Excellence in Business Awards 2022: Winners revealed as over 400 attend black-tie event

The annual black-tie event, organised by The Yorkshire Post and taking place at Headingley Stadium on the night of November 23, saw David Bond of Sheffield Forgemasters named as the Business Leader of the Year.

The accolade came after he oversaw the project to bring Sheffield Forgemasters into public ownership after three years of negotiation with the Government.

The deal saw the MoD take over the shares capital of the company in 2021 - securing its future for decades and releasing a £400m investment programme.

Accepting the award, Mr Bond praised staff at Forgemasters and said the company was looking forward to an exciting future, with planning permission recently granted for a building to house a new open-die forging press.

“The [public ownership] move took three years to negotiate. Fundamentally it is about bringing significant investment. We have an absolutely fantastic workforce who do some very unique things for the UK, particularly UK defence.

“No other company in the country can do this kind of stuff.

“The change in ownership brings in a whole new investment.

“We are spending that already. Our site is not just a steel site, it is a construction site.”

He said that despite the wider economic challenges, the incredible achievements of the many and varied Yorkshire businesses at the awards evening highlighted reasons for optimism.

“I think we have got to think for the future and invest for the future. It is no use looking back, it is no use having a doom and gloom mentality.

“There are fantastic stories at this awards ceremony tonight.”

He said he is passionate about opening up engineering as a career option to a wider range of people.

“I have worked in engineering and manufacturing all my life and it is my passion. I’d like to see far more people go into it and a far more diverse workforce coming to engineering.”

The evening, hosted by TV news presenter Rosanna Lockwood, began with a presentation by the night’s charity partner, Maggie’s, with centre head Amanda Proctor telling the audience what the organisation does to help people with cancer and their families.

A raffle and silent auction took place throughout the evening, raising thousands of pounds for the charity.

The awards section of the night started with Solar Fast winning in the Best Business Transformation category in recognition of its new focus on eco-friendly technologies that are helping homeowners across Yorkshire save money and reduce their impact on the environment at the same time.

In the second category, the transformation of the historic Guildhall in York was the winner of the Commercial Development of the Year accolade.

The Diversity and Inclusion award was won by EyUp, the Yorkshire tech skills academy founded by technology entrepreneur David Richards, CEO of data software company WANdisco plc. The organisation teaches students everything they need to know to work as a software engineer within 16 weeks.

The Employee Health and Wellbeing award was claimed by the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice for the work they do supporting their fantastic staff.

It was then the turn of Bradford’s Cloud 2, BCN Group to claim the Innovation Award after their entry highlighted how they had helped to reduce outpatient waits at Rotherham Hospital by two-thirds.

The International Business of the Year award went to air conditioning experts Airedale by Modine, who have opened new plants in the US and Spain as well as securing contracts across the world.

The Manufacturing Business of the Year was Econ Engineering, chosen after it opened its state-of-the-art new service site in Sowerby.

Staff at the company had also raised £15,000 for the Harrogate Hospital & Community Charity after the death of much-missed co-director Andrew Lupton in January.

In the hotly-contested Large Business of the Year category, the winner was Zenith; the Leeds firm which is the UK’s leading independent leasing, vehicle outsourcing and fleet management provider.

Medium-sized Business of the Year went to Rotherham’s Mattress Online as the online retailer begins to open physical stores across the country, starting right here in Yorkshire in Sheffield and Skipton.

In the Retail, Leisure and Tourism Business category, the winner was Escapism Bar Group for their sterling work to get through the pandemic and their ambitious expansion plans.

The Rural Business of the Year prize was claimed by Sheffield’s Moss Valley Fine Meats whose owners had highlighted the plight of British pig farmers facing mass culls of their animals in the British and international media.

Their work contributed to changing Government policy with more work emergency visas issued to foreign butchers.

In the Small Business of the Year category, there had been a total of 69 entries for the judges to consider.

The winner was Simply Wigs, a company founded by Emma Garrard with the intention of changing the way women with hair loss were treated after finding a lack of available support after her own children were born with a genetic condition that caused hair loss.

The Start-up Business of the Year was named as MediMusic, which has developed technology that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning that mimic the human brain’s response to music for the benefit of clinical pain and anxiety.

It has won praise from the NHS for helping to reduce agitation in patients with dementia.

The Sustainability Award went for their work helping thousands of people live in more energy-efficient properties and cut their bills at the same time went to All Seasons Group.

In the Technology and Digital category, the winner was Radar Healthcare.

Their work sees the company assist health and social care organisations to harness vital data insights so they can improve care and reduce clinical incidents.