Strong winter promotions keep soft drinks selling all year round at Top 50 Indie The Brookfield Group’s site in Morley, West Yorkshire, which won the award for Best Soft Drinks Outlet.

Raj Patel, managing director of Brookfield, says: "A lot of retailers put soft drinks on promotion during the summer but we do the opposite because they will sell any way during the summer. We have our strongest promotions from September to March that works really well and earns us good margins.

"Promotions at the moment include ’buy one get one free’ on 2ltr bottles of Coke, and Nisa is doing deals like ’buy one get two free’, which we tend to push."

Raj says keeping the soft drinks fixture well stocked, well merchandised with all products front facing, and well labelled is vital. "Our refrigerators are open deck, so it’s easy for people to grab a drink and go."