Enterable category.

This is a brand new award for 2026 recognising the best challenger brands making strides in the grocery retail sector.

Challenger Brand of the Year recognises a brand that is successfully challenging established players in the UK grocery retail market. This award celebrates brands that demonstrate strong momentum through innovation, differentiation, consumer relevance and commercial impact, despite operating at a smaller scale than category leaders.

The award is open to food and drink brands available to UK consumers that are actively growing distribution, disrupting their category or redefining consumer expectations.

Enterable category.

Own Label Range of the Year recognises a retailer own-brand range that demonstrates outstanding performance, innovation and quality within the UK grocery market.

This award celebrates own-label ranges that deliver clear consumer value while driving differentiation, growth and strategic advantage for the retailer. Eligible entries may include a full own-label tier (e.g. value, core or premium), a category-spanning range, or a specialist own-label range such as plant-based, free from, health-focused or seasonal.

Judges will assess how effectively the range meets consumer needs, evolves in line with market trends, and delivers measurable commercial success over the past 12 months.

Your entry should include:

• An overview of the range to include launch date and scale (number of categories and SKUs)
• Growth in the last 12 months (for example product range growth and revenue growth)
• Range improvements and advances in the last 12 months (for example innovation, product development, strategies)
• Results from the last 12 months. Please include as much information (including numerical) as possible e.g. market share, sales, profits, consumer engagement etc to enable judges to look at the business performance of the range.

This award celebrates suppliers that go beyond delivering great products; demonstrating strong customer collaboration, outstanding service, commercial impact, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Eligible entries may include suppliers of branded, own-label, or foodservice products of any size, provided they can show clear value delivered to their retail or trade partners.

Judges will assess the supplier’s strategic contribution to their customers' success, the strength of their service, their responsiveness to market demands, and their commercial and operational performance over the past 12 months. Your entry should include:

• A company overview including core products, number of customers, and scale of supply (e.g. UK-wide, regional, international)
• Operational performance highlights over the past 12 months (e.g. service levels, responsiveness, supply chain reliability, flexibility)
• Customer collaboration examples (e.g. joint NPD, exclusive product launches, tailored solutions, partnership initiatives) Innovation and development delivered in the last 12 months (e.g. product improvements, sustainability advances, packaging changes)
• Commercial performance including key metrics such as sales growth, new listings, market share gains, or customer retention
• Supporting evidence such as retailer testimonials, case studies or third-party recognition (optional)