Fields of Sidmouth presents staff with FAFTA awards

ACTORS may be smiling over receiving a BAFTA award, but staff at Sidmouth’s department store are celebrating receiving their own FAFTA awards.

At a special breakfast gathering of staff, managing director, Trevor Roberts, presented the team of the year award to the cosmetics staff, led by supervisor Clare Ennals.

Each of the store’s departments, including the coffee shop, fashion, menswear, cosmetics, warehouse and ancillary items were carefully monitored and, said Mr Roberts: “It was a very difficult choice. Two teams in particular were debated over for a long time.”

The team pipped to the post by cosmetics’ staff was from its Monday’s Child store, also at Market Place.

“The team we felt worked particularly hard, against a lot of problems, shone through, the cosmetics team,” he said.

Fields was a runner-up in last autumn’s Drapers Award, being beaten by Harrods.

The store has received other plaudits during the past year, including an award for its Christmas decorated windows given jointly by Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce and the Sidmouth Herald, and a silver Taste of the West award for its coffee shop.

Mr Roberts said the store’s reward card scheme, launched 18 months ago, now had 15,000 members.

He praised staff for their hard work and customer service, saying he had received dozens of compliments from customers “to say what a wonderful staff we have”.

Fields has a number of projects in the pipeline for 2012, to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee and the Olympics.