Mitolo Family Farms has been named the Woolworths 2023 Overall Trade Partner of the Year. Woolworths’ Trade Partner Awards recognise excellence across thousands of its trade partners. Nestlé, Fix & Fogg and Mondelez also took out awards across 14 categories.
Reaching 50 years of business, Mitolo Family Farms won the top accolade for its commitment to delivering ongoing value, also winning the Fruit and Veg Trade Partner of the Year category.
Woolworths COO Paul Harker said Mitolo Family Farms had met customers with value when it was needed most.
“I’m incredibly pleased to see a long standing partner of ours recognised for their dedication and commitment to our shared customers. The team at Mitolo Family Farms exemplifies a true trade partner with deep collaboration, customer insights and category innovation, and their support of our ‘Prices Dropped’ program has not gone unnoticed, providing value at a time when it’s more important than ever,” said Harker.
The Better Tomorrow Award, recognising sustainability best practice and innovation in supply chain, was awarded to Nestlé Australia.
Nestlé introduced recyclable paper packaging with ‘designed for recycling’ at the centre of its approach across a number of products, often replacing multi-material wrapping that is hard to separate or recycle.
In addition to its sustainable packaging, Nestlé’s reforestation program has planted more than one million trees including native species to support biodiversity, restore native habitats, improve soil health, and protect waterways.
Nestlé’s Gympie Factory, home of Nescafé, uses 100 per cent renewable sources including those from waste coffee grounds, sawdust and wind.
“The Better Tomorrow Award is anchored in a purpose to create better experiences together for a better tomorrow. As a business, we strive to have a positive impact on our team, planet, customers and communities to have real impact across the supply chain,” said Harker.
New Zealand based, family owned and operated Fix & Fogg won the Small Trade Partner of the Year Award for its innovation in the spreads category.
Challenged with creating a delicious and better for you ‘real chocolate nut butter spread’, Fix & Fogg’s vegan friendly Choc Nut Butter brought in a significant amount of new customers for the category.
“Fix & Fogg, supported by our commercial team created a product that stood out in the spreads category while delivering healthy and delicious options for our customers,” said Harker.
Mondelez were recognised as the Merchandising Team of the Year for driving excellence in end-to-end execution across planogram implementation and major event activations.
The Woolworths Trade Partner of the Year Awards recognised partners across multiple categories, food and beverage winners included:
Overall Trade Partner of the Year: Mitolo Family Farms
Account Manager of the Year: Brendan O’Donnell, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Better Tomorrow Award: Nestlé Australia
Cartology Campaign of the Year: Vittoria Food & Beverages, Jarlsberg Month
Chilled & Bakery Trade Partner of the Year: Fonterra
Fruit & Veg Trade Partner of the Year: Mitolo Family Farms
Grocery Food Trade Partner of the Year: Carman’s Fine Foods
Meat & Seafood Trade Partner of the Year: A O’Meehan & Co
Merchandising Team of the Year: Mondelez
Small Trade Partner of the Year: Fix & Fogg
Woolworths Category Manager of the Year: Mitchell Greatorex
Woolworths Food Company Trade Partner of the Year: Trumps
