Last night saw a host of housewares retailers and suppliers honoured as the accolades were handed out at the 2012 Excellence in Housewares Awards.

The event, held at the Lancaster in London, recognised the best retailers in a range of independent and multiple categories, as well as products across the housewares board.
The Excellence in Retailer Initiative award went to Cooks and Kitchens of Darlington, while Harts of Stur took Excellence in Direct Retailing. The Steamer Trading chain of cookshops walked away with both Excellence in Retail Training and Excellence in Retail Display, Multiple or Department Store.
Excellence in Non-specialist Multiple Retailing went to Dunelm, while Excellence in Specialist Retailing, Multiple and Large Independents was won by Abraxas. Jarrold took the award for Best Department Store, Independent, and Best Department Store, Multiple Branch or Group Member went to Selfridges of Oxford Street.
London store Papylon was named as Most Promising Newcomer, and the title of CHA Retailer of the Year went to Dinghams, which also took the Global Innovation Award (GIA).
Finally in the retailer categories, Peter Maturi manager Nicholas O’Mahoney was named Retail Employee of the Year.
In the supplier and product awards, Eddingtons won Top Tool or Gadget for Poachies by Quickshine, and also Excellence in Homewares for the SinkStation. Top of the Table went to Auteur’s Bobble Jug, while Le Creuset took Excellence in Cookware for its Ultimate non-stick and lifetime guarantee pans. The company also took the Excellence in Marketing accolade.
In the Cutting Edge category it was Wusthof which won for its Classic 20cm ridge cook’s knife, and Tefal was the winner of the Plugged In award for its Fresh Express and Fresh Express Plus.
The Icon award went to Dexam’s Chichester carving tray, and Excellence in Innovation went to Joseph Joseph. KitchenCraft took Excellence in Service. Finally, the title of Honorary Achievement went to Nicky Foster of Kitchens of Bristol.