Author: Lucy Wood

Today is #InternationalWomensDay and the theme for this year is #EmbraceEquity. Today we celebrate the fantastic women of The Westgrove Group. 

Westgrove continues to work hard and #EmbraceEquity, to celebrate all differences and to make a positive difference every day!

Our team has a fantastic time at this year’s Outstanding Security performance Awards (OSPA’s) which were held on Thursday 23rd February at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London.

It wasn’t to be for our three finalists this year, but we are very proud of them all for making it this far.

Sandra Perry from Templars Square Shopping Centre and Asa Abraham from Queens Square Shopping Centre were recognised as finalists in the Outstanding Security Officer category.

Gillian Davidson from Market Place Shopping Centre made it to the finals in the Outstanding Contract Security Manager category.

The OSPAs recognise individuals, teams and companies across the security sector that have made a significant impact and excelled, demonstrating outstanding performance in their role.

Our people are what make us special. From saving lives and preventing crime to helping people in need and much more. Our Reward and Recognition scheme is our way of saying thank you to our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their role.

Well done to all our winners and everyone who has been nominated for an award this quarter – you are all amazing!

Our 2022 Quarter 4 winners are:

Team of the Quarter

Spindles Town Square – Security and Housekeeping Team

Technical Services Team

Colleague of the Quarter

Paul Lavery – St Johns Shopping Centre

Paul Seddon – Technical Services

Newcomer of the Quarter

Jennifer Worsley – Market Place Shopping Centre

Samantha Shipperbottom – Market Place Shopping Centre

Michelle Fogg – St Johns Shopping Centre

Site Manager of the Quarter

David Phillips – Market Place Shopping Centre

CSR of the Quarter

Templars Square Shopping Centre Team

The Galleries Shopping Centre Team

Adil Hussain, Colin R O`Neill & Ethan Cashmore – Touchwood Shopping Centre

H&S Champion

Jane Gerrard – Spindles Town Square

Syed Shah – Queens Square Shopping Centre

Service Excellence

• Rayhan Choudhury – Royal Priors Shopping Centre
  • Exceptional efforts and commitment to his role
• Paul Britton & Gary Lucas – The Galleries
  • Helping a distressed new driver and making sure they got home safe after hours
• Front of House Team – Tata Technologies
  • For the service they provided to a tenant during a three day conference  
• Colin O’Neil Jnr – Touchwood Shopping Centre
  • Took on an extra role as Carpark Host during a busy weekend and provided outstanding customer service
• Deolinda Borges – Longridge House
  • Responding quickly to requests and doing an all round great job
• Joanne Oneill – Head Office
  • For the support she gives to the St Johns team
• Tomasz Staziewicz – Touchwood Shopping Centre
  • Was really helpful, friendly and engaging and went out of the way to make 2 young customers feel special on their visit
• Ben Pickering – Willow Place
  • Helped a new mother in her time of need
• Kevin Harvoutt & Carl Williams – Ryemarket Shopping Centre
  • Assisted an elderly gentleman and made sure he was safe and comfortable
• Samuel Cardwell – The Galleries
  • Friendly, thoughtful, understanding and helpful in relocating a customers car
• Steve Allen – Haymarket
  • Quick actions avoided damage to the building after major issues with the sprinkler system

Outstanding Act

• David Phillips & Denise Phillips – Market Place
  • Supported and protected a young girl after a group were threatening her
• David Phillips, Dalma Balazsovits, Mat Hall, Denise Phillips & Greg Barlow – Market Place
  • Assisted with an attempted robbery and helped recover over £800 of stock
• Imran Hanif – The Moor
  • Assisted with an arrest
• Dominic Dunn – Quedam Shopping Centre
  • Assisted with an attempted robbery and deterred shoplifters. Over £1,700 of stock recovered
• Haider Hussin – Queen Square Shopping Centre
  • Excellent CCTV skills helped police track down and arrest a group who had stolen metal cages and were checking doors
• David Sutherland – Tata Technologies
  • Acted fast when noticing a significant water leak and assisted the engineer
• Anton Morris – Queen Square Shopping Centre
  • Assisted an elderly couple who had fallen on the escalators and rang for a paramedic

Congratulations to all our winning colleagues and to everyone who was nominated in Quarter 4.

If you wish to nominate a colleague for a Reward & Recognition award, click here.

To see a list of all our previous winners, click here.

Last week, our Bid Manager, Lucy took part in a ‘Volunteer Day’ and spent the afternoon at a local primary school’s annual Christmas Fair.  The aim was to raise around £4,000 to support the school’s ongoing playground development project.  This money will go towards redeveloping the outdoor provision at the school to provide lots of opportunities for creative and imaginative play. 

Lucy helped set up the fair and run a stall for the evening, Hunt the Golden Carrot – a firm favourite game with a constant queue of children wanting to win a prize.  Then came the clear up and a celebratory drink to finish!

Lucy commented, “Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the local community and give a little bit of time to a great cause.  It was so much fun to see the excitement on the children’s faces – they were happy to just take part, but their smiles were beaming when they found the golden carrot and won a prize!”.

Westgrove offer Volunteer Days to all their colleagues.  It’s important to give back to the communities where we work and live.  Colleagues can find out more about Westgrove Volunteer Days by emailing volunteer@westgrove.co.uk.

We are proud to announce that Westgrove has three finalists in the 2023 Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs).

Sandra Perry from Templars Square Shopping Centre and Asa Abraham from Queens Square Shopping Centre have been recognised as finalists in the Outstanding Security Officer category.

Gillian Davidson from Market Place Shopping Centre has made it to the finals in the Outstanding Contract Security Manager category.

The OSPAs recognise individuals, teams and companies across the security sector that have made a significant impact and excelled, demonstrating outstanding performance in their role. The finals are being held on Thursday the 23rd of February 2023 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

We wish Sandra, Asa and Gill the very best of luck in the finals.

Our team had a great time at the Sceptre Awards, celebrating the best people and best practices in the Shopping Centre industry.

There were lots of successes to celebrate including:

• Touchwood Shopping Centre – Centre Manager of the Year (Large Centre) win for Tony Elvin and Highly Commended in the Diversity and Inclusion Scheme of the Year category.

• St Johns Shopping Centre won Car Park of the Year for their price down, customer service up strategy and were Highly Commended in the Operations Manager of the Year category.

• Handforth Dean Retail Park were Highly Commended in the Car Park of the Year category.

• Stamford Quarter, Broadway Shopping Centre, Castle Quay Shopping Centre, and The Arc all made it through to the finals!

• CBRE won the Grand Prix Award for their outstanding business performance across the board.

It wasn’t to be for our Templars Square Shopping Centre Security Team this time, but we’re very proud of them for making the finals!

It was a fantastic night, celebrating the Shopping Centre industry and great to see so many of our Partners from around the UK at the event. Congratulations to everyone on their wins and nominations.

We look forward to next year’s awards!

Today is Purple Tuesday, a day dedicated to raising awareness of what it’s like to live with a disability, and here at The Westgrove Group, we pledge our support.

With 1 in 5 customers living with a disability, accessibility is more important than ever. Purple Tuesday has been created to recognise the importance and needs of disabled customers and to promote inclusive shopping and improving the customer experience for disabled people, 365 days a year. Taking place to coincide with the run up to the peak Christmas period, the event has been created by disability organisation Purple.

The day will see retailers in stores and online introducing new measures to make shopping a more inclusive experience, sending a powerful message that they care about all their customers and that their business matters to them.

Our people are what make us special. From saving lives and preventing crime to helping people in need and much more. Our Reward and Recognition scheme is our way of saying thank you to our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their role.

Well done to all our winners and everyone who has been nominated for an award this quarter – you are all amazing!

Our 2022 Quarter 3 winners are:

Team of the Quarter

Wellington Shopping Centre

Colleague of the Quarter

Ian Duncan-Henderson – Haymarket

Michelle Meads – Templars Square

Newcomer of the Quarter

Kyle Farrelly-Reid – Spindles Town Square

Site Manager of the Quarter

Muhammad Younis – Royal Priors

CSR of the Quarter

Jane Gerrard – Spindles Town Square

David Jakes – Arc

H&S Champion

Asa Abraham – Queens Square

Mark Driscoll – Templars Square

Service Excellence

• Adrian Alcantara – Tata Technologies
  • A very welcoming presence at Tata
• David Field – Ryemarket
  • Helped a consumed elderly customer get to his bus and reunited a distressed member of the public with her friend  
• Daniel Mason – Touchwood
  • Was instrumental in the “Key for the city” project during the summer  
• Philip Duncan – Marketgate
  • Supported a customer who had had an accident and no ambulances were available.
• Asa Abraham – Queens Square
  • Supported a member of the public while they were having a seizure, and maintained their dignity
• Adrian Reynolds, Touchwood
  • Reunited a distressed elderly customer with her family member
• Anthony Yates & Christopher Ashley – Birchwood Park
  • Their vigilance helped with an arrest
• Adil Hussain – Touchwood
  • Made families feel very welcome at The Beach during the summer months

Outstanding Act

• Damian Harrison – Spindles Town Square
  • Excellent CCTV skills prevented a car theft
• Rodney Gould – The Galleries
  • Assisted with an arrest and saved a life!
• Matthew Hall & Denise Phillips – Market Place
  • Gave first aid to a male who had been attacked and provided CCTV evidence to the police
• Angela Crawshaw – The Moor
  • Prevented a knife crime
• Kyle Sands – Telford Centre
  • Fantastic observation and diligence helped a lady with mental health problems.
• Haider Hussain – Queens Square
  • Prevented an attack and provided evidence to police
• Jamie Barnbrook – Telford Centre
  • Observed a male who had mental health problems and prevented an attack. 
• Deena Openshaw, Matthew Hall & Abu Hamad – Market Place
  • Attended a violent incident and supported police with CCTV evidence
• Security Team – Castle Quay
  • Provided CCTV evidence to police to help with bike theft
• Martin Wain, Sandra Perry, Nar Gurung & Darren Harris – Templars Square
  • Dealt with an incident whereby a person was taking inappropriate photos of a minor
• Ed Micklas – The Meadows
  • Dealt with a brawl involving glass bottles, detaining the person involved. 

Congratulations to all our winning colleagues and to everyone who was nominated in Quarter 3.

If you wish to nominate a colleague for a Reward & Recognition award, click here.

To see a list of all our previous winners, click here.