Punch licensees ready to Shine

January 23, 2008: The first stage of Punch Taverns' 2008 Shine Awards – which reward those individuals within the 8,400-strong estate who deliver an exceptional customer experience – are coming to a close as highly commended and regional finalists are announced.

Punch’s operations director, Kevin Georgel, said: “Over 1,000 nominations have been received from customers, employees and Punch’s business relationship managers, with 1,086 pubs now visited by a mystery customer to assess the pub on a range of criteria.”

Regional finalists from each of Punch’s 12 regions fall into four categories — food, drink, customer and community — with three pubs selected for each category in each region, totalling 144 finalists across the UK.

Over the next few weeks, finalists will be visited by Punch’s regional operations directors and operations managers, who will be meeting the licensees and sampling the food, drink and atmosphere at each pub.

Shortlisted pubs will then attend a prestigious awards lunch, taking place at prominent locations across the UK including Leeds Castle, The Brewery, London, Bovey Castle, Devon, and the MacDonald Randolph Hotel, Oxford. Twelve will become four as a winner for each category is announced, as well as an overall winner for each region.

Mr Georgel added: “The Shine awards are a perfect opportunity for Punch to say thank you and reward those truly exceptional licensees who deliver fantastic customer experiences everyday. They are the ones that make us passionate about our pubs!”