Office Depot Europe has won an award for Innovation Delivery from Virgin Money, one of the fastest growing banks in the UK.
The banking and finance team in UK & Ireland Contract, walked away with the innovation award for proactively suggesting sustainable products to help the bank reduce its environmental footprint.
Their award-winning proposals included a pitch to provide branded, reusable water bottles for every member of staff eliminating the need for single use plastic cups and the supply notebooks made from apple peel.
They received their award at a special Virgin Money event attended by more than 100 of its suppliers in Newcastle yesterday (November 5, 2019).
New ideas and customer insight a winning combination
Account Director Amanda Cherry, who leads the Virgin Money account, said: “It was a complete surprise to win it as we didn’t even know we’d been nominated. It’s a great feeling.
“The reason we won is because we are proactive and suggest innovative ways to help them achieve what they want to achieve. So this year so far, our innovation and creative pitches to Virgin Money have secured us over £84k worth of one-off orders but I believe our overall attitude and approach to constantly providing new ideas won us the award.
“There were only 14 awards in total so to win one of them was fantastic and great kudos for us.”
Award win opens the door for new opportunities
Amanda added: “They have a newly launched programme called Procurement Spotlight where they invite certain suppliers to present their business to show how they can add value. I’ve already contacted them about that so this win has created some great opportunities for us”.
“Virgin Money think we are a really innovative partner because we put suggestions forward that other vendors may not think of. We know that Virgin is very focused on zero waste, low emissions and sustainability so we’ve used that to our advantage. We’ve gone in with something we knew would make an impact.”
Robert Baldrey, Chief Sales Officer for Contract EU7, said: “What a fantastic achievement. Well done to the team. We’re seeing some excellent results and momentum in the Contract space at the moment – let’s keep going!”