Allwyn: last call for local heroes

Retailers urged to get involved as competition deadline looms

Shopkeepers have just over a week left to get involved in National Lottery operator Allwyn’s ‘Local Retail Champions’ competition.

National Lottery retailers who go above and beyond to support their community have the chance to scoop big prizes in the competition that closes on 20 October. With prizes collectively worth up to £140,000 on offer, retailers can join a bumper list of over 600 individual stores that have already been nominated from across the UK and Isle and Man.

Local shop owners are being urged to encourage customers – whether face-to-face or through social media – to nominate them before 20 October to give them the opportunity to become one of the 100+ lucky winners.

The prizes available are:

• Two winning Local Retail Champions will each scoop a cash prize of £5,000* as well as a social value store makeover worth up to £20,000. The makeover will help the shop do even more for its customers, community or environment. For example, it could fund energy efficient fixtures, pay for lessons for staff who want to use sign language, or refurbish space designed for community use.

• Sixteen other regional winners will win £5,000 each.

• A further 100 runners-up will receive a £100 cash prize.

Criteria for why a store should be nominated can include retailers delivering to those unable to reach their shop or retailers who have widened their aisles for wheelchair users. Other community champions could be offering use of part of their premises to local groups, sponsoring sports clubs or local groups or stocking locally produced produce. Other reasons could include running environmentally focused schemes such as local litter picking sessions. Retailers and National Lottery players are encouraged to interpret the community champion description as they see fit.

“We understand the valuable role that retailers play in their local area, and the efforts they make to ensure their customers and communities are looked after," said Allwyn CEO Andria Vidler. "We’ve already heard just a few of the heart-warming stories being uncovered by this campaign and I just know there’s going to be lots of others – so we’re now urging retailers to get their customers to nominate them for the amazing prizes on offer before nominations close in just over a week.”

By selling National Lottery tickets, Allwyn works with more than 40,000 retail partners who are helping to raise an average of over £30 million each week for National Lottery-funded projects.

Working with Reach plc, the UK’s largest commercial news publisher, ‘Local Retail Champions’ is being promoted across a wide range of consumer-facing national and regional publications and websites, in the UK and the Isle of Man, and the competition is also being supported on National Lottery retailers’ in-store media screens.

A customer must be 18 or over to nominate and should write up to 150 words before 20 October on how their local National Lottery retailer has made the community a better place.

Retailers should direct their customers to the following website before 20 October to be nominated: www.tnllocalretailchampions.co.uk/