Sun Savers editor Giselle Wainwright surprised Sailesh Tanna (Sam) of East Leake Post Office this week with a free holiday for being the top Sun Savers advocate in the country. The prize, worth £1,500, follows his efforts championing the brand during The Sun Savers education campaign to inform customers about the programme.

The education initiative saw News UK’s Field Team roll out a nationwide retail campaign across 12,000 news and magazine retailers in the UK to increase awareness of Sun Savers – the rewards club that puts money back into readers’ pockets.

As part of the campaign News UK placed new point of sale assets in stores to demonstrate and clearly communicate the mechanics of the Sun Savers scheme to customers, with the campaign message: Earn Cash, Get Treats, Win Prizes. The initiative was designed to help retailers educate customers on the merits of Sun Savers and explain the role newspapers play in-store for retailers, driving footfall and increasing spend.

Giselle doorstepped Sam and his wife at their Post Office in Loughborough to give them the good news, coinciding with Sun Savers reaching one million sign ups.

When presented with his prize, Sam told The Sun that he will take his wife of 30 years with him on holiday and said: “I’m feeling in cloud cuckoo land!”.

Commenting on the programme Sam said: “The Sun field team brings great material that helps to highlight the Sun Savers reward programme - it just keeps the customers coming back for more. The team has helped me to educate myself, which in turn I have educated my customers. It’s a win, win situation.”

News UK Head of Retail Marketing Chris Hughes said: “We know how hard retailers work so I’m delighted that we can reward Sam with a well deserved holiday! Sam won the award for clearly demonstrating his knowledge of the scheme and the benefits to customers. The judges were particularly impressed with the way Sam embraced the education programme by training all of his staff and displaying highly visible point of sale assets in-store to promote Sun Savers to customers.

“Sun Savers’ success is important both for us as a publisher and for retailers too - so we can keep loyal and engaged readers coming back into your store. Thanks to all our retailers that took part in this initiative and helping us on our journey to one million Sun Savers sign ups.”

Sun Savers editor Giselle Wainwright said: “It was a pleasure to meet Sam and thank him for all his hard work in promoting Sun Savers. We know that our readers spend on average £8 per week than other newspaper shoppers so by promoting the programme our loyal readers can become your loyal customers! Thanks to all the retailers that champion The Sun every day and help us to do what we do best!”

Fifty runners up also each received £50 vouchers for their involvement with the initiative.