National Lottery operator, Allwyn, is asking members of the public to nominate National Lottery retailers who have gone above and beyond to support their community. 

With total prizes worth £140,000 up for grabs, ‘Local Retail Champions’ will recognise and reward over 100 community-minded National Lottery retailers across the UK and the Isle of Man.  

This could include those who deliver to customers unable to reach the shop or who have widened their aisles to accommodate wheelchair users. Or retailers who support or sponsor local sports clubs, who focus on stocking locally produced products or who organise local litter-picking sessions.  

The prizes available are:

• Two winning local retail champions will scoop a cash prize of £5,000* and will also receive a social value store makeover worth £20,000. The makeover will help the shop do more for its customers, community or environment. For example, it could fund energy efficient fixtures, pay for lessons for staff who want to use sign language, or refurbish space designed for community use.  

• Sixteen other regional winners will win £5,000* each.

• A further 100 runners-up will receive a £100 cash prize.  

Working with Reach plc, the UK’s largest commercial news publisher, ‘Local Retail Champions’ will be promoted across a wide range of consumer-facing national and regional publications and websites, and the competition will be supported on National Lottery retailers’ in-store media screens.    

Retailers can also spread the word about the competition face-to-face with their customers and encourage their shoppers to vote for them via their store social media channels by directing them to the campaign website, with Allwyn providing guidance to retailers on this. 

The initiative is being paid for with money from Allwyn’s dedicated Social Value Fund, which is an annual £1 million that the company has committed to using to support operating The National Lottery in an environmentally and socially responsible way. This year, Allwyn is using a portion of the fund to reward and recognise the important role its retail partners play in every community across the UK and Isle of Man. 

National Lottery operator Allwyn's CEO Andria Vidler said: “Retailers are the heart and soul of their communities. By selling tickets, we have more than 40,000 National Lottery retail partners helping us to raise an average of over £30 million each week for National Lottery-funded projects. But they also support their local areas in many other ways.  

“That's why we are delighted to launch the Local Retail Champions campaign, through Allwyn's Social Value Fund, which will recognise those National Lottery retailers who go that extra mile to give back to their communities. We can’t wait to see all the fantastic stories and urge every one of our retail partners to share details of the campaign with their customers and get involved – as there are some brilliant prizes up for grabs!”

To nominate a local retailer, a customer must be 18 or over and should write up to 150 words before 20 October on how their local National Lottery retailer has made the community a better place. To find out more about the campaign or to nominate a National Lottery retailer, please visit www.TNLLocalRetailChampions.co.uk.

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*Or cash equivalent to their local charity partner    

Ts and Cs apply. For full terms, please visit see the www.TNLLocalRetailChampions.co.uk