Activate Group Australia hosted the 2025 Joe Berry Award, an essay-based program now in its 39th year, last week.
The program is aimed at unearthing outstanding executives aged up to 35 from all parts of the industry, including retailers, suppliers, service providers and wholesalers. Participants submit 2500-word essays for judging.
Six finalists were invited to present in front of a judging panel of 30 industry executives at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ Australian head office in North Sydney.
The 2025 award winner, Holly Gregory, Assistant Brand Manager at The Arnott’s Group, presented on ‘Innovation and NPD: cost of entry’.
The other finalists and their topics were:
- Coles Group Commercial Manager Wade Rule – ‘Evolving retailer formats: changing direction’.
- Woolworths Supermarkets Business & Operations Senior Consultant James Gardner – ‘Innovation and NPD: cost of entry’.
- SC Johnson Brand & Marketing Manager Ellyn Bruce – ‘Innovation and NPD: cost of entry’.
- Amazon Category Growth Manager Jay Allison – ‘Automation: techniques and opportunity’.
- Coles Group Business Category Manager of Impulse Melissa Matteo – ‘Free choice: duped to death’.
Following the presentation session, the awards ceremony was held at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Along with this year’s finalists being interviewed on stage by some of the judges, the finalists of the Australian Food & Grocery Council’s (AFGC) Trading Partners Forum Scholarship (open to emerging leaders under 30) were also given an opportunity to speak on their topic. Cathy Garrone, Strategy Planning Manager at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, was awarded the Scholarship.
‘Exemplary’ quality
Bernie Brookes, Joe Berry Award patron and first winner in 1986, believes the program is even more important in today’s landscape.
“You overcome the difficulties that we face through universal goals, through cooperation, through good government and through education,” he told guests.
“(Joe Berry) helps with that cooperation because we’ve got retailers and FMCG suppliers in the same room talking and networking. More importantly, we’ve got some desire towards universal goals.
“The Joe Berry Award has grown to be an important part of, perhaps, the reparations needed in the industry.”
On announcing this year’s winner, Mr Brookes said the program also plays a role in helping to raise the quality of “those you work with”, and therefore, the standards of the industry.
“We saw today an enormous amount of enthusiasm, not only from the participants, but equally importantly, from the judges,” he said.
Mr Brookes described the quality of the essays and presentations as “exemplary”, which he said made the final decision “particularly hard”.
In accepting her award, Ms Gregory said she felt “very humbled” to be recognised, and pointed to the “intense preparation” involved in her endeavour.
Addressing her fellow finalists, Ms Gregory said: “You should all be so proud of yourself. We’ve obviously (put in) such a monumental effort this past month, so I’m very honoured to be one of the finalists amongst you.”
