She is looking forward to the forthcoming Neighbourhood Retailer Awards after being invited as a guest of Camelot.

“A lot of people don’t realise what retailers have done through Covid, but we were open the whole time, we’ve had all the queues, all the trying to keep people safe and I think the trade have done a great job, I really do, and we deserve a wee night out,” she says.

“It’s been three years since the last one. We love to go and we’re being invited this year by Camelot – it will be lovely to be with them and see all the winners,” she says.

“It’s lovely to see all the retailers getting together and those who are up for prizes. It’s a really, really good night and I think everybody enjoys it. We’ve all been working really hard and running our businesses since lockdown and it will be nice to get a few glad-rags on and get the dancing shoes on.

“We’ve been in for the Awards a couple of times ourselves, such as Best Newcomer when we redid the Spar. It’s a good night for people and especially the guys who win – they bring along their staff and everybody has a great night out.

“We don’t get an awful lot of fun these days, but the compere is always fantastic and the awards ceremony is brilliant – it’s like the Oscars for our trade.

“I enjoy going to it to catch up with a few people that you don’t see year from year. It will be lovely to be there with Camelot because I’ve worked very closely with them – they’re a great bunch of guys and they always make me feel very welcome.”

Judith sits on the Retailer Forum set up by Camelot to hear views from its retailers, with representatives both from the multiples and the independent retail sector across the UK.

“A lot of the time you don’t get to see the other side of the coin but it has opened up for me just how much work Camelot actually put into operating the lottery,” she says.

“It just works automatically for us and it does drive sales for us and that’s why I believe they are a great company to work with.

“Looking on the other side of the aisle, it has made me just a bit more impressed with how much work they actually do. Everybody who works for Camelot is very committed to the National Lottery brand.”

Looking back on her own personal experience of the crisis, she says every week brought a different challenge.

“We were trying to juggle two queues, a Post Office queue and a shop queue – at the best of times that’s hard to do but at the time of a pandemic, it’s even worse.

“But my staff were great – they were just ‘Right, what’s happening today, what’s different, what’s new’ and we traded the whole way through. We shut a little earlier, we had a few issues with the Post Office a few times when we had to reduce hours because we only had one member of staff. But it was only a few times and we’ve been able to stay open the whole time.

“We got a lot of new customers that had never used us before and then realised it was a nice wee shop.

“It never ceases to amaze me how caring people are. One member of staff recently received a beautiful card and a bouquet of flowers because of their kindness to somebody.

“An older man fell on the other side of the car park and the staff went out to him. He came back in the other day to say he had no broken bones, he was ok and here’s a wee card with some money in it. It’s at times like that that you realise people would be lost without us.

“Sometimes the smaller independent shops, we’re like a big brother, we can put our arms round our customers and look after them. Our customers are like our extended family.”

Judith says the forthcoming awards feel like a sign that things are getting back to normal.

“That’s the good thing about the awards, once they’re over we all feel like the awards are back and we can start to think about Christmas and we can do all the other things that I think were put on hold for such a long time,” she says.

The names of the Neighbourhood Retailer Awards finalists will be announced in early September.

The post NR Awards are sign that life is getting back to normal: Judith Mercer first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The agreement sees Britvic Northern Ireland become the racecourse’s exclusive soft drinks partner throughout its annual race calendar and their iconic mixer brand Club Mixers become the official sponsor of the May Day race meeting set to take place on Monday 2^nd May 2022.

The partnership with Down Royal includes naming rights for The Club Mixers May Day race meeting and sees direct promotional and marketing support of the full Britvic brand portfolio, including sponsorship of all seven race titles.

Down Royal Director of Sales & Marketing, Claire Rutherford said: “We are thrilled to partner with such a dynamic soft drinks company as Britvic and are excited to grow the relationship both on and off the track.

“Britvic’s brands are steeped in history, and they share our passion for helping people to enjoy life’s everyday moments. We are always looking to work with local brands who share our commitment to developing authentic and elevated experiences for racegoers and the Club Mixers brand is the perfect fit for us.

“Through this new partnership we hope to enhance the race-going experience and give people an extra reason to visit Down Royal and to keep coming back.”

Brian Greer, Marketing Manager, Club Mixers said: “We are very excited about this new partnership with Down Royal which gives us a perfect platform to showcase the attributes of heritage, quality and reliability associated with our Club Mixers portfolio.

“We look forward to engaging with the thousands of avid racegoers who attend the racecourse throughout the year and to encouraging them to explore the expertly crafted Club Mixers range which are the perfect accompaniment to a wide range of popular gins, vodkas, whiskeys or delicious on their own.”

Caption: Clare Rutherford, Director of Sales & Marketing at Down Royal Racecourse and Cathy Fox, Head of Britvic Licensed Sales NI.

The post Club Mixers are ‘right on track’ with support of Down Royal Racecourse first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.