Linda wins Colleague of the Year

Linda Owens, a team leader at the Minorca Place store in the borough, received the accolade at the Tesco Values Awards ceremony in London last month.

The local woman beat off competition from more than 310,000 colleagues across the UK to win the award for her excellent customer service and positive attitude after being diagnosed with breast cancer on two separate occasions.

Despite her illness, Linda was recognised for always keeping a smile on her face and maintaining a positive approach to her colleagues and customers.

Even when going through chemotherapy, she never missed a day of work.

The inspirational employee was nominated by her colleagues for the award, before being selected for a shortlist of ten finalists from right across Tesco’s UK business.

Tesco staff were then asked to vote for their winner, and with early 1,700 votes cast, it was Linda who emerged victorious.

Linda, who has worked at Tesco for 17 years, received her award from UK Managing Director Chris Bush at a World Cup-themed ceremony at Wembley Stadium on June 18.

Presenting Linda with the award, Chris Bush said: “When I think of all the amazing and passionate colleagues we have in store, offices, distribution centres and dot com centres I am extremely proud.”

Commenting on her win, Linda added: “I feel really overwhelmed. Thank you to everyone who voted.”

Pamela Steele, Tesco personnel manager, said Linda’s dedication had brought ‘tears to her eyes’. “She’s an incredible colleague,” she added.

The ceremony was hosted by Sky Sports and Countdown’s Jeff Stelling. “This was a really special award, it was like player’s player of the year, he said.

The Tesco Values Awards is an annual event to celebrate the 310,000 colleagues who work for the UK’s largest retailer and who strive every day of the year to make life a little better for their customers and colleagues, and the communities they serve.

You can hear from Linda and her colleagues in this video, which was used at the nomination stage for the ‘Colleague of the Year’ award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpWSLvDXJ7c