Invermere’s AG Valley Foods was Oct. 24 honoured by the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) with a National Silver Award in its Independent Grocer of the Year program.

Owner Sydney-Anne Porter and sons Eric Lapointe and Greg Lapointe received the silver award in the ‘Small Surface Category’ for stores in the 55th annual Canadian Independent Grocer of the Year Awards Ceremony in Toronto, in front of a gala audience of over 500 leading grocers, suppliers, and distributors at Grocery Innovations Canada 2017, Canada’s premier grocery conference and trade show.

Each year, the CFIG Awards Program recognizes the success of outstanding independent retailers and offers insights into innovations that are changing and enhancing the way retailers compete.

“Every year we go through a rigorous evaluation for retail excellence and we are rated on our customer service, staff, department management, store layout, merchandizing, creativity, cleanliness and community involvement,” said Greg Lapointe, adding the honour “is huge.”

Getting to the awards stage is also no easy feat.

Stores must first be named a regional winner in their size category (small, medium and large). Canada is broken into six regions, and AG Valley Foods is in the BC/Yukon region.

The store has been the regional winner two years in a row for the small surface grocery (stores under 15,000-sq. ft.)

“This alone is quite a feat. It means our store is evaluated as a top six store all across the country. This is like the Academy Awards of the grocery world,” Lapointe said.

See the full list of winners

Photos submitted

e-KNOW

---

Article Share

---