Brown Family Wine Group has won The Most Improved Supplier of the Year Award in 2022. The family business moved twelve positions up the scale to tenth position in the Advantage Australia Engagement Program.
General Manager of Australia and New Zealand, Shane Bulluss said, “At Brown Family Wine Group we consider the annual Advantage Report as a critical sounding board to ensure we deliver continuous improvement in the way we work with our customers.
“The customer remains at the heart of everything we do and over the last 12 months we have made significant changes to our planning cycle to ensure we engage our customers much earlier, working together on joint solutions that grow the entire category whilst engaging shoppers and consumers on their journey into wine.”
Mr Bulluss says that the company has more to do in this area but that the entire team is delighted that their significant efforts have made such an impact this year and been recognised.
National Business Manager - Endeavour, David Stevenson and NSW State Sales Manager, Christiaan Kennedy were in the room to accept the award when it was presented at in the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney on Thursday.
Advantage Australia’s General Manager, Steve Andrews said, “Brown Family Wine Group have been recognised by their trading partners for building trust through rigorously doing what they say they will do. This reliability has made them easy to do business with, which is the highest priority for retailers in their supplier relationships as they have been navigating the difficulties of recent years.”
The award is calculated by taking the largest change in rank from all suppliers rated by retailers and wholesalers in the Drinks Association Advantage Trade Engagement program.
Mr Bulluss explained that the 2022 result is a reflection of how the company operates a unified starting from the ground up.
“From grape growing, supply chain, logistics, category management, and brand marketing to channel and account management, it is a genuine full team commitment that has led to valuable customer relationships and to bringing the best possible experience to life for consumers.
“Across our entire business we continue to build a much deeper understanding of our customers strategies and priorities, and we have changed the way in which we engage customers with a category first approach allowing us to have more meaningful top to top strategic conversations and aligning our strategies for joint growth,” he said.
BFWG has put significant resources behind increasing its category insights and says this is cornerstone of creating genuine category opportunities in wine for its with customers. The business has also worked to recruit new wine lovers by leading consumers on a journey of discovery and development to support that category growth.
The Most Improved Supplier Award was introduced to the Australian Drinks Awards in 2018 to celebrate suppliers who have successfully set and executed a plan of improvement and been acknowledged by retailers for improving their professionalism and delivery across the entirety of their commercial relationship. The awards have been sponsored by ALM since then.
ALM’s General Manager Retail & Wholesale Operations, John Barakat said, "Every organisation strives for improvement in performance, so it is a real honour to be recognised among your peers as having made the greatest gains. Congratulations to Brown Family Wine Group.”
Shelly Horton was MC at the event where forty-three awards were distributed recognising achievement and excellence in the drinks industry, including four Supplier awards: Supplier of the Year, Most Improved Supplier, Category Management and Supply Chain Management.
Advantage Australia is a Corporate Partner of the Drinks Association.
The Drinks Association congratulates Brown Family Wine Group on its award.
All the winners from the Australian Drinks Awards are available here:
Photos by Belinda Rolland