Food excellence
Ginsters and Kettleby Foods, both subsidiaries of Chamber patron Samworth Bros, won top accolades at the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards (FMEAs), with Ginsters scooping the Supply Chain Initiative of the Year and Kettleby Foods the Environmental Initiative of Year awards.
This year the FMEA awards attracted a record number of entries, making competition in each of these categories harder than ever.
The independent judging panel, led by Paul Wilkinson, chair of National Skills Academy, were particularly impressed by both businesses' commitment to driving change and sustainability throughout their operations. They said:
Ginsters’ improved fleet utilisation, its reduction of lorry movements by over 40%, and case handling and dispatch costs by 20%, as well as its thorough approach to problem solving, strong focus on local sourcing and sustainability.
Kettleby Foods approach to waste reduction, demonstrated throughout its business and its environmental management, 4 ‘R’ Plan, with its strong workforce engagement and impressive record of achievement. The business had achieved savings of 2,876 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and waste reduction of up to 41%.
Samworth Brothers then celebrated four overall winner’s awards at this year’s Quality ‘Q’ Food Awards, held in early November, including one of the top accolades of the night, a Gold Q Value award.
Kettleby Foods won the Gold Q Value award for its Tesco Everyday Value Cottage Pie, as well as winning the Value Chilled category for the same product.
There was also success for Kensey Foods with its Tesco Finest Amontillado Sherry Trifle winning a Christmas Q in the Christmas Chilled Sweet category, and for Walker & Son winner in the Pork Pie category for its Dickinson & Morris Ultimate Melton Mowbray Pork Pie.
Other success came with various sites receiving highly commended. They were Walker & Son - Marks & Spencer Victorian Corset Pie in the Christmas Chilled Savoury category, Walkers Sausage Co - Tesco Finest Venison, Red Wine, Cranberry and Orange Zest Stuffing Portions wrapped in Bacon in the Christmas Meat category and Bradgate Bakery - Tesco Finest Bourbon BBQ Beef Waffles in the Christmas Party Food category, Tesco Falafel and Mixed Grain Warm Salad in the Salad Prepared category, Tesco Pink Slaw in the Ready Made Side Dishes category and Tesco Balsamic Salad Pearls in the Sauces and Salad Dressings – Chilled category.
“Winning four prestigious Quality Food awards, including a Gold Q for Kettleby Foods, one of only two awarded on the night, is a real testament to our continuous focus on quality,” said Mark Shippey, Group Technical Director, Samworth Brothers.
He added: “Quality is central to our success, and as a Group we are always looking to maintain and improve our high standards.”
Best small commercial building
bi Design Architecture, of Repton, Derbyshire, beat off competition from iconic buildings and famous architects to win first the Regional Award and now the National Award for Best Small Commercial Building 2015, awarded by industry body LABC.
Small regional architectural practice bi Design boasts big ideas and the skills and expertise to conceptualise and design domestic and commercial buildings that exceed the expectations.
This award was won for architectural design and building excellence for The Boardwalk building at Mercia Marina, Willington, Derbyshire which is the largest inland marina in Europe.
The project team for Mercia Marina comprised of Davlyn Construction, bi Design Architecture and Mercia Marina.
The local planners were looking for an engaging design for the development which has a very prominent position and the planners suggested bi Design Architecture could be the local firm capable of creating an imaginative but ultimately practical design.
bi Design worked on the initial phase of the development, which proved very successful, and went on to design the retail units and offices phase, now called The Boardwalk.
Over 1,000 projects across England and wales were nominated in the awards which are awarded regionally and the finalists from each region are invited to the national awards in London.
Practice Director, Darryn Buttrill said: “We were amazed to be in the final among such prestigious project teams. We are very good at what we do but we don’t usually go in for awards. Our style is to quietly work on a project and get the best outcome for our client and let our work and the success of the design speak for itself.”
The awards were held at the Lancaster London Hotel on 10th November 2015. The judges were looking for innovative and creative solutions and building control professionalism that leads to safe, sustainable and high quality construction projects.
]
To win the regional award for Best Small Commercial Building 2015 bi Design’s work was judged against projects such as the Derby Velodrome and the King Richard III Centre in Leicester.
As a finalist, at what are considered the most important awards in the architectural calendar, bi Design was shortlisted along-side 9 other finalists including, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Westminster. Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre, Bristol and The Wing, The Battle of Britain Memorial, Kent.
Award for independent campaign
The Nottingham Business Improvement District (BID) has been recognised in the British BID awards, winning the Proud Project accolade for Place Marketing in the large BID category for its independents campaign.
The independent campaign is organised annually by the Nottingham BID to highlight the strength and diversity of independent retail and leisure member businesses in the city centre.
Its 2015 campaign included the production and distribution of 50,000 copies of a special independents newspaper featuring member businesses, a competition to find Nottingham’s top independent which was won by the Treat Kitchen and a special social promotion called the 10am Treat giving people the opportunity to win prizes each day from independent businesses.
“We are delighted that we have won this award,” said Geoff Williams, Director of the Nottingham BID.
“Independent businesses that are members of the Nottingham BID really value this marketing campaign. Individually these businesses lack the marketing budget to have significant impact however the joined up activity that the BID can deliver in conjunction with its partners, makes a real difference,” he added.
In the BID’s second term, which begins on 1 January 2016, it will be doing even more to support independents which will include ring-fencing over £100,000 each year over the next five years to help them in various ways.”
Green Apple Awards
North Midland Construction PLC (NM Group), a major UK provider of civil engineering, building, mechanical and electrical services to public and private organisations, has scooped the top award in the International Green Apple Environmental Awards, beating over 500 other entrants, plus four other awards.
The group’s Highways and Utilities division was voted Champion of Champions and presented with its trophy at a prestigious event at the Houses of Parliament for their Clay Wood Green Link project for Sheffield City Council.
The project involved the transformation of a series of underused and isolated spaces in Sheffield into a green corridor and parkland.
The project was commissioned by the Council’s Parks Service, funded by its New Homes Bonus scheme and designed by the Council’s award-winning Landscape Team. Various innovations were explored during the course of the project to minimise the effect on the environment including recycling and reusing materials wherever possible.
The project has also won an Royal Town Planning Institute Place Making Award.
The judges commented: “The Clay Wood area of Sheffield was home to an assortment of abandoned and derelict housing blocks which, once demolished, left an unsightly and unusable area in the heart of the city.
“North Midland Construction was contracted to revitalise this tract and create a pleasant green parkway with spectacular views over the city and a sustainable access route to serve walkers and cyclists travelling between the suburbs and the city centre including tram, bus and rail stations.
“The project made excellent use of any waste and arisings, either reusing them on site or sent for recycling, and the area is now a much improved habitat for residents and wildlife.”
Geoff Poyzer, Managing Director for the division, said: “I am thrilled to accept this award on behalf of our team for the Clay Hill Green Project. We are so proud to be recognised for making such an improvement to a local area.”
NM Group won four other Green Apple Awards which were presented at the same event.
The civil engineering division was presented with a bronze Green Apple Award for the work it carried out on the construction of a new switching station at Loscoe for Western Power Distribution. A variety of innovative construction techniques were used in order to minimise the environmental impact of the work used and steps were taken to protect the natural surroundings.
The group’s NMCNomenca secured a Gold Green Apple Award for the Cheltenham Sewer Strategy project it carried out for Severn Trent Water. The aim of the project was to resolve internal flooding to a number of properties and remove them from the flood register.
The sewer works had a significant impact on residents, and the project team recognising the benefit of meeting them to explain the need for the work, and how it may have affected them. The programme of works was scheduled and managed to minimise disruption to stakeholders and the environment.
The subsidiary company Nomenca also won two awards. The first of these - a gold award - was for a project that it delivered for United Utilities. This was for improvements to Pusey Dale Pumping Station in Shavington, Crewe, to enable it to cope with the growing population in the area and storm events.
As a result of the work carried out, the ecological impacts on aquatic and non-aquatic plants, wildlife and the environment have been greatly reduced.
In addition it secured a silver award for a £1.4m project at Barrow Waste Water Treatment Works, in Cumbria, for United Utilities. Offsite construction was used on the project which reduced health and safety risks, the wastage of raw materials and delivery time of the project. Emissions and the environmental impact were significantly reduced too.
Selina Morson, Environmental Manager at NM Group said: “We aim to deliver environmental best practice on all the projects we carry out for clients and we are delighted to be officially recognised for the standards that we reach. It’s great news that we have succeeded in securing five Green Apple awards.”
Wastecycle, the East Midland’s leading resource management and recycling company, has earned a BronzeEnvironmental Best Practice Award at this year’s prestigious Green Apple Awards following the success of the plasterboard recycling scheme developed with British Gypsum.
Presented during an awards ceremony at the Houses of Parliament in London on 16th November, Wastecycle were recognised for preventing over 30,000 tonnes of plasterboard material from reaching landfill per year.
The scheme diverts waste from landfill and provides a closed loop feedstock solution for the production of new plasterboard by offering a national collection and recycling service for waste plasterboard.
Five representatives from Wastecycle and British Gypsum attended the ceremony, with Paul Needham, Managing Director at Wastecyclecollecting the trophy on their behalf.
Paul Needham said : “We are delighted to have to have received this prestigious award, it’s a real honour for us. Wastecycle and British Gypsum work extremely hard to make our partnership a success, so it’s great to be recognised by the rest of the industry!
“Winningis a true testament to British Gypsum’s dedication to the environment, as well as Wastecycle’s philosophy of providing our customers with the best and latest techniques and products and to meet their needs combined with the highest customer service standards.”
The Green Apple Awards are one of the UK’s most renowned major acknowledgments for environmental best practice. Launched in 1994 by The Green Organisation, the awards ceremony has become one of the most popular environmental campaigns in the world.
Wastecycle has previously won Green Apple awards for its work with East Midlands Airport and Nottingham Trent University.
Bowers Electricals, the Heanor-based transformer manufacturer, was also honoured as an International Green World Ambassador at a special presentation ceremony at the Houses of Parliament.
The family-run business specialises in energy saving power and distribution transformers and earned the recognition for its Powering a Greener Britain project to develop a transformer which utilises fourth generation voltage optimisation to double the environmental benefits of its counterparts.
Named the Bowers Intellivolt, the product also won the team a Gold ‘Green Apple’ award for environmental best practice.
As a result of that success, Bowers will feature in The Green Book – an annual work of reference about reducing energy consumption and wastage which will be distributed to environment professionals, universities and libraries around the world.
The award judges commented: “Bowers have teamed up with iVolt, previous Green Apple winners, and have created a range of cutting edge transformers that - if adopted across Europe - could save up to 3.7 million tons of CO2. They are world leaders in efficient transformers, with their products already saving the equivalent of 520 cars’ worth of CO2e per year.”
Michael Bowers, the company MD, said: “Protecting the environment is of huge importance to us and we’re constantly developing new techniques and sourcing the latest materials to help us achieve the greatest savings we can. Winning such a prestigious award is a great boost for the team.”
Bowers Electricals is now in the running to represent the UK in the Brussels-led European Business Awards for the Environment.
Legendary Games award
"Year 0 Tactics” was awarded Social Game of the year by TIGA, the independent games association, at a glittering ceremony at LSO St Luke’s, London, on 12 November.
The awards celebrate the best in creativity, innovation and business in the UK games industry.
In Year 0 Tactics, players lead a vicious band of marauders in a post-apocalyptic tactical battle game. As play unfolds, you build your base, upgrade your troops, then raid and pillage other players for precious resources. All raids are real time, against real people in a turn-based war game.
The game uses cutting edge web technology. It debuted on Amazon's Fire TV, the first 3D web game on that platform and has thousands of active users on Facebook and Google play.
The public vote for the TIGA Game of the Year Award broke last year’s record to receive nearly 30,000 individual votes, demonstrating the growing popularity of the awards, which are designed to recognise and reward games businesses of all sizes.
Ewan Lamont, CEO of Legendary Games, said: “It was an honour to be nominated for the award and make the short list, it was awesome to win. It is also an industry validation for advanced web games and all the hard work and effort that has gone into making the franchise.”
Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, said: "The TIGA Awards are designed to commend, congratulate and celebrate. At our Awards Ceremony last night we applauded and highlighted excellence in games and business, education and technology, diversity and creativity. I would like to say a huge congratulations to all of our winners, whose creativity and excellence is driving the games industry forward.”
“Our judges were pleased to have the challenging task of judging work that has the power to stop us in our tracks. Well done again to everyone that entered, those who were shortlisted and those who eventually won. We would also like to thank all of our generous sponsors and partners, as well as everyone who has supported the awards.”
Sheffield technology firm's two awards
Alexa Greaves, MD of Sheffield tech company AAG Systems, collected not one but two prestigious awards at the Forward Ladies' National Women in Business Awards 2015, held at The Queens Hotel, Leeds on Friday 20 November.
Alexa was named Business Woman of the Year and also snared the Business of the Year (Growth – 10+ employees category) award for her Yorkshire-based IT company, making her the only double award winner at the event.
In their sixth year, and with more than 400 people attending, the awards are always hotly contested both nationally and at the local level by female entrepreneurs and woman-owned businesses across all industry sectors. Earlier this year at the Yorkshire & North East heats of the awards Alexa took home the regional award for SME business of the year on behalf of AAG.
Speaking after receiving both awards, Alexa stressed the importance of organisations like Forward Ladies saying: "WIBA is an important showcase for the talents and achievements of leading women in business, and it's a great honour to collect two National awards on top of our success in their regional competitions."
Best local conveyancer
Derby-based licensed conveyancing firm John M Lewis and Co won the 2015 AI legal award of Best Local Conveyancer 2015.
Lisa Wills and Liz Knott, partners in the firm have worked hard to establish their team's reputation with new and existing clients. Their depth knowledge and strongly built relationships means that John M Lewis & Co can liaise seamlessly to provide clients with the best service.
Hairdressing students are a cut above
Two hairdressing students from Central College Nottingham have been named runners-up in a national industry hairdressing competition.
Mairead Gavin, a Level 3 Hairdressing student from Chilwell, took third place in the Fantasy Total Look category of the Britain’s Best awards.
Mairead, 25, beat off stiff competition from both trainees and professionals with her creative planets design.
Joel Reavill, a 25-year-old Level 2 Barbering student from Watnall, came second in the Short Back and Sides with Beard Trim trainee category.
Britain’s Best is the National Hairdressers’ Federation (NHF) flagship competition, involving teams from across the country battling it out to showcase their creative talents.
The students were supported by the College’s Hair & Beauty staff throughout the competition.
NHF President Paul Curry said he was amazed at the quality of the work on display, thanking all the winners, runners-up and supporters for making the day such a massive success.
Paul said: “Britain’s Best has once again showcased the very best of British hairdressing, beauty and barbering talent.
“My congratulations go out to all this year’s winners. Everyone – winner or runner-up – was competing at the highest level, producing work of intense creativity and talent.”
Alison Asbury, Head of School overseeing Hair & Beauty courses at Central said: “All the participating students were really professional and supported each other throughout. Competitions like this give valuable experience of today’s fast-paced Hair & Beauty industry. Our staff team support them to be confident taking part in competitions and to be placed second and third is a fantastic achievement.”
Mairead said: “I feel extremely proud to have come third in such a big competition! I appreciate all the time and effort my tutors have put behind me throughout the process. I based the look loosely on 2001: a Space Odyssey as it has some incredible imagery. It was all new to me and I feel like I have learnt a lot from the experience and I cannot wait to do more competitions.”
Fifteen wins Charity Website of the Year
A website designed by Fifteen, a digital agency based in Ilkeston, has been named as the Charity Website of the Year 2015 at The Good Web Guide (GWG) Awards.
Fifteen designed the site for the Imran Khan Cancer Appeal (IKCA).
The award ceremony took place at on Monday 16 November at the Royal Institute of Great Britain, London.
Hosted by Arabella Dymoke, MD of the GWG, there was also a talk from the Sam Crocker, digital director of award sponsor, The Mission, who spoke about the awards and the digital world.
Nick Hungerford, co-founder of Nutmeg, last year's GWG winner, presented the prizes.
The judges chose winning websites for their originality and high engagement levels through a unique concept, or an outstanding user experience.
One of the judges, Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet, said: “IKCA’s website is both stylish and functional - it’s easy to navigate to find out more and it’s super easy to donate to support the charity."
Ollie Piddubriwnyj, Managing Director of Fifteen, said: “To receive an accolade from this respected industry award is a fantastic achievement for us as a digital agency.”
The IKCA website came second in the charity category of the Website of the Year Awards 2015. This is in addition to being awarded Outstanding Website at the Web Awards 2015 in September.