Herefordshire-based Muddy Boots Software, who develops quality assurance solutions for sustainable food and farming, has won the inaugural Coles supermarket IT Vendor Award 2011. This follows the implementation of a quality management solution that improves the consistency and quality of fresh produce throughout their 742 Australian stores.

Muddy Boots Software has been named Coles IT Vendor of the Year 2011 - Support Category, beating the competition of 3 other finalists. Greenlight Quality Control from www.muddyboots.com, which was implemented across Coles' distribution centres in September 2010, was recognised by the Australian retailing giant for providing a support system that created the greatest service improvement, cost saving and enabled the greatest increase in business income over the past 12 months. 

Coles supermarkets is a leader in Australian food retailing, with more than 11 million customer transactions a week. Jackie Healing, Head of Quality, Policy and Governance at Coles supermarkets comments; "Greenlight QC from Muddy Boots has given Coles first class product quality monitoring and performance reporting capability. This helps us focus our efforts in partnership with our suppliers, to achieve our objective as Australia's leading supermarket for quality produce."

Conrad Harvey, CIO at Coles, praises the Muddy Boots team; "Congratulations on winning the inaugural Coles IT Vendor - Support Award in Melbourne.  The award is testament to the partnership we have with Muddy Boots, and the levels of service we receive in the support of our implementation of Greenlight QC." 

Jonathan Evans, Managing Director at Muddy Boots Software talks about the award win; "It is fantastic to get this sort of recognition from one of our key customers and this award is proof that quality management can directly impact business efficiency.

"It has been a great experience working with Coles. They have been quick to spot the opportunity to improve their quality processes and eager to use the data to drive change for the benefit of suppliers and their customers. We are grateful for this global recognition of our work and we very much look forward to developing our long-term partnership with Coles and playing our part in supporting continuous improvement."

Muddy Boots' heritage is deeply rooted in agriculture and the company has subsequently developed a strong understanding of the dynamics of the food industry from field to fork and the challenges that companies within the food supply network face. With an expanding customer portfolio of leading brands, including Coles, Unilever, Sainsbury, M&S and Ben & Jerry's, Muddy Boots continues to expand its operations and build increased capacity, adding a further 25% to its global workforce in 2011.

The Coles IT Vendor Awards celebrate those achievements and partnerships that have made the most meaningful contribution to the success of Coles IT over the last 12 months. Muddy Boots was recognised as being simple to operate and easy to understand with good customer training and on-going support.