News Room

30 first-class businesses and two schools make it to the finals for the 2010 Dorset Business Awards

• Dorset County Council – With 18,000 employees across 400 workplaces, the Council has set out to make a difference to the lives of its employees initially via the Healthy Living Wessex Partnership and more recently through a number of volunteers to try to spread the healthy living message across the Council.

• IO Electronics Ltd, Poole – Established in 2002, the firm is in the process on implementing a series of innovative healthy workplace initiatives to benefit employees. As a direct result of employee forums, initiatives have been designed to maximise benefits for both the employee and the company and include free fruit, duvet days, recognition schemes and training courses. 

• Julia’s House, Poole – Dorset’s only hospice dedicated to children with life-limiting conditions and has a combination of physical and emotional health initiatives in place for employees. These include an Employee Assistance Programme helpline, bereavement group debriefs, complementary therapies and a cycle to work scheme.

• Castle Gardens, Sherborne – Recognising the needs of a group of adults with learning difficulties whose daytime work provision was closing, Castle Gardens took up the challenge to launch a recycling project named The Green Shed. Engaging with its customers and the business community, support and practical help was raised to provide a recycling centre which enables the group to continue their work and further develop community recycling projects, including plant pot recycling, compostmaking and vegetable growing.

• LV=, Bournemouth – Engagement with the community primarily focuses on the health and safety of children. Its input in LV= Streetwise has been extensive with staff showing further commitment into the roll out of safety road shows nationally. The innovative LV= KidZone beach safety campaign has had results with the local community and visitors to the area.

• Wilts and Dorset Bus Company, Poole – Delivers educational support and materials into schools andcolleges and provides Business Ambassadors to help business students. Its workshop and engineering teams have also enthusiastically helped charity groups withfundraising and carnival events.

• ‘Bourne Again’ by ThinkRLA - A punching, national-league project proudly won by a long established Dorset-based creative advertising agency. The ‘Bourne Again’ campaign was developed to announce and celebrate this year’s completion of the £45m new departure terminal redevelopment at Bournemouth Airport.  

• Christchurch Food and Wine Festival by Christchurch Borough Council/ Christchurch Chamber of Trade/Christchurch Tourism Association - Firmly established as one of the most credible food festivals in the south, Christchurch Food and Wine Festival was developed to address the town’s tourism downturn in the late 1990’s. The event is a successful collaborative venture between council and trade organisations.

• The Bournemouth Sevens Festival by Diamond Sports Events – The inaugural Bournemouth Sevens Festival was staged in 2008 featuring a unique concept of sport and music. Within two years, the event has evolved and in 2010 hosted 158 rugby teams, 94 netball teams and 16 touch rugby teams from across the UK and Europe. Now attracting up to 20,000 attendees and major sporting names to Dorset, there is no other festival of its kind in the UK.

• Farrow & Ball Limited, Wimborne - Retail on a global basis producing a range of premium decorative paints and traditionally printed wallpaper which meets and exceeds the customer and legal aspirations in all markets. 100% of products sold globally are manufactured in Dorset. 

• Haystack Dryers, Ferndown – Manufacture body dryers for the leisure and theme park industries. The dryers can be seen in some of the USA’s biggest theme parks and the company is now moving into the United Arab Emirates.

• Parkeon Transit Limited, Poole – A key player in global parking and transport management solutions. As a firm in payment and ticketing solutions for parking and mass transit, Parkeon exports its Automated Fare Collection Systems - a portfolio of products including bus driver consoles, ticket validators, ticket vending machines and smartcard systems.

• Amanda Jenner, My Carry Potty, Bournemouth – Amanda Jenner devised and launched My Carry Potty in 2009 and the product has been an astounding success in a short space of time. Initially launched in John Lewis, My Carry Potty is now stocked in more than 80 independent and 40 web-based stores and 22,000 units have been sold to date.

• Duncan Jones, GSG Solutions Group, Christchurch - Duncan Jones demonstrates how one business idea can lead on to a number of businesses with a multi-million pound turnover. To do this in three years is truly inspiring. Investing in staff and technology is paramount to his success and future aspirations.

• Stephanie Pettitt, Equation Accounting, Weymouth - Stephanie Pettitt has a passion for making accounting accessible. Her innovative approach provides small businesses a method to gain financial control, enabling them to set targets and improve their bottom line.

• Amsafe, Bridport - Has established its niche with engineered textile solutions for the aviation and defence industries. Its innovative Tarian™ product, an ultra-lightweight and strong replacement for conventional cage armour, protects military ground vehicles from attacks by rocket-propelled grenades. 

• C4L, Bournemouth – Has created and launched two innovative technologies - a wireless rural and urban connectivity service, developed to resolve Dorset’s issues with lack of connectivity in rural areas, and cold aisle cooling containment technology which has a dramatic impact on reducing customers’ power usage.

• Subsea Asset Location Technologies (SALT) Ltd, Portland – Pioneers of a highly efficient passive underwater acoustic marker known as SonarBell™ to provide GPS information. The SonarBell™ is predominantly used in the marine industrial and retail, military and security, fish and aquaculture markets.

•  Bournemouth International Airport – A true Dorset flagship business, literally putting the county on the map providing a gateway into and out of Dorset for 1.8 million business travellers and tourists. Despite the worst downturn in aviation since the Second World War, the airport has not only maintained its profitable track record but has also embarked on a £45 million investment programme.

• Farrow & Ball, Wimborne - Formed in 1946, Farrow & Ball has been designing and manufacturing high quality paints and wallpapers in Dorset ever since. A true Dorset business with a premium brand selling products to approximately 80 countries and with 30 showrooms spread around the globe. This firm has stayed true to its heritage of quality and service and but is also prepared to invest in new product development.

• New Look Limited, Weymouth - The UK's number two retailer in women's clothing and accessories. This company celebrated its 40th anniversary and opened the 1000^th store in 2009. The company now has over 1020 stores and serves 35 countries globally through of mixture of own and franchise stores and web based trading. It has an outstanding financial performance despite the depressed state of the retail sector and continues to invest in store portfolio, IT infrastructure, distribution network and product and design.   

• Steve Mills, Business Consultant nominated by Poole High School – A local business consultant, Steve has supported Poole High School in various ways. These include helping to deliver the Employability Programme, lecturing to students during Global Enterprise week and organising an Orchid Cancer Talk attended by 450 students.

• The De Vere Royal Bath Hotel, nominated by Baden-Powell and St Peter’s Middle School, Poole - Inspired by the BBC Young Apprentice, the general manager at The De Vere Royal Bath Hotel hosted and fronted a project as ‘Lord Sugar’ to set hotel-related tasks for the students to complete. This project encompassed a huge variety of challenges - thinking creatively, working as a team, leadership, presentation skills and working to deadlines.

•  X-Leisure (Poole) Ltd, Tower Park Entertainment Centre nominated by Poole High School –Tower Park is part of X-Leisure, one of the UK’s fastest growing premier leisure brands and is managed by centre manager, Anne Jolliffe. Anne has supported the Employability Programme, Young Enterprise Company of the Year and regularly provides students with work experience throughout the year. 

•  C.G. Pitcher & Son Limited, Blandford Forum - A fourth generation, family-run construction firm. The firm has a management structure which is focused, cohesive and determined, recognising the importance of regular and close customer dialogue.

 

• Copyrite Business Solutions Limited, Wimborne - Provide ‘Total Office Technology’ to more than 1500 customers throughout Hampshire and Dorset. Its attitude and professionalism are at the heart of providing quality service and customer care. 

 

• Langtry Manor Hotel, Bournemouth – Purchased by the Howard family 33 years ago. By recruiting and building a strong team, with the focus on exceeding the customers’ experience, they have established a highly reputable hotel.

• Anglo-Continental, Bournemouth - A leading English language teaching organisation. The business was started by Mr Fritz Schillig in 1950 and has just celebrated its 60th anniversary of trading. There are currently four family members involved in the business from two generations. 

• Stainers Shoes, Poole - The business is getting ready to celebrate 100 years of trading in 2012 and the fifth generation are just starting in the business. The business retails family footwear and distributes safety footwear to local businesses and is currently owned by brother and sister team, Jon Stainer and Paula Dack.

• The Hive Beach Café, Burton Bradstock - The Cafe was taken over by Bill and Joan Attrill in 1991 and their son, Steve, took over the day to day running of the cafe in 1994. There are currently seven family members of the immediate Attrill family involved in the business, covering three generations, and the business has become known as one of the finest beach cafes in the UK.