CGA is delighted to reveal the winners of the 2018 Hero Awards, the leading annual prizes for the country’s leading businesses and individuals in the out-of-home eating and drinking sector. They are:
Best Quality Brand Presented by Casual Dining: LEON
Best Drinks Offer Presented by Diageo: THE ALCHEMIST
Brand XP Award Presented by CPL Online: THE BOTANIST
Consumer Choice Presented by Coca-Cola European Partners: MILLER & CARTER
Best Newcomer Presented by Treasury Wine Estates: BLACKLOCK
Best Breakthrough Brand Presented by Bookatable by Michelin: THE IVY COLLECTION
Best Evolutionary Brand Presented by Reynolds: CARAVAN
Best Destination Opening Presented by Asahi: THE FLORIST, LIVERPOOL
Best Concept Presented by Omnivore: FLAT IRON
Most Admired Brand Presented by Fourth: DISHOOM
Best Entrepreneurial Company (sub 50 sites) Presented by RSM: HAWKSMOOR
Best Company (50 sites plus) Presented by Zonal: WAGAMAMA
Power Brand Presented by NatWest: JD WETHERSPOON
Industry Leader Presented by Coffer Corporate Leisure: JANE HOLBROOK, WAGAMAMA
Among the winners of the prestigious Awards are Wagamama, named Best Company (50 sites plus) for the second year in a row after another 12 months of strong sales growth. Wagamama chief executive Jane Holbrook (pictured above) meanwhile receives the Industry Leader Award.
Other winners include Hawksmoor, which receives the title of Best Entrepreneurial Company (sub 50 sites), and Dishoom (pictured left), the Most Admired Brand. Fledgeling businesses honoured at the Awards include Blacklock (pictured above right), the Best Newcomer, and Caravan, Best Evolutionary Brand.
Alongside Hawksmoor, two more steak-focused winners are Miller & Carter, which takes the Consumer Choice Award, and Flat Iron (pictured above right), named Best Concept. Winner of Best Drinks Offer—for the third year in a row—is The Alchemist. Two other brands that have emerged from the Living Ventures stable, The Florist and The Botanist, win Best Destination Opening and the Brand XP Award respectively.
Completing the list of winners are Leon, named Best Quality Brand; JD Wetherspoon, voted top Power Brand; and The Ivy Collection, which receives the Best Breakthrough Brand Award.
Joining this stellar roll call of winners are two veterans of the industry who receive CGA Icon Awards: Fulham Shore chairman David Page and JD Wetherspoon CEO John Hutson.
The winners received their Hero & Icon Awards at a dinner following CGA’s 2018 Peach 2020 Conference in London on Wednesday 21 November.
CGA vice president Peter Martin says: “We’re thrilled to honour our sector’s best brands and leaders at our 2018 CGA Hero Awards. As we near the end of a challenging year for restaurants, pubs and bars, these Awards are a very welcome reminder of the energy, creativity and innovation at play. They show us that this is a richly diverse and economically vital industry in which many businesses continue to thrive, and we can all take inspiration from these superb operators as we move into 2019.”
Nine of the Hero Awards are voted for by leaders of the industry: Best Newcomer, Best Breakthrough Brand, Best Evolutionary Brand, Best Destination Opening, Most Admired Brand, Best Concept, Best Entrepreneurial Company (sub 50 sites), Best Company (50 sites plus) and Industry Leader. Five are selected based on data from CGA’s exclusive BrandTrack survey of British consumers: Consumer Choice, Best Quality Brand, Best Drinks Offer, Brand XP Award and Power Brand.
CGA’s 2018 Hero & Icon Awards and 2020 Conference are supported by platinum partners Asahi, Bookatable by Michelin, Caterer.com, Coca-Cola European Partners, Coffer Corporate Leisure, CPL Online, Diageo, Fourth, NatWest, Omnivore, Treasury Wine Estates and Zonal; and by network partners Casual Dining, Chapman Ventilation, Fishbowl, Odgers Berndtson, Reynolds, RSM and Yumpingo.
