Frances Noonan
Following their 50th year anniversary celebrations, Williamson’s FoodWorks Gisborne has been crowned ‘National Most Outstanding Local Area Marketing store of the year’ at the 2026 Australian United Retailers Store Excellence Awards.
Independently owned Williamson’s FoodWorks Gisborne was announced the national champion at a gala event in Melbourne in late April. The supermarket is a member of the Australian United Retailers independent retailing group and was judged best in its category.
Williamson’s FoodWorks Gisborne caters uniquely to the community it serves with a focus on customer experience and delivering the essentials locals want and need.
Winner of the award, social media manager Renae Jacobs, looks after the Gisborne store’s Facebook, Instagram and newly launched YouTube channel.
“Social media has been such a nice way to bridge that gap between us and the community, so they can see what we are all about,” Renae said.
“My focus has been with social media, to try and sell the products but also sell the people and the place.”
One of the bigger campaigns for their social media has been the ’50 stories for 50 years’, which shows interviews of customers old and new reminiscing about the store’s support and community and the ’50 deals for 50 days’, celebrating prices from 50 years ago.
One of their latest special deals was five blocks of Cadbury chocolate for $10 – they sold 5000 blocks of chocolate in just one day. They have also sold 1500 tubs of butter, 1300kg of chicken and 4000 bags of carrots.
“Lots of heart has come out of it. Beautiful stories have come out about what the family has given back to the community over the years. That in itself is a driver for people to enter the store and a drive for loyalty,” Renae said.
Store manager Braydan Rodgers said the ultimate aim was to increase continual customers.
“Customers need a reason to come into the door, the prices are a reason to come in, if we can get them to understand the stories, that’s where we build the loyalty,” he said.
Braydan said their social media was an evolving process.
“It’s a great way to connect to the community, staff morale and comradery in the store.”
Once the 50-year celebration has come to an end, Braydan and his team have considered making a ‘wrapped up’ video outlining the numbers and stats of all things that were purchased during the campaign.
The special deals are happening every day until the anniversary on July 9, where everyone has been told to keep an eye out for the catalogue as its going to be biggest deal yet.
To follow along with their 50-year celebrations visit Williamson’s Instagram and Facebook page, and watch their customer celebrations on their new YouTube channel @WilliamsonsFoodWorks