TOPSHOP® Double Finalists - Again!

Ashore Fine Food & Wine, a small North Shore community fine foods grocery store located in Birkenhead, has scored the double by being recognised as finalists in two different categories of the 2010 Retailers' Association Auckland TOPSHOP® Retail Excellence Awards.  This double recognition is unique amongst the finalists across all the categories. 

Ashore are finalists in the Food and Beverage category, and their online presence ( www.ashore.co.nz ) is a finalist in the online retailing category.  This is the first year the online retailing category has existed, and fittingly Ashore has been selling online for less than a year!

In the last TOPSHOP® competition, which ran in 2008 and was structured slightly differently, Ashore were also double finalists - in the Start-Up Business category and Customer Service category. 

Owners Julia and Don Pointon started their business from scratch in Birkenhead in 2007 and say they have survived the recent retail downturn by sticking to fundamentals like a genuine focus on personal service and quality of products. 

Winners for the Auckland TOPSHOP® Retail Excellence Awards are announced at a gala dinner event held at Sky City on 12 October 2010.