J P Corry, Lisburn is the overall winner in the second Octabuild Northern Ireland Builders Merchant Awards.

The award was presented in the Stormont Hotel before an audience of almost 200 people representing the merchant and building industry.

The judges were lavish in their praise not just for JP Corry in Lisburn but also for the high standard among the 36 builders merchants visited. According to the judging panel there were just 4 percentage points separating the top six merchants.

Nine other awards were presented on the night to a mixture of independent and group stores.

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•B. McNamee, Strabane won the Best Family Business Award.

• Belfast merchant Peter Woods Building Supplies won the Best Customer Service Award.

•Newry Building Supplies took the Best Merchandising award.

•N.G. Bell & Son was awarded for its Innovation.

•Omagh-based P McDermott & Sons took the Marketing Award.

•Antrim Building Supplies won the Award for the Best Trade Counter

•Newry’s Haldane Fisher branch was honoured with the Best for Heavy Goods award and two other JP Corry branches, Carrickfergus and Newry won the Best Housekeeping and Best Management Systems Awards respectively.

The building material manufacturers who organised the awards as Octabuild are: Gyproc, Evo-Stik, Dulux Paints, Kingspan Insulation, Sanbra Fyffe, Tegral and Wavin.

All builders merchants were judged on the basis of Customer Service, Merchandising, Management Systems, Housekeeping and Health & Safety.

(CD/GK)