Local business woman wins Bestway and Batley's Retailer of the Year Award

Local retailer, Kathy Mulholland scooped the Bestway and Batley's Retailer of the Year award at an awards ceremony in London.

Kathy's stores, Whingate@Armley and Whingate@Pudsey, beat off stiff competition from the top convenience stores across the UK to bring the award home to Yorkshire.400 retailers from across the country, put their stores forward in a bid to win the prestigious award and the £10,000 prize money, designed to help the winner to boost their business further.

The successful nominees were invited to attend a retail seminar offering advice on how they could further improve their stores.

Some of the top consumer brands in the country gave advice on everything from maximising displays, future trends, sales and marketing.

The nominees than had to put that advice into practice, with the award and the prize money going to the store that showed the biggest improvement.Kathy Mullholland, Manager of Whingate Stores and winner of the Bestway Retailer of the Year Award said: "Whingate stores were already successful, but I have seen a 10% increase in sales since I brought in the changes.

Simple things like making the most of displays, improving the marketing of special offers and picking up on new trends have all reaped rewards for the business.

"The advice provided was invaluable.

In addition, I have been looking at new ways to make the business more cost effective, having already saved over £1,000 per month in bank charges by switching to Alliance and Leicester Commercial Bank."Kathy is planning to put the prize money to good use by ploughing it back into the business and use some of it to make further changes to the layout, displays and counter area in order to maximise the stores potential.Peter Gibbons, Relationship Manager at Alliance and Leicester Commercial Bank's West Yorkshire Business Centre said: "Whatever business you're in, it is vital that you regularly review your banking to ensure you're getting the best deal for your business and you are not wasting your hard earned money on unnecessary bank charges.

It's great to see the changes Kathy has implemented are making such a difference to her business and I would like to congratulate her on winning the Bestway and Batley's Retailer of the Year Award.".

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