Longo's, Save-On-Foods among winners at Independent Grocer awards

CFIG's 56th annual Canadian Independent Grocer of the Year Awards (IGYA), presented Wednesday night, highlighted some of the best grocers in the country.

Handed out at a gala dinner, the awards capped off the three-day Grocery Innovations Canada conference held at the Toronto Congress Centre.

The 2018 National Gold Award winners for Top Independent Grocer of the Year were Save-On-Foods Northgate, Winnipeg (in the large surface grocer category); Longo's, York Mills, Toronto, Ont. (medium surface); Blind Bay Village Grocer, Blind Bay, B.C. (small surface); and Galleria Supermarket, Thornhill, Ont. (specialty category, David C. Parsons Award).

B.C.'s Askew's Foods was this year’s recipient of The Arnold Rands Heritage Award, which is presented to the year’s best privately owned, multi-generational store that has been in the same family for a least two generations and in the same community for 35 years.

Also, inducted into the IGYA Hall of Fame this year was Jeffrey Min and Jaeho Park of Galleria Supermarket in Thornhill, Ont.; and Eric Wood and staff of Longo's Burloak in Oakville, Ont.

Click here for a full list of award winners.