The food and grocery industry has honoured 40-year stalwart Wayne Sands with a Lifetime Achiever Award at the 2016 Grocery Charity Ball in Auckland.
Sands started working in Woolworth’s Variety Stores before eventually founding and running sales business Twin Agencies that now has a team of 200 representing market leaders that have a combined annual sales turnover of close to $200 million.
It was the 13th ball staged by the Grocery Charity Ball Trust, which chooses a new charity each year to be the beneficiary of the huge fundraising and auction night. Coastguard was chosen this year.
The New Zealand Food and Grocery Council Lifetime Achiever Award is awarded each year to recognise people for their lifelong dedication to the grocery industry.
FGC Chief Executive Katherine Rich said this year there was an unprecedented groundswell of nominations from former clients to recognise Wayne Sands. “They all had great things to say about Wayne, and typical was that of Barker’s Executive Director Michael Barker, who talked about ‘the hugely influential role’ played in the grocery industry by Wayne, who ‘breathed life into so many of the iconic brands that Kiwis love’, while being ‘hugely respected by his staff, his principals and his customers’.
“Wayne served our industry with integrity and passion, and as such was a most worthy recipient of this award,” Rich said.
The Grocery Charity Ball Trust was established in 2004 to run the premier event on the grocery industry social calendar, and direct the profits to charitable trusts. The annual event is held with the support of Foodstuffs and Progressive, as well as the Food & Grocery Council. Every year, the Trust attracts nearly 700 people from the industry. Since its inception, the Ball has raised more than $2 million.
