Suffolk-based Notcutts Garden Centres has scored a double victory against stiff competition at the 2013 Marketing Society Awards.

With national and global brands such as John Lewis, Sainsburys, Audi, British Airways and Unilever in attendance, Notcutts was an underdog on the night.

But the Woodbridge company’s Sage Privilege Club impressed the judges to win both the Customer Relationship Marketing award and also the Finance Director’s prize.

The Finance Director’s prize is one of the three biggest honours in the awards, recognising the brand that the judges feel has best demonstrated effective use of marketing expenditure. The judging panel included Finance Directors from Unilever, Boots and British Gas.

Notcutts, which was established in 1897 and remains family owned, operates 19 garden centres.

The Sage Privilege Club was launched in 2009 and now has 125,000 members, which represents around one in five of all Notcutts customers. The club offers best-in-class benefits including 10% off all purchases instore and online, and more than £85-worth of benefits in the garden centre restaurants.

Marketing director Minnie Moll said: “We were very proud to win these two awards while rubbing shoulders with much bigger brands with much bigger budgets.

“It has been great team work with our agency partners babyGRAND and Coniak and every part of the Notcutts business has made the Sage Privilege Club the success it is. Most importantly it is our colleagues in the garden centres who deliver the benefits to our customers each day.”

Jon Nadler, BabyGRAND partner, added: “Notcutts are our founding client. We were there from the inception of Sage and have worked on growing it for the last four years. We’re proud for the work to be recognised by the prestigious marketing society.”