Zenith handed Royal approval for staff development

The Leeds-based firm joins major UK businesses including RBS, Barclays, and Waitrose in being honoured with the Princess Royal Training Award from the City & Guilds Group.

The awards will be presented in a ceremony at St James’s Palace this autumn.

Marisa Waddington, HR director at Zenith, said: “Our people are essential to the success of Zenith and delivering the customer centred culture that fuels our growth. It is great to join such highly-respected companies and receive this recognition.”

Now in its second year, the Princess Royal Training Awards honours employers in the UK who have created outstanding training and skills development programmes which have resulted in exceptional commercial benefits. The Princess Royal Training Awards recognise the achievement of a standard of excellence rather than selecting overall winners.

Each applicant was assessed against three Hallmarks of Excellence by the Princess Royal Training Awards Commission, which comprised of HRH The Princess Royal and seven leading figures in the business and training community.

Chris Jones, Chief Executive of the City & Guilds Group said: “From household brands to leading charities, employers of all sizes across the UK are seeing real and tangible benefits of training and developing their people.

“The Princess Royal Training Awards provide both recognition and the opportunity to share best practice and its impact.

“I congratulate the 40 successful organisations who presented their evidence and achieved the standard required by the Award in 2017. They are worthy recipients of this prestigious and rigorous royal award, and we are delighted to be able to deliver it through the City & Guilds Group.”

Now in its 25th year Zenith has had an eventful few months having combined forces with Contract Vehicle Holdings and being acquired by private equity house Bridgepoint for £750m, its sixth successive management buyout in 15 years.

The total number of vehicles the two firms manage is now more than 100,000. Zenith is also preparing to relocate from its current base in the Calverley area of Leeds to new purpose built facilities at the new Kirkstall Forge development where it will be the anchor tenant.