Essex Countywide Business Awards
Celebrating THE BEST IN BUSINESS ACROSS ESSEX
Essex Business Awards – Taking a Pause
The Essex Business Awards have always been about celebrating the incredible talent, innovation, and success of businesses across our county.
To make the awards even bigger and better for the future, we’ve decided to pause the event this year while we take time to review and refresh the programme.
Thank you to everyone — entrants, sponsors, judges, and supporters — who have helped make the awards such a success so far. We’re excited to share updates soon on the next chapter for the Essex Business Awards!
Stay tuned here and on our other digital platforms for news.
Mike Harper
Managing Director
Sponsorship available in 2025
Be part of recognising and celebrating the success and achievements of organisations in Essex!
Lynda Clark
Events Manager | South East
If you would like more information on the opportunities available, please contact myself on 01376 334351 or lynda.clark@localiq.co.uk
MEET Our Winners for 2024
* New Company award - City family cic
* small/med business award - miboot camp
* customer focus award - success recruit
* business 2 business award - working well essex - provide community cic
* charity community award - baker labels
* charity private award - trust links
* businessperson of the year - becky benfield-humberstone - the brand artisan
* growing business award - toast
* environmental award - csh environmental
* apprentice of the year - lewis hodgetts - swiftclean uk ltd
* employer award - cadman construction
* marketing & pr award - mad little marketer
* entrepreneur of the year - daniel wylie - the wylie group
* young entrepreneur of the year - adams rice pudding
* outstanding employee - kittie story - nutbourne
WELL DONE ONCE AGAIN TO ALL OF THE WINNERS
Please note: all nominations are accepted in good faith, and on the basis that both the nominee and the person making the nomination consents to the publication by the awards organiser of all information provided in print, online and social media.
Small business of the Year
This award will be presented to a dynamic company with less than 10 FTE employees which demonstrates all round excellence in business. Businesses must be trading for at least 18 months. The judges will be looking for: • Commercial success, growth and achievement. • Future objectives for the growth of the business. • Innovation and creativity. • Ability to engage and contribute to “Essex Life”. The operating address for this category must be in the Essex BID operating area and not be a registered or PO box address
Business Leader of the Year
This award will be presented to a leader who can demonstrate that his or her effective leadership has been and continues to be instrumental in the development of his or her business/enterprise or supported the local business community. The judges are looking for: • Positive and inspiring leadership. • Excellent commercial performance and results. • Effective participation in and contribution to the local business community.
Service Excellence Award
This award is in recognition of companies with a genuine and innovative focus on customer service. The judges are looking for: • A company which can demonstrate service excellence through the delivery of customer service. • A clear relationship between customer service activities and improved business performance, financial growth and customer retention. • A company with a clear understanding of customer needs.
Creative & Cultural Business Award
The judges will be looking for evidence of: • Commercial success, growth and achievement through culture and creativity shaping the way the organisation operates • Effective contribution to the local business community • Innovative development and engagement with the local creative community • Engagement in environmental sustainability initiatives
Sustainable Business Award
The winner of this award should be able to demonstrate how they have reduced the impact of their business on the environment in two or more of the following areas: • Green product innovation • Emission of greenhouse gases • Energy consumption • Water consumption • Production of waste and improving recycling rates • Sustainable supply chain and procurement • Transport impact of their goods or services • Staff development and training on environmental impact
Large Business Award
This award will be presented to an outstanding business organisation with more than 10 FTE employees that demonstrate excellence. The judges will be looking for: • Commercial success, growth and achievement. • Future objectives for the growth of the business. • Innovation and creativity. The operating address for this category must be in the local authority district of Essex and not be a registered or PO box address
New Business Award
The award recognises a new business that started trading within the past two years whose existing success has set the ground work for the business to grow, flourish and move into a position of longer-term sustainability. The judges are looking for: • A clearly conveyed business idea. • Specific achievements. • Opportunity for business growth and development.
Charity & Social Enterprise Award
This category recognises the contribution made by charities and social enterprises that provide such valuable services within the Essex district. The award will be granted to the charities that has made the most significant difference to its target beneficiaries The judges will be looking for: • Clearly outlined social goals and objectives. • Clear evidence of social and community impact within the Essex District. • Evidence of sustainable growth.
Essex Area Champion Award
This award will be presented to a dynamic company based in the within the Essex BID operating area which demonstrates all round excellence in business. Businesses must be trading for at least 18 months. The judges will be looking for: • A company of individual which celebrates the city centre and all it has to offer, helps to raise the profile of Essex and makes a contribution towards its future development as a location for business. • Promoting Essex as a great place to live, work, visit and study. • Commercial success, growth and achievement. • Ability to engage and contribute to life in Essex City Centre. Please note this award is only open to businesses operating within the Winchester BID operating area. The operating address for this category must be in the Winchester BID operating area and not be a registered or PO box address
ENTRIES ARE OPEN FOR 2025
* Entries Close - 27th August * * Pre-networking Event - 30th September * * Awards Presentation - 26th November *
Event Feedback:
Sean Emmett – Cost Plan Consulting
Now that we have had a fortnight to reflect on the excellent awards you put on at the end of last month, we wanted to personally congratulate you on a fantastic effort.
We really did not know what to expect throughout the whole process and were completely blown away by the scale of the event, especially “on the night”, it was so well done.
We also believe what we obtained as far as advertising etc was value for money
Donna Briant – Rutherford Briant
Thank you so much for organising yet another very successful awards evening. I am sorry I was unable to attend but unfortunately it was during half term. The team who did attend all said they had a great evening, and of course, made all the better for winning The Best Employer award. They enjoyed mixing with the other finalists and winners, as well as helping support your chosen charity.
Please pass on our sincere thanks and sincere gratitude to the judges for picking us as their winners, we are beyond delighted. This award means so much to Toby, myself and the wider team who work so hard to create a fun, supportive and successful workplace where people want to be.
We thoroughly recommend every business gets involved and enter the business awards for 2024, it’s a real achievement to win and great to be part of something special.
Christine Bhatt & Manuel Bhatt – Systematics International.
It was a great pleasure to be sponsors and part of the judging panel for this year’s Countywide Business Awards. After a couple of very difficult years and on-going uncertainties, it’s so important to recognise the effort’s and achievements of Essex businesses and their teams.
This year’s entries were so diverse and the quality of applications was at its highest making the judging process incredibly hard. All the finalists showed that their businesses are moving in the right direction and are successful enterprises. A massive congratulations to all the finalists who all deserved to be worthy winners but there can only be one prize and this year’s winner, Lasered Components Ltd clearly demonstrated that they have proactively reacted to developing their business model with funding, growth in employee base and winning new business contracts. A really strong entry with impressive growth figures.
Donna Briant – Rutherford Briant.
Thank you so much for a wonderful evening on Friday. It was clear the time and attention that went to make it very special. All of the team that attended had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, particularly special to win two awards!
Sarah Davis – KGK Genix (Herts) Ltd.
The Essex Business Awards are a great opportunity for businesses to come together, network and celebrate a year of business success. It was amazing to see such a varied range of businesses and industries in the room.
Being recognised for our business marketing and awarded the ‘Digital Award’ is a fantastic achievement for our team and one that we can’t wait to display proudly in our trophy cabinet. We’re already excited about entering next year!
Julie Stevens – Kingswood Group.
Lynda, firstly, congratulations on organizing such a fantastic event last Friday. Your hard work made it a huge success.
Melissa Lewis – ML Property Venture.
Thank you again for having me at the awards show last week. It’s my first time going to such an event, and I was blown away by how well organised and fancy the event was.
So thank you and the team for your hard work in putting it together and giving businesses a chance to network, etc.
FSE Digital were delighted to be asked to sponsor the Essex Business Awards. As a local business owner myself, I’m always happy to champion and celebrate achievement within the sector. It was an absolute honour to judge the Digital Award Category. The event was very well run and provided a superb opportunity to network with other likeminded business owners and leaders. A huge thanks to LOCALiQ who made it all possible.
Molly Gaddard – Rutherford Briant
Thank you for organising such a fantastic evening on Friday, we all really enjoyed ourselves.
Rossella Inguscio – Havens Hospices.
The Essex Countywide Business Awards was a great collective celebration.
Havens Hospices was the supported Charity of the Event and sponsored the night alongside the other Partners.
It was a great opportunity to meet with other companies, find out about the remarkable work of many within the area, celebrate their wins and praise the great effort of the organisers who graciously and effortlessly made the event a night to remember.
On behalf of Havens Hospices, I would like to congratulate finalists and winners and extend my sincere gratitude to the organisers for allowing us to deliver our message to so many. Thank every donor for their contribution and for helping us make a positive difference.
An astonishing amount was raised, helping us continue ‘Making every day count’ for those we are caring for today, and those we will meet in the future too.
Tom Broome – Constellation Marketing.
I just wanted to say that we had a great time on Friday at the awards ceremony. It was great to be around so many fantastic businesses. Even though we didn’t win, it was still brilliant fun and we met some really interesting people.
Sarah McKee-Harris – Kingswood Group
Kingswood Group were proud to sponsor the Business to Business Awards at the Essex Business Awards – it was our first time being involved in these prestigious awards and we definitely want to continue our participation in the future, be that as an entrant or judge. It’s fantastic to be a part of these highly acclaimed awards which showcase the best in Essex industry!
