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Business Awards 2007 - meet the finalists
THE excitement is mounting for the 15 companies that have been selected to compete in the finals of the Evening Telegraph's Business Awards 2007. Weeks of intensive analysis by a team of seven judges has finally whittled down the mass of applicants to the lucky 15 that will hope to win one of the coverted trophies at a glittering awards ceremony on Friday.
THE excitement is mounting for the 15 companies that have been selected to compete in the finals of the Evening Telegraph's Business Awards 2007.
Weeks of intensive analysis by a team of seven judges has finally whittled down the mass of applicants to the lucky 15 that will hope to win one of the coverted trophies at a glittering awards ceremony on Friday.
RETAIL:
JOHN LEWIS has been based at Peterborough's Queensgate shopping centre for 25 years and in the last year has refurbished the ladies' shoes, menswear and electrical departmentlk, delivery lead times have been improved so items are delivered within seven days and the business overall has won the Which? Best Retailer Award and was placed second in a customer satisfaction report.
ADVANCE PERFORMANCE is an independent retail store that treats each customer as an individual. It now has an online store and over the last 12 months has developed a computerised system that records each customer's past purchases. The firm has enjoyed steady growth year on year with with an average of 23.6 per cent for the past three years.
SPECSAVERS OPTICIANS AND HEARING CENTRE operates a six month no quibble guarantee that includes a money back option. Repairs and adjustments can be done while the customer ts, and if a customer has difficulty getting into the store, the store goes out to the customer. A member of staff is always at the entrance to welcome customers and to direct them if help is required.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT:
GREENWOODS SOLICITORS is a commercial law firm and for the last five years the firm has been rolling our a series of creative learning programmes to help solicitors understand and better manage the impact of their behaviour on their clients and colleagues. The learning agenda includes a leadership programme, a business skills dipoma and technical training and one-to-one IT assessments and training.
PETERBOROUGH MARRIOTT HOTEL is the only four star hotel in Peterborough and predominantly serves the business community. Training and development play an important part in the business strategy by providing the organisation with the capability of achieving its goals. the hotel has introduced a number of of local workforce development initiatives.
GREENSTONES is a proactive accountancy practice and Mastery members of the Value Added Network of Accountants and were recently voted the AVN Midlands firm of the year and runners up in a national competition. Last February the firm gained the Investors in People Work Life Balance module and a month later was certified as a platinum approved employers by ACCA.
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS:
KIER EASTON is a regional construction company operating in the east of England and has a robust and comprehensive environmental management system withthe aim to reduce the impact their activities have on the environment. This plus the willingness of staff to acknowledge their failures has differentiated the company from other similar businesses.
FISHERPRINT is a specialist commercial lithographic printing firm and has attained the Forestry Stewardship Council Chain of Custody, which means it has meet criteria to show it is selling products that are not contributing to the destruction of the environment. The firm has also embarked on a programme of investment that has enabled it to offer some of the most advanced technology available.
ATKINS is a provide of professional and technology-based consultancy and support services and operates an accredited environmental management system so staff are aware of their responsibilities in managing the environmental issues at all stages of a project's lifecycle. In the last year, recycling has meant the firm has been able to halve the amount of wastage.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNITY
THE BROADWAY THEATRE engages with the community when ever it can. Each year the staff invite disabled groups and under-privileged children to a yearly pantomime and the theatre also hosts the Read Write and inspire Children's film awards where children of all ages make their own short films and they attend the Braodway for an Oscar type awards ceremony.
PERKINS ENGINES has just celebrated its 75th anniversary and contributes to the community by a number of means with their corporate social responsibility strategy. It set up the award-winning Learning, Education and Achievement Partnership to support young people who re not succeeding in mainstream education. The company also sponsors many community events.
CROSS KEYS HOMES is the city's largest housing association and since 2004 has invested 45 million in improving tenants' homes and the association implemented a five year quality of life strategy for their residents, proving free parenting classes, ice hockey lessons, go-karting, DJ sesssions and computer skills training. It also sets aside an annual budget for investing in community sponsorship and engagement events.
CUSTOMER CARE
PETERBOROUGH MARRIOTT HOTEL's brand term is Spirit to Serve Our Guests used to describe its service culture to deliver consistent outstanding service to their guests. Attention to detail, openness to innovation and creativity in serving guests ensures every role contributes to providing a memorable experience. Communication of the policy starts with all new starters within the hotel. Notice boards, meetings, reviews and one-to-ones are also used. A specific programme has been developed to track any complaints.
JOHN LEWIS has the aim of offering the highest standard of customer service, and beat expectations, distinguishing themselves in the market place. Before joining the business each applicant follows a recruitment selection process where their skills and behaviour are observed. Every member of staff has a clear understanding of what is expected of them through a personal development programmed called Horizons. Customer service standards are monitored in several ways.
ROCKINGHAM INDEPENDENT operates in the personal finance industry, Rockingham Independent, is completely dedicated to providing retirement solutions on direct offer or advice basis. All staff are trained from day one to contact the customer as soon as an enquiry is made. The initial consultant remains a single point of contact throughout the consultancy stage enabling the customer to have consistent access to someone who is dealing with their case.
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR -SMALL
WOODCOCK HOLMES ESTATE AGENTS was started in June 2002 in a small shop on Lincoln Road and was set up by two partners – Neil Holmes and Adrian Woodcock. It now has four offices and has set up Complete Home Services, a service that enables all clients to call to arrange repairs and have peace of mind that the contractors are reputable tradesman. This year has seen the company exceed the 1 million turnover which means that 2008 looks set to be another successful year.
THE BUSINESS WATCH GROUP is dedicated to delivering highly cost effective security, telecommunications and fire protection solutions by working in partnership with clients and by combining the best people, technology and operating practices. Jonathan Wakerley started the business 14 years ago from the spare room in his parents' house. The company now employs more than 60 staff, has around 2,500 commercial customers and an annual turnover of 1.7 million.
CIRRUS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LTD is an independent IT Payroll and Human Resources Solution company. In the four years that it has been trading, directors Andrew Linford and David Neal have seen significant growth of the business. This year they have exceeded their expectation by increasing turnover by 170,000, securing contracts of many big name clients including large multi-nationals and taking on additional staff to cope with the additional workload.
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR – MEDIUM
SPECSAVERS' Peterborough branch has outperformed the whole group. Its market share is 40 per cent compared to a national of 33 per cent and despite a presence in much larger cities, the Peterborough branch is the fifth largest store of 580. The recent addition of the hearing centre has enabled the store to expand further and this has added an additional 104,000 to their profit this year.
PETERBOROUGH MARRIOTT HOTEL has undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment programme, which is still on-going. 2007 has seen more than 60 weddings catered for and the largest conference has been held at the hotel – for more than 900 people. There has been an increase in guest satisfaction to 88 per cent and catering revenues within the hotel year on year have increased by 18 per cent. Staff turnover over the past two years has reduced from 33.7 to 16 per cent.
BROADWAY THEATRE was bought in August 2004 by Rinaldo Fasulo. The business had not been performing very well. Rinaldo, a key player in Peterborough's entertainment scene put together an enthusiastic and skilled team of experienced people. During the past 12 months they have completed the conference suite which has now become a popular venue for weddings, conferences, parties and exhibitions and transformed the old cloakroom area into The Piano Cocktail Bar.
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR - LARGE
THOMAS COOK UK AND IRELAND is the second largest leisure travel group in the UK with about 19,000 employees, a fleet of 45 aircraft and a network of more than 800 high street stores. The company outperformed the market in all business areas and achieved record profits of of 87.1 million with a profit margin of 5.1 per cent.
The firm has won a number of prestigious awards and in July was named as the number one travel agent and tour operator.
BGL GROUP has grown to be the second largest personal lines insurance broker in the UK and has generated 50 per cent organic compound growth over the last five years and this year has exceeded all expectation. The number of insurance policies under management by the group as a whole was 1.4 million last year and this has grown by more than 42 per cent to two million.
ROYAL HASKONING is an international firm of consulting engineers and environmental scientists and the past 12 months have been an outstanding success with record profits, growth and appointments and new significant projects and prestigious awards. It was named among the Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work for 2007 and has seen turnover for its UK businessincrease by 19 per cent to 32 million.
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