Tabletop Trends: United win inaugural LET Project of the Year Award
United win inaugural LET Project of the Year Award
Plus LET awards for Stephensons, Parsley in Time, Rebecca Varley and Andrew Nisbet
The annual LET awards celebrate the fantastic achievements, innovations and hard work of light equipment and tableware suppliers. Presented at the Charity Dinner during the LET Forum, this year there were two new awards, for LET Project of the Year and for 2025’s top Independent Distributor. They join the established Group Distributor of the Year, the Sales Professional award and the Donald Bird award.
LET Project of the Year
Huge congratulations to United UK LLP, who won the inaugural LET Project of the Year, which is sponsored by Signature FSE. Criteria here included sustainability, design and aesthetics, and success in meeting the project’s challenges. Judges also looked at how successful entrants were in terms of their collaboration with suppliers.
The winning project was the successful rollout of the Lounge 2025 menu launch. United worked closely with both the Lounge team and key suppliers, from initial concept development, through trials, and into full rollout. The project required fast-paced coordination, complex stock procurement and logistics planning, and United adapted quickly to late product changes and stock constraints, sourcing viable alternatives. United processed and dispatched over 248 site-specific orders, with extended warehouse hours and night shifts, ensuring all core items were delivered on time. The company’s hard work ensured a smooth, stress-free launch for the client.
Presenting the award, FEA’s LET chair, Paula Sherlock, commented, “This was a challenging set of criteria, and it’s really important to recognise that collaborations like these deliver success for everyone. United landed an effective and successful roll out, at speed, across nearly 250 sites.”
Group Distributor of the Year
The Group Distributor of the Year, sponsored by Tablecraft, is open to larger companies and looks at areas such as their support for the industry, the breadth of products offered and their receptiveness to new ideas. The winner for 2025 was Stephensons, with Alliance also shortlisted.
Independent Distributor of the Year
Parsley in Time was the first winner of the new Independent Distributor award, sponsored by FEM. This award recognises areas such as sales growth, promotion of LET products and support for the industry. Waltons and W H Howe were also shortlisted for the award.
LET Sales Professional of the Year
2025 is the 20th anniversary for the LET Sales Professional of the Year award, which was presented by FEA chair Emma Brooks. She said, “The 20th is a milestone, so this is a particularly big year to win it!” The criteria for judges include customer service and success in both winning contracts and developing LET sales. Along with their trophy and £500 prize, the winner gets a free place on FEA’s CFSP training course. The milestone winner of the award was Rebecca Varley of Brakes Catering Equipment, who Emma described as ‘a consummate professional.’ Rob Blunderfield from Parsley in Time was also shortlisted.
The Donald Bird Award
The final LET Award for 2025 was presented by John Cunningham, CE of FEA. The Donald Bird award is given to an individual for their outstanding contribution to the LET sector. John said, “This year’s well-deserved winner is a British entrepreneur who founded a company that’s now described as ‘the Amazon of the cookery business.’ He was the unanimous choice of the judges.” This year’s Donald Bird award winner was Andrew Nisbet. Richard Ebbs, commercial director at Nisbets, collected the award on Andrew’s behalf.
FEA’s annual Light Equipment and Tableware Awards were announced at the LET Forum Charity dinner on 20th May. During the dinner guests raised over £1500 for Hospitality Action.
To find out about attending the 2026 LET Forum contact FEA through fea.org.uk or #FEAuk.
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This article is part of Tabletop Trends - FEA's quarterly light equipment and tableware sector newsletter.
Tabletop Trends is produced and distributed by the Foodservice Equipment Association, the UK's largest independent foodservice equipment trade association. All suppliers listed in this article are FEA members. A full list of Light Equipment and Table suppliers can be found on our Meet Our Members section - simply select Light Equipment / Food Prep from the Product Type drop down menu
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