gm awards
gm awards
A night to remember
This year’s general managers’ conference culminated in a night of celebration and surprises
as the winners of the 2013–14 awards were announced. Here are your top managers, support
team members and special award winners!
L
é Paul Gregory
Mecca Bedford (now
at Mecca Luton)
GM of the Year, M1 corridor
Having worked in one of
the most competitive bingo
environments in the UK
for over 20 years, Paul has
learned the art of patience
and resilience. During the last
financial year, he led Mecca
Bedford to return profit
growth of over 150 per cent –
an exceptional performance
by any standard.
Grant Munro Mecca
Glasgow Quay î
GM of the Year, Scotland
An extremely experienced
and professional Scottish
general manager, Grant led
Mecca Glasgow Quay to
an excellent year, with over
£160k worth of year-on-year
income growth and 100k
worth of year-on-year profit
growth. (Managing director
Mark Jones often refers
to Grant as the Peter Pan
of Scotland because of his
youthful looks and spirit!)
6 WOW! Issue 35 • August 2014
ynne Butterworth is Mecca’s
General Manager of the Year
for 2013–14.
Lynne led Mecca York to
a superb performance during the
year, demonstrating great resilience
to transform it into one of the most
successful price-crash trial clubs. Along
the way, it notched up growth in every
key business area. Team members
and customers were happier,
too, with average employee
engagement scores of
90 per cent and NPS
averaging 70 per cent.
Already delighted at
winning North East and
North Yorkshire Regional
Manager of the Year, she
said she could hardly
believe it when her
name was announced
as General Manager of the
Year, but could not have done
it without the team at York.
“I was so proud of them all.
I was really fortunate to have
a young, competitive team who
all wanted the club to be the
best. They worked really well
with me and we wouldn’t have
had the success without them
and the support of area manager,
Stuart Booth.”
York was Lynne’s first general manager
role in a varied, 16-year career with
Mecca. Now, after five years there,
she has moved to take the helm at
Mecca Sunderland.
é Janette McCracken
Mecca Norwich
l
Generaer
nag
Ma e
of th
Year
Richard Burke-Lloyd
Mecca Swansea è
GM of the Year, FHD, South
West, Midlands and Wales
Richard was instrumental
in leading Mecca Swansea
to a five-year record
performance, delivering
significant income and
profit year-on-year growth
– and leading it to our
most successful pricecrash trial club to date.
Dinner date: Conference delegates from the M1
corridor (l-r around the table) Zoe Evans, Neil
Tams, David Walmsley, Paul Martin, Steve Belle,
Graeme Ewart, Sarah Whittaker and Mel Kassim.
Cath Hannam è
é Debbie Glasson
Support Colleague
of the Year
Debbie is the area
secretary for London,
East Anglia, Kent and
the South West and
received the highest
number of votes from
her retail colleagues
for this award. A small
sample of the many
positive comments
about her included
‘always helpful’,
‘extremely reliable’,
‘always a great
sounding board’,
‘keeps me on track’,
‘incredibly efficient’,
‘just a hell of a
great person’.
Retail Executive of the Year
National food and beverage
manager Cath was voted
the winner of this new
award by the senior retail
team. She has worked for
Mecca for over six years
and colleagues describe her
as ‘helpful’, ‘informative’,
‘highly experienced’,
‘supportive’, ‘proactive’,
‘loyal’, ‘hardworking’ and
‘fully committed to Mecca’.
GM of the Year,
South East and Anglia
Janette, a former national
GM of the Year, has led her
club to be a regular top 10
KPI performer throughout
2013–14, with particularly
outstanding NPS results
never dropping below 70 per
cent at any time during the
year – a true measure of her
leadership consistency.
John O’Toole è
Special Recognition award
John was not allowed to retire
after 42 years of dedicated
service to Mecca and its
customers without this richlydeserved special award as
a show of appreciation for an
extremely loyal and valuable
member of the retail team.
He started working for the
company in October 1972 as
a one-arm-bandit engineer.
Since then he has fulfilled
a number of extremely valuable
technical engineer roles progressing to his current position
as Mecca’s technical manager.
Presenting the award, Mark Jones said that John is loved
and admired by all who come into contact with him.
é Sarah O’Neill
Mecca Crewe
GM of the Year, North
West and North Midlands
A big effort into reviewing
bingo policies, engaging
the team and customers
while controlling costs
with great skill saw Sarah
lead Mecca Crewe to over
£60k of year-on-year profit
growth despite a marginal
decline in income.
August 2014 • Issue 35 WOW! 7