Boss of Shrewsbury's Darwin centre 'humbled' at Shopping Centre Manager of the Year win
The manager of a popular Shropshire shopping centre who has been crowned Shopping Centre Manager of the Year has described it as "one of the proudest moments" of his career.
Kevin Lockwood, centre manager at The Darwin centre in Shrewsbury, won the prestigious honour at the 2022 SCEPTRE Awards, which were handed out in London on Thursday night.
The SCEPTRE Awards recognise the best practice and the best people in the shopping centre industry and Kevin's category was one of the most coveted and competitive awards of the night.
Kevin was recognised for his innovative ideas including his involvement in the launch of The Collective, 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, Chair of the Shrewsbury Business Chamber and being a member of Team Shrewsbury was 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 also our relocation from Pride Hill 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.”
