Your team going above and beyond the call of duty is what makes local retailing unique – so please take a few minutes to tell us about the stars in your business.
We all know what’s so special about our sector: it’s the people. It’s the superstars on your team who build and maintain amazing and deep relationships with your customers and the communities you serve.
Those relationships are unique. It doesn’t happen in supermarkets or discounters or even pubs and clubs. Your team sees the same customers two and three times a day and special things happen as a result.
Celebratory lunch: 18 March 2026, The Corinthian Club, Glasgow
And this is precisely why we launched the SLR Above & Beyond Awards. To provide a platform where your shopfloor heroes could be recognised and rewarded publicly. Most of the time these acts of heroism go unnoticed – and that’s just not right. Yes, we’re a modest people by nature, but if we can’t celebrate the people that make our communities so vibrant and rich and strong, what can we celebrate?
Over the years, we’ve learned of countless instances of shopfloor staff going well above and beyond the call of duty to help colleagues, customers or local communities.
They deserve to be recognised and celebrated – and that surely merits five minutes of your time to get in touch with us to make sure their unbelievable efforts are rewarded. It literally takes just a few minutes. We don’t need much from you: just the names of your shopfloor heroes and a brief outline of what makes them so special. We’ll do the rest. We literally call every single entrant to hear their story – and then we share it with the wider retailing community.
That’s got to be worth five minutes of your time, hasn’t it? And anyone in the store can nominate anyone else in the store. We just want to hear your stories, and we don’t much care who flags them up to us.
It couldn’t be quicker or easier:
- Head over to the simple online nomination form.
- All we need from you is some very basic information like:
- the nominee’s name, job title and contact telephone number.
- one or two bullet points on why you believe your nominee should be considered for an award.
- Complete and return to events@55north.com.
Contact Cara with any questions.
Our judging panel will then personally call every nominee to find out a little more from them. It’s a very informal and relaxed call and allows us to gather the information we need to share your nominee’s story with the world.
So why not grab a coffee today and drop us a line. Your nominated colleague will appreciate it and show them that you do notice, and you do care about all the amazing stuff they do. We’re an amazing sector so let’s demonstrate just how amazing we are.
Awards Categories
Independent Store Colleague
Open to all colleagues working in independently owned local retailing stores in Scotland that are unaffiliated or members of any symbol group, fascia or franchise.
Company-Owned Store Colleague
Open to all colleagues working in CJ Lang company-owned stores in Scotland.
Business Booster
Open to all colleagues who have materially improved their store’s performance by suggesting or introducing a new concept, product, service, communication method or a change in operational process.
Team Of The Year
Open to all in-store teams which have pulled together to make a positive difference to their store’s performance and/or to their community.
Up & Coming Star
Open to all colleagues aged 25 or under working in any of the store formats detailed above who have shown themselves to be outstanding colleagues with a bright future in the sector ahead of them.
Long Service Award
Open to all colleagues working in any of the store formats detailed above who have worked in the sector, or a single store or chain, for an extended period of time.
Astonishing Act
Open to all colleagues working in any of the store formats detailed above who truly went Above & Beyond to perform an astonishing act that had a massive positive impact on a customer, colleague or the community.
