Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, has begun its search for the most community-minded National Lottery shopkeepers in the UK after opening nominations for Local Retail Champions 2025. The nominations period for the two national and 16 regional awards will run until midnight on 19 October.

A successful inaugural Local Retail Champions 2024 saw Raj and Manish Suchak, and Natalie and Martin Lightfoot – owners of Coldean Convenience in Brighton and Londis Solo Convenience Store in Glasgow respectively – crowned the two national award-winners. This was ahead of 16 regional winners who also picked up awards. The 18 winners fended off competition from almost 1000 other National Lottery retailers from across the UK, who had all been nominated by their customers for going above and beyond for their communities.

Allwyn is once again partnering with Reach plc – the UK’s largest commercial news publisher – to promote the Local Retail Champions campaign across consumer-facing national and regional publications and websites. It will also be supported through special in-store posters, which are new for this year.

Also new for this year is a special Innovation Award category that will reward two National Lottery retailers for their ideas about how they would celebrate National Lottery Good Causes in their store.

Prizes available:

• Two National Winners will each take home a £15k cash prize (customer nomination)

• 16 Regional Winners will each win a £5k cash prize (customer nomination)

• Two Innovation Award winners will win £2.5k cash plus up to £2.5k to bring their idea to life in store (retailer self-entry)

There are a host of reasons why retailers could get their customers nominating them for one of the national and regional prizes. For example, Raj and Manish Suchak were nominated by their customers last year for a variety of community-focused work, including creating a safe space for those in need, donating generously to local food banks, providing food for a local school’s breakfast club and fundraising for the local cat shelter. Meanwhile, Natalie and Martin Lightfoot received nominations for organising charity fundraising events and local litter-picking activities, while also providing a home delivery service for those in need.

Anything that positively impacts the local community could be a reason for a nomination.

Allwyn’s Director of Commercial Partnerships and Retail Sales, Alison Acquaye-Acford, said: “Local Retail Champions is back and we’re excited to once again be celebrating National Lottery retailers making a massive difference in their communities. As we saw from last year’s almost-1,000 store nominations, retailers right around the UK are doing incredible things to support their communities every single day. We want to find even more great stories again this year and reward retailers for their dedication and goodwill.

“As an organisation that is committed to positively contributing to society in how we go about our business, and with retailers helping to raise £30m every week for National Lottery Good Causes by selling tickets to players, it’s really important to us that we recognise and celebrate the incredible impact local retailers have on the places we live, work and visit.”

The initiative is being enabled by using part of Allwyn’s dedicated Social Value Fund, which is £1m that the company has committed to investing annually to help communities and high streets across the UK and Isle of Man to thrive.

To nominate a local retailer, a customer must be 18 or over and should write up to 150 words before 19 October on how their local National Lottery retailer has made the community a better place.