UK supermarket operator Asda, a subsidiary of US retail giantWal-Mart, scooped three top prizes at The Grocer Gold Awards last nightin London.

In addition to scooping the prize for Lowest PricedSupermarket for the eleventh year in a row, Asda also picked up theBest for Service Award and the Best for Availability Award, securing anunprecedented treble.

Asda chief executive Andy Bond said he wasvery proud of the company's 'outstanding' achievement and underlinedits commitment to making high quality goods and services moreaffordable and accesible.

'Great retailing is based on price,availability and service – winning all three of these awards shows Asdareally is getting this right,' he said. 'In my view, there’s never beena more important time to win the lowest priced supermarket award asmillions of shoppers are starting to really feel the effects of thecredit crunch and the rising cost of energy.'

This is the firsttime in the history of the awards that a single supermarket has won allthree of the awards for price, availability and service in The Grocer33, a mystery shopping and price comparison survey carried out by TheGrocer magazine every week in the UK market.

Adam Leyland,editor of The Grocer, said: 'Asda has long been known to be thecheapest supermarket, but to marry that with the strongest availabilityand the bestcustomer service is a great achievement. It's also vastlyimproved the range and variety of products.'

Elsewhere,Morrisons was crowned The Grocer of the Year, confirmation of itsimpressive performance during the past 12 months as it continues tobounce back from the recent takeover of Safeway.

In a poll ofconsumers, meanwhile, Tesco was voted Britain's favourite supermarketfor the fourth consecutive year and also took the prize for OnlineRetailer of the Year.

The Grocer Gold Awards also included threenew 'green' awards in recognition of the stirling work of the groceryretail industry in addressing environmental concerns.

The Green Retailer of the Year award went to The Cooperative Group and Green Wholesaler of the Year went to Brakes.

For a full list of award winners, click here.

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