After months of planning and uncertainty around Covid and fuel shortages, it was fantastic to bring together the many supply chain partners of McCarthy Stone at the 2021 Supply Chain Gala Dinner, in aid of the McCarthy Stone Foundation.

In the ballroom at Chesford Grange Hotel, we welcomed more than 300 guests from over 50 of McCarthy Stone’s suppliers, from law firms to groundworker contractors, and everything in between. The evening started with a drinks reception, before we were treated to a hilarious opening set of comedy from our compere, Tim Vine.

After a welcoming speech from Chief Executive John Tonkiss, and a talk on our plans for the Foundation in 2022 from Foundation Manager Graeme Marsh, it was into dinner. While our guests were tucking into their 3-course meal, Andrea, Michaela, and Kelly, volunteers from McCarthy Stone, hit the tables with our raffle tickets, selling out!

Next up were the Supply Chain Awards for 2021, with congratulations to Sigmat, JPD Contracts, Tunstall, and FP McCann for winning in their respective categories of Sustainability, Customer Service, Operational Excellence, and Best Overall Supplier. The awards were hotly contested with many nominations for the fantastic organisations who worked with McCarthy Stone throughout the challenges of the pandemic.

With the awards done, it was time for the charity auction and raffle, with an amazing array of prizes on offer. We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated, including a 30 minute flight in a Spitfire, A day at the Races, Hot air balloon flight, a Samsung LED TV, and many more brilliant items. Thanks to you our live auction and raffle raised almost £15,000!!

With the formalities done, it was time to hit the dancefloor, and we were treated to a brilliant live set of music from The Juno’s – who delivered everything from the Human League to The Killers!! The dancefloor was full from start to finish, and it was the perfect way to round off a fantastic evening, with over £100,000 raised in total for our charity.

We are so grateful to the many people involved in bringing this event together, to everyone who came along and supported it, donated, bought raffle tickets, took part in our live and silent auctions, and helped make it a great return to live events for us. We had some wonderful donations from those companies unable to attend, our volunteers were simply brilliant, and we would also like to thank the hotel and AV team who delivered a seamless event on the night. Thank you everyone.

Next year, we are back, planning is already under way for September 2022, with more details to come! We hope to see you there, but for now, thank you, this money really will make a difference. Enjoy the photos!