Previous Winners & Judges Feedback
Finegreen Group
Best Small to Medium-sized Business
Commenting on the Finegreen Group, the winner in the Best Small to Medium-sized Business category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““The Finegreen Group is an exceptional healthcare recruitment consultancy that goes the extra mile for every vacancy it deals with. It stays ahead of the market by launching new services, such as its Development and Consultancy division, to meet the changing needs of its clients and it recently diversified into the area of recruiting for healthcare charities. In a fast-changing market that is under constant pressure from all directions, Finegreen rises to the challenge every time and wins more business and a larger share of the healthcare recruitment market.” ”
Waypoint Partners
Outstanding Non-Executive Director
Commenting on Miles Welch, owner of Waypoint Partners, the winner in the Outstanding Non-Executive Director category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““With a wealth of experience behind him in mergers and acquisition and helping businesses to grow, Miles Welch is a talented adviser who has produced incredible results for companies in the creative, marketing and technology industries. He advises businesses not only how to grow and become more profitable, but how to grow value as well. After taking his advice, one client achieve a valuation that was 55 times higher. Miles is an exceptional businessman and highly adept at solving problems. He gets straight to the root of low performance and brings out the best in businesses.””
MaviBahçe Shopping Center
Best Communication
Commenting on Gastronomizmir Food and Gourmet Festival / MaviBahçe Shopping Center, the winner in the Best Communication category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““MaviBahçe Shopping Center’s campaign for its food and gourmet festival was a well planned and executed PR and multi-media campaign that boosted footfall and revenue. Social media played a major role in the success of the food festival with more than 1.3 million people viewing posts and 735 sharing digital messages. The campaign for the festival also whet the appetite for the shopping mall’s Facebook followers with posts viewed rising by 180%. A brilliant campaign that was a recipe for success.””
Akbati Shopping Mall
Best Corporate Social Responsibility
Commenting on Akbati Shopping Mall, the winner in the Best Corporate Social Responsibility category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Congratulations to Akbata Shopping Mall for running a brilliant corporate social responsibility campaign that is highly relevant to its customer case. The majority of its customers are women and its ‘I'm a Mother and I Would do Anything for my Child's Development’ programme of instructional and fun events supported families and helped them spend enjoyable time together. The majority of the events were oversubscribed and were an excellent way for Akbati Shopping Mall to develop a dialogue with its customers.” ”
Water2Business
Best Customer Focus
Commenting on water2business, the winner in the Best Customer Focus category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““When water2business launched in April 2017, at a time when the floodgates opened for new providers, parent businesses of the joint venture Wessex Water and Bristol Water took the opportunity to introduce a customer-focused culture that offers clients savings and great services. Not only does water2business offer bespoke packages to customers, it regularly consults with them to improve services and has a brilliant staff engagement programme called People1st. The customer-focused culture has worked wonders with clients ranking water2business services as the best in the market.” ”
MaviBahçe Shopping Center
Best Marketing
Commenting on Gastronomizmir Food and Gourmet Festival / MaviBahçe Shopping Center, the winner in the Best Marketing category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Proving that food is a great way to bring people together, MaviBahçe Shopping Center’s recent five-day Gastronomizmir festival pulled in the crowds and got the cash tills ringing. Visitors to the shopping mall enjoyed the unique flavours of the Aegean region, demonstrations by chefs, workshops and a cooking competition. Catching people’s attention requires skill and creativity, and MaviBahçe Shopping Center pulled it off perfectly. The event attracted the imagination of shoppers and resulted in a 20% increase in visitors and a mouth-watering jump in revenue.” ”
- What are the benefits of winning awards?
- How to write a successful award entry
- What are the best awards to enter?
- How to start your business awards programme
- How to impress the judges
- Success stories
Agent42
Best Corporate Social Responsibility
Commenting on Agent42, the winner in the Best Corporate Social Responsibility category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Agent42, a virtual, full-service marketing agency, has demonstrated excellent commitment to giving back to society. Every year it teams up with Acer UK and members of the technology press to run a two to three-day challenge to raise funds for a particular charity. To run and support the event, Agent42 has to be praised for working with local companies such as bakeries, taxis and coach companies to support the economy it works in. The sums raised for charity are substantial and the challenge also builds stronger relationships with clients, the press and local businesses.””
Mavibahçe Shopping Center
Best Communication
Commenting on Jazz Festival / MaviBahçe Shopping Center, the winner in the Best Communication category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““By making effective use of all communication tools available including PR, print, digital and media coverage, MaviBahçe Shopping Center turned its three-day Jazz Festival into an unforgettable occasion. Local residents, jazz lovers and tourists flocked to the event creating a massive 35% rise in footfall. It was a brilliantly orchestrated brand placement exercise that changed the use of the center, put it on the map, enhanced its appeal among different groups of people and created bucket loads of goodwill.” ”
VHR
Best Small to Medium-sized Business
Commenting on VHR, the winner in the Best Small to Medium-sized Business category, the chairman of the judges said::
““In order to solve their complex staffing problems, international technical recruitment organisation VHR has built its success on building a partnership with clients. By having a presence in the countries it operates in, the company is always available to support clients and expat and migrant staff. Its commitment to staff to encourage them to develop their career is exceptional, as is its work in the corporate social responsibility area. Through its strong values and philosophy of working closely with clients, growth has been spectacular and is heading skyward.””
Genius Within
Outstanding Female Entrepreneur
Commenting on Nancy Doyle, founder of Genius Within, the winner in the Outstanding Female Entrepreneur category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Occupational therapist and entrepreneur Nancy Doyle is highly deserving of this award for her incredible work as a champion for the value of neuro diversity in the workplace and helping neuro diverse adults get into work and develop their careers. It is also commendable that she has grown a business in this specialist area into a commercial, sustainable success. Through Genius Within, TV documentaries and by her tireless campaigning, Nancy has placed neurodiversity on the national agenda and helped thousands with neurological issues get a suitable job”. ”
Truphone
Best Customer Focus
Commenting on Truphone, the winner in the Best Customer Focus category, the chairman of the judges said::
““At Truphone exceptional service is the norm not the exception as proven by the customer feedback it receives and its net promoter scores that monitors client loyalty. Truphone does not aim for bland, polite, process-based interactions with its customers; its focus is on making an emotional connection and instilling trust, pride and support. Truphone works to a sound set of beliefs that includes providing customers with inspirational experiences and, of course, the strongest possible mobile phone connectivity. Congratulations to Truphone for taking customer focus up to a new level of professionalism.””
APT Training & Consultancy Ltd
Best Employer
Commenting on APT Training & Consultancy Ltd, the winner in the Best Employer category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““APT Training & Consultancy Ltd has created an open and collaborative working environment where its people are valued, respected and encouraged to share their knowledge. Care is taken to get the right person for the job so that the right training courses for mental health professionals are created that the market wants. With strong values and a friendly environment, APT Training & Consultancy may be a small enterprise yet it is highly successful with a brilliant reputation for highly quality, specialist mental health training courses.” ”
Director of Marketing, Solihull College
Winning a Best Business Award has provided us with a platform to raise our profile via the media. Since winning we have secured press coverage in key national and regional publications regarding the great work we are doing and we have attracted students to the college that may not have otherwise heard about us.
I would recommend the Best Business Awards to any dynamic organisation that wants to prove to stakeholders that it is delivering.
co-founder of Concert Live
If you are a young business without much marketing spend, then entering awards can be a cost-effective way of generating positive marketing and PR, because you are thrown into the spotlight. It also offers a seal of approval.
Potential customers can look at that and think “I’m happy to do business with this company”, because they have that recognition.
Director, Computerlinks
Experience has shown that an award gives massive credence to our business, particularly when talking to new customers and vendors that have not dealt directly with us in the past. With existing partners, it reinforces the fact they have made the right choice to work with us.
If I equated the benefits of winning an award to other forms of channel marketing, we would probably have to spend tens of thousands of pounds to get similar levels of impact.
KMI Brands
Best Innovation
Commenting on KMI Brands, the winner in the Best Innovation category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““While businesses in the beauty industry are looking for the next big thing, KMI Brands has carved out its own niche market in the natural category by partnering with major brands such as Ted Baker and Boots, and bringing out its own high-quality, natural range. In particular, its Noughty brand in the natural sector has seen remarkable success. In a fiercely competitive market, KMI Brands has produced sparkling results and is on track to double turnover within the next three years.””
Allianz Turkey
Best Customer Focus
Commenting on Allianz Turkey, the winner in the Best Customer Focus category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Allianz Turkey has transformed its call centre into a customer care centre through the use of speech analytics. By turning speech into text, it has been able to analyse customer communications and alleviate pain points, identify customers’ needs and get an insight into how they feel. Highlighting the power of new technology, speech recognition has had a profound impact on Allianz Turkey’s customer care centre. By analysing the text from calls, Allianz Turkey has identified problems, reduced call times, cut queues and introduced improvements in the customer journey. This is a great example of how busiensses can make good use of technology to improve the customer experience.””
Turk Telecom
Best Corporate Social Responsibility
Commenting on Turk Telecom, the winner in the Best Corporate Social Responsibility category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Turk Telecom’s has to be highly commended for its involvement in Project Sunshine, a corporate community partnership that aims to raise awareness about the difference between blindness and low vision. The project also trains children with low vision so they can continue with their education and reach their full potential. Following the training, some of the children have been accepted into mainstream schools, while others have stopped using their white cane after only seven weeks. This is a brilliant project that has produced amazing results. A big round of applause to Turk Telecom!””
Marmalade Fish
Outstanding Entrepreneur
Commenting on Mr Samie Al-Achrafi, founder of Marmalade Fish, the winner in the Outstanding Entrepreneur category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Mr Samie Al-Achrafi is having a huge impact on leading businesses to put society first before profit through his global learning and leadership consultancy business Marmalade Fish. He advocates putting values and culture before productivity and profit. Samie is also a great believer in supporting charities and social initiatives. Formed in 2015, the consultancy has already trained more than 195,000 people across all sectors in his way of thinking. Samie has developed a refreshing business model that makes businesses realise that they can make the world a better place and make money at the same time.” ”
KMI Brands
Best Product / Service Range
Commenting on KMI Brands, the winner in the Best Product/Service Range category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Congratulations to KMI Brands for helping its clients build on their brands with high quality, natural and innovative beauty products that offer value for money. In a highly competitive market, KMI Brands spreads the risk by having its own brands as well as developing products for its clients. To stay ahead of the market, KMI Brands puts innovation first and consequently it has seen incredibly fast growth. One of its own brands Noughty has taken the beauty market by storm selling more than 275,000 products in 1,780 stores worldwide in its first 12 months. Fantastic performance!””
Tancream Ltd
Best Innovation
Commenting on Tancream Ltd, the winner in the Best Innovation category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Tancream Ltd’s eponymously named product is a ground-breaking innovation in sun cream protection that is highly deserving of this award. It is the first sun cream on the market that combines gradual self-tanning and protection up to 50spf. Tancream not only creates a gorgeous sun-tanned look, it protects the skin against sun damage and ageing. While it may seem like a straightforward product, it was actually incredibly difficult to develop. Congratulations to Tancream for its technological achievement and for creating a revolutionary sunscreen product aimed those who want to protect their skin and look good.” ”
Risk Decisions Ltd
Best Customer Focus
Commenting on Risk Decisions Ltd, the winner in the Best Customer Focus category, the chairman of the judges said: :
““Risk Decisions Ltd has taken a fresh, adventurous approach to helping its clients manage risk in a positive, collaborative way. Its outcomes-orientated approach, demonstrates its dedication to clients and the customer community it set up is a great way for companies to share their experiences and knowledge in order to boost their resilience around risks and uncertainty. The company also uses customers’ experiences to update its risk software platform Predict! While the future can be full of surprises, Risk Decisions Ltd helps to take the bombshell out of change.” ”
Marston’s Beer Company
Best Large Business
Commenting on Marston's Beer Company, the winner in the Best Large Business category, the chairman of the judges said:
“With one of its bottles of beer sold every three seconds, Marston’s Beer company is a well-known and much loved British brand. The 180-year old, Midlands-based company sells in 6,000 pubs and restaurants in the UK, exports products to 60 different countries and has 27% of the premium bottled ale and 20% of the premium cask ale markets. It has already achieved huge success and having recently invested in its staff and a plan for the future, it is positioned for even greater things. Cheers to Marston’s for being a great British brewery.”
Dubai Electricity & Water Authority
Best Customer Focus
Commenting on Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), the winner in the Best Customer Focus category, the chairman of the judges said::
“Congratulations to DEWA for delivering world-class service levels that beats many European and US providers. By devoting 10% of staffing resources to its Customer Happiness Division, it shows that this is a company that takes customer happiness seriously. Its customer service statistics are excellent ' power loss is only 3.26% against 6% to 7% in Europe and the USA; and the resolution of complaints is completed in only seven days compared to eight weeks for some European providers. DEWA has set the global standard for other utility providers to follow.”
Steve Pailthorpe, founder and CEO of Iconic Digital
Outstanding Entrepreneur and Outstanding Female Entrepreneur
Commenting on Steve Pailthorpe, founder and CEO of Iconic Digital, the winner in the Entrepreneur of the Year category, the chairman of the judges said::
“Steve Pailthorpe, founder and CEO of digital marketing company Iconic Digital, is a self-motivated social entrepreneur who has stirred up the market by promising to produce a return of ??3 for every marketing ??1 spent by clients. He also lives up to his mantra of Transforming lives through business growth by delivering excellent results for clients and giving 30% of profits to charity. Steve has achieved exceptional success with Iconic Digital and has earned his reputation as a game-changer, an innovator and an inspirational leader.”
Bid Writer Consultancy
Best Small to Medium-sized Business
Commenting on Bid Writer Consultancy, the winner in the Best Small to Medium Size Business category, the chairman of the judges said:
“Bid Writer Consultancy is an amazing company that has found a niche market helping tiny businesses access lucrative contracts from local authorities and the public sector. Often smaller firms miss out of these contacts because they don’t know how to write the tenders. The company does all the writing and has achieved an incredibly high success rate. Needless to say, with its extraordinary success, Bid Writer’s turnover has grown by more half in the last year. Bid Writer is only three years old and has a brilliant future ahead of it as a leader in its field.”
Homestyle Nationwide
Best Customer Focus
Commenting on Homestyle Nationwide, the winner in the Best Customer Focus category, the chairman of the judges said::
“Home shopping company Homestyle Nationwide has gone out of its way to provide a personalised top-quality service to those who are less mobile or vulnerable or are on a tight budget. The drivers of its mobile shopping vans are trained to be friendly and helpful without being pushy about sales. It also sells via its website and, if required, customers can order visits from the shopping vans. It even has trained personal shoppers available via its website, Facebook and an app to help customer find the right product for them. Congratulations to Homestyle Nationwide for providing people who need extra help with a friendly, relaxed and caring retail service.”
