Brown & Watson and Griffiths Equipment NZ win prestigious industry awards

At the recent industry awards ceremony, Australia and New Zealand’s major automotive aftermarket parts supplier GPC, announced Brown and Watson International and Griffiths Equipment Limited (NZ distributor of Narva and Project products), as its overall ‘Supplier of the Year’ for 2019.

GPC’s portfolio of automotive outlets includes the Repco, NAPA and Ashdown-Ingram stores.

As well as taking out the coveted main award, Brown and Watson International and Griffiths Equipment Limited were also recognised with ‘Best Store Service’ – Australia and ‘Best Store Service’ – New Zealand.

Additionally, the companies were also nominated for Best New Product (Narva Pen Light) and Best Digital Activation, to take away three category wins from five nominations.

In commenting on the awards, Brown and Watson International CEO, George Davies, said he was extremely excited at the outcome and thanked his team for making Brown & Watson International and Griffiths Equipment Ltd winning businesses.

“It is a credit to everyone at Brown & Watson International and Griffiths Equipment Ltd who have helped us to be recognised as the best in the industry,” Mr Davies said. “The achievement is even more gratifying considering the strong competition we faced, including from several large multinational companies.”

Mr Davies said that BWI and GEL had enjoyed an excellent working relationship with GPC over many years, but more recently, they had made even stronger efforts to further improve its product and service offerings to GPC.

“Over 12 months ago, our management team worked on a plan to enhance our offering to GPC and over subsequent months we have developed and applied a number of initiatives with input from all departments.  Pleasingly, these efforts were recognised with these accolades,” Mr Davies said.

“The Supplier of the Year award in particular gives us a lot of confidence that we’re providing great products and excellent service and support to our business customers. We are extremely committed to continuing and further improving this in the coming year and beyond,” he said.

Supporting Image Left to Right:

  • Jonathon Maddren – GPC EGM – NZ
  • Jamie Walton – GPC EGM Merchandise & Strategic Marketing
  • Dave Nichols – BWI – Key Account Manager
  • Kabel Davis – BWI – General Manager
  • George Davies – BWI – CEO
  • Kyle Reeves – BWI – National Sales Manager
  • Wayne Bryant – GPC – EGM Australia, Repco
  • Rob Cameron = GPC Managing Director & CEO