Flying the Flag…

Flying the flag…

In June more than 200 employees representing ASDA house, George house, stores and depots flew out to Bentonville in Arkansas, USA to represent ASDA at this year’s Wal-Mart shareholders’ meeting.

They joined a staggering 17,000 other Wal–Mart workers from around the globe including Argentina, India China and Mexico to name but a few. Coming together for a week of events, everyone swapped ideas and learnt more about the Wal-Mart culture.

ASDA representatives showed best practice with their international counterparts on community related projects, environmental issues and customer service. Now colleagues from the UK are back on home soil, they've started to share their experiences and learnings with colleagues back in store.

They spent five days in the mid American town for the business update and embarked on a number of activities during their stay. These included supplier fairs, conferences, a visit to the very first store Sam Walton opened, not to mention the numerous pop concerts and entertainment in the evenings.

How do they do it?

Every other ASDA store in the UK was asked to nominate one person who has been doing an outstanding job over the past twelve months. Whether it’s through fundraising or outreach work in the local community, these are the real shining stars of the ASDA business.

Shining stars…

For some colleagues, a trip to Bentonville actually meant applying for their first passport! Kenny Davies from Lancaster store had never travelled outside of the UK. He saw the opportunity as the chance of a life time.

“When I was asked to go, I was over the moon. I’d never even left the UK before so travelling to the other side of the world with another 200 colleagues in tow was quite something. Meeting associates from other countries with different cultures and experiences was amazing. I’ll never forget my time in Bentonville and would recommend it to everyone!”

Geoff Kettle was another lucky person who flew to the States. Geoff was nominated by his friends and co-workers at the Lymedale depot in Staffordshire after his recent nomination as ASDA driver of the Year. Geoff out-skilled over 2,000 ASDA drivers to win the accolade in last year's ‘Driver of the Year’ competition.

“I spend most of my working day in my own cab driving to and from stores – quality time with me! So to go from that to spending my days with over 100 other store representatives took some getting used to but what an experience. I’ve made friends with so many people from all over the world and we’re all still in touch. It’s great to be able to find out what other countries are up to and try and employ some of their policies back here.”

A piece of the action…

If you want to find out more about the Shareholders event, visit the Wal–Mart website:
www.wal-martstores.com