Dike & Son Ltd Superstore Company Director Adam Vincent, Bob Walter MP, Managing Director Andy Dike at the Countryside Alliance Awards Ceremony
Robert Walter MP (North Dorset) was delighted to welcome Stalbridge’s Dike & Son’s team to Westminster for the 2013 Countryside Alliance Award’s Reception at the House of Lords on 30 April.
Bob met Managing Director of Stalbridge-based Dike & Son Ltd Superstore, Andy Dike, Company Director Adam Vincent and Head of Marketing & Design Victoria McManus to congratulate them on their regional success and to root for them at the national award presentations.
One of Dorset’s few truly independent supermarkets, Dike & Son Superstore was named the 2013 Countryside Alliance Award’s South West Local Food Category Champion and yesterday representatives of the team joined Bob at the Countryside Alliance Awards’ House of Lords reception – along with the country’s other regional winners – to see if they might walk away with a national ‘Rural Oscar’ too.
Sadly, the team missed out this time to another equally deserving family-run local food business in South Yorkshire, Our Cow Molly. Congratulations also go to North Dorset near-neighbour Chalke Valley Stores in Wiltshire, who walked away with the UK Village Shop / Post Office category national award.
The awards are the Countryside Alliance’s annual celebration of rural produce, skills, enterprise and heritage through the UKs small, hard-working local businesses. Now in their ninth year, the Countryside Alliance Awards have become the definitive rural business award to win.
Bob Walter MP said: “It was great to see the Dike & Son Superstore team up in Westminster yesterday and to congratulate them in person. The Regional Judge’s description of the store was ‘an amazing place that is a genuine local “supermarket” in the best of all ways, where customer service is a speciality’. I couldn’t have put it better myself.
“Andy, Adam, Victoria and the rest of the staff at Dike’s have clearly worked very hard for this national recognition. Although they missed out on the UK-wide award against very stiff competition, I’ve no doubt that they would have been equally deserving UK champions and that they remain real contenders for the future.”
