Tuesday 23 November ASDA collected the prestigious BBC Food and Farming Award for best National or Regional Retailer at a ceremony in Birmingham.
The awards are organised by Radio 4's Food Programme, a quality-focussed weekly food programme concerned with provenance, food integrity and craft food skills. This year ASDA was nominated by British shoppers and shortlisted alongside Waitrose and Stokes, a Bristol-based greengrocer.
It is the second year in a row that ASDA has been shortlisted for the award, only narrowly missing out last year to regional supermarket Booths.
Judges on the panel included: Sir Don Curry, Chairman of the Government's Sustainable Farming & Food Strategy Implementation Group, Kath Dalmeny, Policy and Campaigns Officer with The Food Commission, and Raymond Blanc, Chef, author and proprietor of Michelin-starred ' Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons'.
Karen Todd, ASDA's local sourcing manager said: "It's a real honour to collect this award and a testament to the all of the hard work our local suppliers have put in over the last three years. We have expanded our range to include more than 1,000 truly local products, many of which are produced by micro-suppliers.
"Together we are delivering great, British food to millions of customers across the country each week."
Notes for editors:
ASDA can trace its own roots back to a group of Yorkshire farmers who formed Hindell's Dairies in the 1920s, processing and retailing milk and meat to a growing customer base. The company was extremely successful and continued to expand and diversify, acquiring more processing dairies, abattoirs, bakeries, shops, four managed farms and 22 rented farms. The company floated in 1949 as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd. Associated Dairies merged with Queen's Supermarkets to create ASDA Stores Ltd. in 1965.
The modern day ASDA has 270 stores (England 223, Scotland 34 and Wales 13) and 24 depots throughout Britain, and has been part of the Wal-Mart family since 1999.
The BBC Food and Farming awards were created to celebrate the people and organisations working tirelessly to produce and sell good quality food in Britain, and also to reward those campaigning to protect what is best in our food culture
