THERE was much jubilation at Boots Opticians in Tavistock after staff scooped a top national award for their branch out of 550 Boots Opticians nationwide.

The branch on West Street was awarded the top prize in the 2021 Boots Best of the Best Awards at a glittering ceremony in Coventry on Thursday last week.

All five members of staff at the branch made the special journey to accept their award in person and have now brought the trophy home to display in the shop window.

Store manager Dana Kratochvila said the award was a real tribute to ‘the hard work and dedication’ of her staff. ‘The awards are something Boots Opticians do every year and I nominated the branch with the help of Katie, our area manager,’ she said. ‘I’m very proud. It is a wonderful achievement.’

Dana said she had decided to enter her team after a good year, having joined as the store’s manager back in December last year. ‘We had been doing so well. We have had a great year, we have had great feedback from customers and it has all gone nicely so I thought why not, let’s give it a go. We got through to the south [semi finals] and then we were down to the last three to win ‘store of the year’. It was between us, Nottingham and Wimborne. We were all invited to the ceremony in Coventry. All five of us went to the awards which was lovely. Normally it is just two who can go but I was lucky enough that all my team could go togther.’

Colleagues were able to step into the breach at the branch in Tavistock so the Tavistock team could be away for two days. She admitted it was an emotional moment ‘for me particularly’ when they heard that they had been named ‘store of the year’.

‘They said that we go above and beyond in everything that we do,’ she said.

Reflecting on why her team had won, Dana said: ‘We all work together, we all help each other out and if somebody is stuck on something someone else will step in and help out. They are very easy going with the patients, nothing is too much trouble. The store has been here for five years now and some of the team have been here since the beginning so the patients are like family. The patients keep coming back. Sometimes they just come in to say hello and they wave when they come past. Natasha is the ophthamologist and she is brilliant. She really takes her time.’

She said the team tried to stay ahead with developments. ‘We have got a 3D scanner and we have already talked to patients about that so we have got a waiting list for that. That was something the competition judges picked up on.’