Awards

We submit applications for selected awards, including those relevant to our corporate responsibility agenda, and we are sometimes nominated for awards by other organisations. The comments of judges can be a useful external benchmark of how we are doing across all areas of the business. Winning awards and being short-listed can also be very motivational for our team, who work extremely hard to achieve real improvements right across our business.

We have received several notable awards during the last 12 months.

General

• The Group was awarded gold status by Business in the Community (BiTC) which assesses performance in four key areas of corporate responsibility – community, environment, marketplace and workplace
• Argos won the Precision Marketing Grand Prix Award for its on-line ‘Giant Jar’ marketing campaign
• The Homebase garden, “Room with a View”, was awarded a Silver-Gilt medal at the Hampton Court Flower Show
• The Group’s Investor Relations team (IR) was recognised by the Investor Relations Society by winning the award for the ‘Best Overall IR for a FTSE 250 company’. Home Retail Group has since returned to the FTSE 100 Index

Environment

• Magna Park distribution centre (DC) has received the internationally recognised environmental management standard certification to ISO14001. Eight DCs have now achieved this standard
• Homebase store support manager, Sam Stevens, won the ‘Commercial Recycling Champion’ award at the 2008 LetsRecycle awards
• The Group was a finalist at the Sustain Award for ‘CR Governance 2008’ and the Supply Chain and Logistics Award for ‘Green Supply Chain 2009’

Supply chain

• Argos and Homebase both won awards at the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Supply awards. Homebase is the first retailer to win the Supply Chain Integration award for three consecutive years. Argos won the 2008 Logistics Best Practice Award

Our people

• Chief executive, Terry Duddy, was voted the UK’s most respected retail boss and the second most respected leader in UK industry in a Whitehead Mann survey of FTSE 100 chief executives and city analysts
• Argos store operational support manager, Will Jary, won the Store Support Manager of the Year award at the Retail Week ’Rising Stars’ awards, which recognise burgeoning talent and leadership potential
• Homebase won three awards at the Retail Bulletin ’People in Retail’ awards
• Two Homebase store managers, Linda Burton and Paul Shaw, won silver awards as Britain’s best DIY superstore managers at the Britain’s Best Retailer Awards
• Home Retail Group received a gold award from The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for health and safety excellence at its distribution centres

Community

• Home Retail Group achieved ‘highly commended’ status for its payroll giving campaign in the 2008 Payroll Giving Quality Mark awards and was awarded gold status by the Institute of Fundraising in 2008