Kevin scoops top shopping centre award

Kevin Lockwood, centre manager at The Darwin shopping centre in Shrewsbury, has won Small Shopping Centre Manager of the Year at the national SCEPTRE Awards 2022, which were announced in London.

The SCEPTRE Awards recognise the best people and best practice in the shopping centre industry. They are the pre-eminent accolades in the shopping centre industry, putting the spotlight on management teams, retailers and suppliers that demonstrate real excellence.

For a small centre, Shopping Centre Manager of the Year is one of the most coveted and competitive awards of the night. Kevin Lockwood was recognised for his innovative ideas, including his involvement in the launch of The Collective independent traders’ gallery; championing mental health training; initiating ideas to tackle anti-social behaviour; improving welfare facilities; launching the centre as dog-friendly, and supporting current and future tenants.

He has also completed ‘world host’ training in customer services, restructured several internal processes and managed flooding and development issues. His work as vice chair of Shrewsbury BID, as chair of the Shrewsbury Business Chamber and as a member of Team Shrewsbury were also praised.

Kevin said: “This is one of the proudest moments of my career. I have an incredible team that support me daily and some terrific tenants, which make working at The Darwin a real joy.

“We’ve had some challenging times in recent years, but there have been some exceptional highlights and we’ve achieved some brilliant things at the Centre. To be recognised by SCEPTRE for all that we’ve accomplished is very humbling.”

Pauline Neville, manager of Wilko Shrewsbury said: “I would like to acknowledge Kevin Lockwood as being a supportive and highly thought of centre manager. I have worked for Wilko for 26 years and have never had this level of support from previous stores I have worked at.

“In the three years I’ve been managing the Shrewsbury store, Kevin has supported us through three floods, Covid, and our relocation from the Pride Hill Centre to the Darwin Centre.

“Kevin often checks in to see how the store is performing and it’s reassuring to have him as the centre manager as I feel his experience and the decisions he makes are always the right ones to keep our centre trading to its full potential.”