Everyday Hero Awards. This event enables us to reflect on our plans and successes over the last year, share the key elements of our long-term business plan, and celebrate the teams across the UK and individuals making strides in their work. After all, how can we succeed without our brilliant people?

During this year’s conference, which centred around the theme of looking to the future and delivering our overarching vision of ‘Making Britain’s Roads a Safer, Happier & Greener Place’, we dedicated time to recognise and celebrate the amazing achievements of our employees who work tirelessly to keep our customers happy, safe and rested.

To kick off the evening of achievements, we celebrated the Maidstone team for winning the Commercial Site of the Year Award, sponsored by Spectranet Limited . This accolade reflects all the team’s efforts to ensure that our customers are equipped for long journeys ahead with plenty of food, drink, lifestyle and entertainment options.

Killington Lake scooped up two awards throughout the night; the first was the Health and Safety Site of the Year, sponsored by Ogilvie Fleet , for keeping customers and staff safe and achieving 100% scores for Gaming test purchase results and auditing. The McDonald’s of the Year Award, sponsored by Kroyair Ltd , also acknowledged the site’s team for scoring impressive customer service scores and consistently delivering high speed of service times at the on-the-go eatery.

Pont Abraham had a very successful evening, and deservedly so. Taking home three awards, the team first picked up the People Site of the Year Award, sponsored by Upskill People . The site achieved a 3-star Best Companies rating and has held the highest engagement score across all sites. The team’s next win, the Single Sided Site of the Year Award sponsored by BOOKER RETAIL PARTNERS (GB) LIMITED , cemented the team’s consistency in low attrition and high retention rates. The third and undoubtedly most prestigious win of the evening, sponsored by SPAR UK , was the Site of the Year Award for doing such an amazing job to ensure everyone who stops on their journey through Wales is refreshed and rested before they continue their travels.

While Pont Abraham took home the single sided site award, Sandbach took home the Double Sided Site of the Year Award, sponsored by BJ Toy Company , following an achievement of earning a Best Companies 2* rating.

The team up at Annandale Water were extremely pleased to take home the Costa / Costa Drive Thru of the Year Award, sponsored by Costa Coffee itself, acknowledging the teams consistent ability to go above and beyond, securing over 90% in their Costa Check and full marks for Coffee Experience.

The Catering Unit of the Year Award, sponsored by LEON Restaurants , was awarded to the Northampton Northbound team, reflecting the efforts made by each team member as they provide tasty food and great customer service to all our visitors looking for a healthy food on-the-go option. Amelia and her team achieved an audit score of 96.5%, the highest average score out of all LEON units across the UK.

Over at Sedgemoor, the WHSmith team took home the award for Retail and Grocery Unit of the Year, sponsored by Harrisons Direct , while our Norton Canes site, scoring an 8.1 in overall customer satisfaction, won the prestigious Hotel of the Year Award, sponsored by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts , recognising the 24/7 dedication the team puts in to ensure guests have everything they need for a good night’s rest.

When it comes to celebrating the individual people who add value to each of our site teams across the UK, we were thrilled to see Rebecca Wood from our Support Office Team pick up her trophy for the Support Office Person of the Year Award, sponsored by PPL. Rebecca has been of significant support to northern sites, covering administrative duties and supporting the development of Site Administrators.

We also presented Amiee Saich, LEON Unit Manager at Norton Canes, with not only the Caring Hero Award, sponsored by Silentnight Group , for bringing her kind and compassionate nature into the workplace, but also the revered Hero of the Year Award, sponsored by Blueprint Operations Ltd . Amiee introduced a community pantry at Norton Canes to help employees who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and has continued to demonstrate her caring, dedicated, and positively obsessive qualities.

John Whittington, Team Member at Days Inn Stafford, bagged himself the i-media sponsored Uncomplicated Hero Award, for his uncomplicated, straightforward way of dealing with crises. Claire Thornton, Supervisor at Costa Coffee Drive-Thru in Chester, achieved the award for Positively Obsessive Hero, sponsored by Creed Foodservice Ltd for being ‘positively obsessive’ about customer service, NPS and KPIs.

The illustrious evening was concluded with lots of well-deserved celebrations and thanking of the Roadchef community who continue to do an outstanding job, playing a central part in making us one of the UK’s leading motorway service area operators. Roadchef wouldn’t be the same without its people and every award received is a testament to all the hard work and dedication that goes into delighting and de-stressing our customers.

So, we hope everyone can join us in congratulating all winners and nominees.

See you next year!