Diageo named Supplier of the Year at 2021 Australian Drinks Awards

Diageo has been named Supplier of the Year at the annual 2021 Australian Drinks Awards. It was also awarded the Category Management Award. Impressively, it is the second year in a row in which Diageo has received both the awards.

In all, four Supplier awards were announced by MC Shelly Horton in a virtual presentation watched by three hundred people from the industry right around Australia on Thursday evening.

The Supplier category awards were announced to coincide with the release of the Advantage Australia Engagement Program.

In addition to the Supplier of the Year and Category Management Awards, Ms Horton also announced that Australian Vintage Limited had been awarded the Supply Chain Management Award, while Accolade Wines was awarded the Most Improved Supplier Award.

The award bodes particularly well for Accolade Wines with Regional Managing Director, ANZ, Andrew Clarke, commencing his role less than two years ago. The same can be said for Australian Vintage Limited winning the Supply Chain Management Award, with newly appointed Site and Supply Chain Manager, Mark Alexander joining the business in January this year.

“Suppliers who are recognised in these awards are those who have best helped their partners manage the fast-changing expectations of today, as well as helping them get ready for the evolving requirements to be successful tomorrow,” said John McLoughlin, CEO of Advantage Global.

Of the award winners, Mr McLoughlin said, “In order to stand out, you have to drive excellence across all the disciplines. From account management to supply chain, from category management to marketing and innovation.”

CEO of the Drinks Association, Georgia Lennon said, “These awards carry particular significance after a year of unpredictability, starts, stops, win, losses and sudden lockdowns. Advantage tells us that feedback from retailers and wholesale partners shows an unprecedented level of trust in suppliers.

“This has made these awards more competitive than ever. And an indication of which suppliers have engaged with their partners in the best way through these difficult, yet highly collaborative, times.

All winners are determined via Advantage Australia's survey of on and off-premise retailers.

"One of the most interesting things we learned while researching supplier feedback for their retailer and wholesaler partners earlier this year, is that trust levels in the industry have improved to the highest levels we have measured yet," noted Steve Andrews, General Manager at Advantage.

The Supplier of the Year award means that Diageo has the highest “Net Favourable” result from the combined, total retail/wholesale network across all the important aspects of business engagement, again this year.

A high Net Favourable result means that the supplier has the biggest difference between having “Promoters” in the industry, or those retailers who rate the supplier as best or better than average, less the “Detractors”, those retailers who rate the supplier as worst or worse than average.

The performance areas that make up the rating are: Business Relationship & Support; Personnel; Category Management; Consumer Marketing Support; Customer Marketing / Promotion Practices; Supply Chain Management.

Watch the presentation here.