Taupo store wins best garden centre
Locally owned Mitre 10 MEGA Taupo has received top honours for its garden centre at the national retailer’s annual awards.
Award judges singled out the store for the quality of its garden offering, and in particular the garden centre team for ‘‘delivering a friendly, first class service to customers.’’
Mitre 10 MEGA Taupo Retail Manager, Deane Egerton, said the team have been working hard to improve, after coming runner-up at the last awards.
‘‘We have an incredibly dedicated team across the entire store and they all care about making sure the store looks fantastic and that every one of our customers has a great in-store experience,’’ Egerton said.
The store employs 90 staff in Taupo.
Craig Ladbrook, the store’s owner/operator, said that the award is fantastic recognition of the store’s efforts - carrying on a legacy of great customer service that began 60 years ago.
‘‘We’re a family run store that’s been part of the community since my father Neil started selling hardware supplies in the Taupo/Turangi region back in 1957,’’ he said.
‘‘When we moved from our small store in town to our new location four years ago, our goal was to maintain the small shop feel and service in a big box store – this award is continued confirmation that we are achieving what we set out to do.’’
Mitre 10 CEO Neil Cowie praised Mitre 10 MEGA Taupo, saying they held off tough competition to claim this year’s Mitre10 Garden Centre of the Year title.
‘‘Choosing this year’s finalists for the Garden Centre category was difficult as so many of our stores have a great garden centre offering,’’ Cowie said.
‘‘The Taupo team really proved that their exceptional customer service was above the rest, and that’s what won them the title.’’
Last year Mitre 10 MEGA Taupo won Retail Store of the Year (for stores up to 4000m2) at the Hardware Awards.
Ladbrook said the loyal support from customers over the years has been essential to the store’s continued success.
‘‘It was a challenge moving stores four years ago, but the feedback from customers since we opened this location has been awesome and winning awards is like the icing on the cake.’’