Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India, TRRAIN, which registered December 12 as the Retail Employees’ Day (RED), organised its second annual award ceremony felicitating 18 retail associates from all across the country for their exemplary customer service. TRRAIN is a not-for-profit organisation to serve people in the retail sector by adopting global best practices.
Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries, gave away the awards to 3 National Award winners, selected from among the 16 regional winners (4 from each geographical zone). Mohammed Ghouse of Domino’s was announced as the National Gold Winner, while Deepak Kamble of Star Bazaar and Vivek Pandey of The Raymond Shop emerged as the National Silver and National Bronze winners, respectively. In addition, Afsana Khan of Shoppers Stop was honoured with the Integrity Award and Prakash Phonde, also of Shoppers Stop, received the Special Jury Award.
Another highlight of the event was the launch of “I Just Did It,” an anthology of stories of all the 18 winners, which was unveiled by Kishore Biyani, Founder and Group CEO, Future Group; and Akash Sahai, Managing Director, Aimia, in the presence of BS Nagesh, the Founder of TRRAIN. The stories of all the winners were rendered as sketches and mounted on easels outside the awards venue. Guests were also invited to sign and compliment the stories they found most inspiring. The event started off with all 16 Regional winners, the Integrity Award winner and the Special Jury Award winner, each being felicitated with a trophy and certificate. Some of the most respected names in retail industry, including Kabir Lumba of Lifestyle International, BA Srinivas of Vivek’s, Rajeev Bakshi of Metro Cash & Carry, Ajay Kaul of Jubilant FoodWorks, Kishore Biyani and Rakesh Biyani of Future Group, distributed the prizes.
The winners of RED 2012 stood out from a pool of almost 2,000 entries sent in by organisations nationwide. These were segregated into four categories: Food and grocery, restaurants and multiplexes, lifestyle products and retail services.
TRRAIN’s “Thank You Bola Kya?” campaign for the first RED held in 2011 saw an amazing response from the retail corporates. In 2011, TRRAIN conducted a research on retail associates across traditional and modern retail formats and found that the only thing retail employees expect in return from their employers and consumers is a little appreciation for their constant services.
RED aspires to create awareness about the jobs and lives of the retail associates and the key role they play. TRRAIN was formed by BS Nagesh to empower people in retail.
Winners of TRRAIN Retail Awards 2012
North Zone
Kavita Bhatia, Tanishq, Delhi
Vivek Pandey, The Raymond Shop, Agra
Tariq Ali, World of Titan, Jalandhar
Afsana Khan, Shoppers Stop, Delhi
Sumit Kakkar, Van Heusen, Delhi
South Zone
Mohammed Ghouse, Domino’s Pizza India, Bangalore
Ramakrishnan V, GoldPlus, Pudukottai
Umesh Nambiar, Vodafone Mini Store, Calicut
Anandha Murugan S, Domino’s Pizza India, Chennai
East Zone
Shilpi Gupta, Aircel, Patna
Bhagabati Hansda, Domino’s Pizza India, Puri
Sekhar Dutta, The Raymond Shop, Kolkata
Prakash Patel, Domino’s Pizza India, Bhilai
West Zone
Deepak Kamble, Star Bazaar, Kolhapur
Roshan Dongare, Big Bazaar, Pune
Prakash Phonde, Shoppers Stop, Pune
Diwakar Sode, Shoppers Stop, Bhopal
Mohammed Bashir, A M Mobile Telecom, Surat
