Awards

We're not trying to blow our own trumpet, but let's face it. Who doesn't like winning an award for a job well done? it's even more satisfying when you've been honoured for doing something that might encourage others to follow your lead.

We've won so many awards this year that it's hard to say which has been the most significant for us. Certainly winning The Grocer's Online Retailer of the Year Award (voted for by customers) was fantastic for us - and proof of our continued commitment to giving our customers what they want.

Likewise, more than 9,000 MSN Shopping customers, and an independent panel of judges, voted for us in the Grand Prix Online Green Awards (the OLGAs), where we won a 'green Oscar' for our newly launched, zero emissions fleet of electric delivery vans. We were particularly proud of this award, as it recognises our status as one of the first companies to try this out. The vans - supplied by Modec - initially delivered to customers in the Shrewsbury area, and are currently being rolled out nationwide. They can carry the same amount as a standard Tesco.com van, cover 100 miles before they need recharging, and have a maximum speed limit of 50mph.

However, it's not just in the environmental arena that we're setting new standards. We recently won this year's European Supply Chain Excellence Award, which really belongs to the IT project teams who have worked so closely with our logistics people to develop new picking systems that have greatly increased our productivity, helping the whole supply chain move more quickly (and smoothly).

It's not only our electric vans which win awards. Recent achievements by our Dotcom Fleet include the Van Fleet Manager of the Year, for the second time in succession, and the Managing Occupational Road Risk award, presented to us by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Both awards reflect the high standard of training delivered by Dotcom to our Customer Delivery Assistants.

And we mustn't forget to congratulate our Wine Club, who were recently crowned wine club of the year by International Wine challenge.