DIY WEEK AWARDS 2025 Meet the Judges


As the excitement builds for this year’s DIY Week Awards taking place at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden in London on Friday 23rd May, the entries are coming in and our panel of expert judges are preparing to evaluate them and draw up the shortlist of potential winners. We’ll be publishing more details in the next issue, but for now here’s your chance to find out more about the people making the all-important decisions…


PAUL ANDREWS DIY Product Manager, Home Hardware Southwest


DIY Product Manager, Home Hardware Southwest Paul Andrews has worked for Home Hardware for more than 30 years, buying across various sectors, including gardening, housewares, heating, leisure and cookware. For the past 10 years he has looked after and grown Home Hardware’s extensive DIY offering.


PAUL BAGNALL Former Channel Manager, Henkel Consumer Adhesives


Paul Bagnall, now retired after 36 years in the industry, has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge in both sales and marketing. He joined Loctite in 1984 and then worked until retirement for Henkel, which bought Loctite in 1997. Paul forged a really successful career in sales, working with both multiples and independent retailers, across major retail and wholesale channels, including DIY, grocery and stationery. He won a National Sales Award for Top Professional: FMCG, up against other candidates from major FMCG food brands.


In 2010 he became a category manager working with both sales and brand marketing as a team to leverage to the full Henkel’s fantastic leading brands. He also worked closely with DIY Week, delivering the ‘Hand it Over to Henkel’ series of 19 articles showing how effective Category Marketing techniques can be for small retailers not just the large Nationals. So we are really lucky and glad to have him with his experience on board the judging panel.


CLIVE DALEY Principal Consultant, Retail, Strategy and Supply Chain, The Daley Hub


Clive has immersed himself in businesses all over the world and been fascinated by the subtle differences of their cultures. He has dedicated his life to studying every facet of business and retail and continues to learn every day. The unique perspective from all that he’s learned is what he can bring to a business. Analysing the inner workings of a company and figuring out the best way to improve it is he can do and passing on everything he’s learned and coaching from experience is what he loves to do. The constantly evolving needs of a business are like the moving parts of an intricate puzzle that Clive can’t wait to solve and he’s not afraid to call out ideas and initiatives that are not right for a business. Collaborative conversations that questions current thinking spark his passion.


KERRY DALEY Principal Advisor, Retail Strategy and Communications, The Daley Hub


Fifteen years in criminal law taught Kerry how to listen with empathy. Life changing decisions were made before her every day. It took every ounce of human understanding to decide what was right. She met people from all walks of life and saw them in their most raw emotional states. Kerry understands people and helping them has always been at the core of her work.


ANDREW MARLEY Managing Director, Benchmark Retail Services


Andrew started with Benchmark in 2002, covering territories in the Leeds / Manchester area and then the South East. Moving into an Account Management role in 2006 and appointed to the board of directors in 2011. Andrew took full ownership of Benchmark in May 2021. Benchmark Retail Services is a multi-faceted service provider.


Andrew and his highly skilled team work closely with their stores to ensure your products, marketing messages and engagement with retail chains reflects your business and most importantly, drives your product sales.


NEIL MEAD Editorial Director, DIY Week


Neil Mead has over 25 years’ experience in the publishing industry and currently manages the editorial content of DIY Week and Garden Centre Update magazines, websites and associated social media channels. Having previously edited consumer magazines on hobby woodworking and home improvements, as well as a number of trade titles covering a wide range of other industry and retail sectors, Neil is able to offer his opinion and judge the awards’ entries from a wide perspective and chairs the judging panel.


KATE MURPHY Managing Director, Brookes & Co


As MD of PR and marketing agency, Brookes & Co, which specialises in DIY, garden and housewares Kate has been writing about home and garden improvement products for years for both trade and consumer media – traditional, web and social. Kate has always loved creating content and even when she’s not working prefers writing to reading and watching. Apart from writing, she has become fascinated by marketing strategy. How brands can best get to market and why consumers, influencers and retail channel opinion formers should be interested when they get there. Kate believes the DIY Week Awards are a great forum for the sort of innovation which invigorates the market.


MIKE SMITH Head of Commercial, EFG Housewares


Mike Smith has been a regular on the DIY Week Awards judging panel in the past, and returns this year bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience. He started his field sales career as an area sales representative with Newell Rubbermaid over 20 years ago and has since enjoyed a number of successful roles within the housewares and DIY sector. Lengthy spells with VacuVin, Everyware Global, World Kitchen Chicago were then followed by a one year stint at Home Hardware Southwest and he now holds the UK sales manager position at the UK’s largest independent wholesaler, EFG Housewares in London. He is now responsible for EFG’s entire delivery business along with updating EFG’s online presence and e-commerce capabilities.


As an organisational, marketing, and communications expert, these experiences allow her to hear the deeper needs affecting a business and build a solution catered to it alone. She picks up on things that other people don’t and difficult conversations to improve a business sometimes need to be had. Kerry’s business passions are great communication and the customer


journey. She takes a hands-on approach to projects and organisational tasks. Generic solutions to surface-level issues never work in the long run. She adds value by triggering detailed plans of her own and integrating changes that stick.


RETAILER CATEGORY JUDGING PROCESS


This year each DIY Week Awards Retailer category entry will first face an online vote, with professionals being invited to make their voices heard and be influential


www.diyweek.net


in determining the 2025 winners. The entrants will also have their submissions critiqued by a specially selected judging panel, comprised of individuals with


extensive industry knowledge and experience.


The voting and judging will each hold a 50% weighting in the final decision,


ensuring the winners are selected for their outstanding industry reputations and technical expertise. To find out more, please visit www.diyweekawards.co.uk


FEBRUARY 2025 DIY WEEK 9


PAUL WARREN Owner, Broad Street DIY


Paul Warren has grown up in the DIY industry and now heads up the family business, Broad Street DIY, which was started by his parents nearly 40 years ago. The forward-thinking business has secured a number of awards in recent years, including being named DIY Week’s Retailer of the Year in 2017, thanks to fantastic initiatives like its DIY clinics and DIY Ladies’ Nights.


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