Sutton's branch of Greggs is top of the shops!

The shop at Idlewells Shopping Centre received the accolade based on its excellent, all-round performance during the past 12 months. This included demonstrating outstanding customer-service, wonderful shop sales and profit controls, and also terrific teamwork among the staff.

Maxine Stone, the manager of the branch, beamed: “I’m absolutely delighted we’ve won. This is a great accomplishment for our team, and we will continue to do our best in providing the very best service for our customers.”

Now in its seventh year, ‘the ‘Best in the Pennines’ competition is the regional arm of Greggs’ ‘Best in the UK’ contest, which is open to all 1,700 of the bakery company’s shops across the country.

Branches were awarded points on a weekly basis in a number of categories, and those progressing to the final rounds of the competition received up to six unannounced visits from Greggs bigwigs to assess standards and to determine the winners.

Among those judges were Greggs’ head of central retail operations, Mike Kavanagh, and retail director Raymond Reynolds, both of whom were very impressed by what they saw at the Idlewells store.

“This is an incredible achievement by Maxine and all of her colleagues,” said Mr Reynolds. “It’s obvious how much they enjoy serving their local community, and how committed they are to delivering the highest operational standards consistently.

“This award celebrates the excellent retail standards the team have created. They should all be extremely proud of themselves, just as we are to have them in the business.”

Like most Greggs branches, the Sutton store specialises in fresh, shop-made sandwiches, confectionery and savouries baked off fresh in the shop ovens throughout the day.