Brakes and Bidfood duos awarded MBEs

Key figures from Brakes and Bidfood have been recognised in the New Year Honours List.

Ricky Sercombe

Alex Mayfield

Brakes’ supply chain & operations director Alex Mayfield, and lead solution designer Ricky Sercombe, have been awarded MBEs in recognition of their pivotal roles in leading the Brakes team that provided food boxes to the clinically vulnerable during the first nationwide lockdown.

Similarly, Bidfood’s supply chain & technical services director Jim Gouldie, and managing director wholesale Steve Clarke, have been awarded MBEs for their services to the vulnerable during the course of pandemic.

Jim Gouldie

Steve Clarke

Working with the Government, Brakes and Bidfood conceived and launched the ‘shield pack’ service, delivering the first boxes direct to those who most needed them in only nine days.

Both wholesalers also ensured continuity of food supply to critical institutions such as the NHS and the care sector as they struggled to cope with the difficulties caused by the pandemic. Furthermore, they worked tirelessly to maintain availability for retailers, providing much needed products to fill empty shelves in the early days of the crisis.

Hugo Mahoney, CEO at Brakes, commented: “The MBEs given to Alex and Ricky reflect the resilience, innovation and resourcefulness of our business in developing and launching a service to support the clinically vulnerable at a time when many of those most in need were unable to access food and essential supplies.

“The well-deserved honours are a fantastic recognition of the boundless energy and resourcefulness they displayed in leading their teams at a very challenging time. I’m very proud of how they drew the business together to deliver such a valuable service so quickly, at a time when many supermarkets were displaying empty shelves and were not able to provide delivery slots.”

Bidfood’s CEO Andrew Selley said: “All of us at Bidfood are immensely proud of what Jim and Steve have achieved, and this honour could not have been bestowed on two more worthy individuals. They are both incredibly modest and I know they will say that this recognition is for the whole Bidfood team.

“Both Steve and Jim truly moved mountains to help those most in need. To us they are true heroes and we cannot express how delighted everyone is within the Bidfood business that they have received this recognition.”