DIY WEEK AWARDS 2026 Meet the Judges
PAUL ANDREWS DIY Product Manager, Home Hardware Southwest
DIY Product Manager, Home Hardware Southwest Paul has worked for Home Hardware for more than 35 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, 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 who bought Loctite in 1997. Paul forged a 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 No 1 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.
RICKY JOHAL Marketing Manager, Integral Memory PLC
Ricky is an award-winning marketing leader with over 15 years’ experience shaping brand strategy, driving go-to-market execution, and delivering measurable growth across B2B and B2C environments. Currently leading marketing across multi- division businesses, Ricky has held end-to-end ownership of brand positioning, visual identity, campaigns, content, websites, SEO, and sales enablement. His experience spans brand transformation, omnichannel campaign delivery, customer experience optimisation, and team leadership, with a strong focus on creating consistency, clarity, and long-term brand value in complex organisations. Recognised as Industry Personality of the Year, Ricky is known for combining strategic thinking with hands-on delivery, building high-performing teams, and using insight-led storytelling to drive commercial impact.
NEIL MEAD Editorial Director, DIY Week
Neil has over 30 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 several trade titles covering a wide range of other industry and retail sectors, Neil can offer his opinion and judge the awards’ entries from a wide perspective and chairs both the Retail and Supplier judging panels.
www.diyweek.net
JEFF MOODY Chief Commercial Officer, Bira
Jeff has experience that spans over 30 years in the independent retail market, working within the trade association, FMCG, manufacturing, consumer electronics, hardware, DIY and housewares sectors. He’s a firm believer that a business needs to find its true values and then follow them, as there must be something of a soul at the heart of an organisation. Recognised for providing leadership, hands-on coaching and mentoring, with a proven track record for delivering strategies resulting in sales and profit growth, as well as brand leadership, in challenging retail environments, Jeff stands out a true business leader who is creative, driven and charismatic.
KATE MURPHY Managing Director, Brookes & Co
As managing director 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 in 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, Kate 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.
SALLIE PAYNE Publication Manager, DIY Week
After graduating from the University of Westminster with a BSC in Food Science and Nutrition, Sallie went on to work as a nutritionist for the Savoy Hotel and The Royal Navel school for girls in Hazelmere. Following on from there, she took City and Guilds 706/5 in business management. Working for the Caterer and Hotel Keeper magazine inspired Sallie to buy two businesses within the industry. She then went on to run B2B events, including Crufts, and worked on various well-known publications, including Gardeners World, Homes & Gardens, Your Home and The Daily Mirror. Publication Manager of DIY Week for over 10 years, Sallie has been responsible for developing the magazine and expanding the DIY Week Awards, including the launch of the Trade Talks conference and DIY Week Live trade fair.
RETAILER CATEGORY JUDGING
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 in determining the 2026 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.
• For more details, visit https://
diyweekawards.co.uk
FEBRUARY 2026 DIY WEEK 9 AWARDS 2026 DIY
As the excitement builds for this year’s DIY Week Awards taking place at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden in London on Friday 22 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…
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