Local businesses shine at West Lothian's Business Excellence Awards

The West Lothian Business Excellence Awards were organised by West Lothian Chamber of Commerce, sponsored jointly by Land Securities and Bank of Scotland.

Winners of the Best Business Award sponsored by Land Securities were Sibbald Ltd. Founded by David Sibbald in 1973, Sibbald Ltd hire out heavy plant and machinery and provide a range of specialist training programmes for the construction sector. They have trained over 50,000 employees from more than 10,000 companies and have recently invested in a new 15 acre site at Blackridge, West Lothian.

Other awards were:

• High Growth Business, sponsored by MBM Commercial - Russell Europe
• Innovation, sponsored by Bank of Scotland ? Fasteq
• Corporate Social Responsibility, sponsored by Ethicon in the Community ? Maximillion
• Entrepreneur and Start up, sponsored by Business Gateway ? Tumblezone
• Enterprising School, sponsored by Russell Europe ? Midcalder Primary

The event was attended by 300 business leaders and guests, including Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning Fiona Hyslop, Scottish Chamber of Commerce chief executive Liz Cameron and chair Norman Quirk, South Dublin Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Byrne and West Lothian Provost Tom Kerr.

The keynote address was delivered by David Johnston, managing director of BAA at Edinburgh Airport and the event was compered by Liz Clark, one of the "Wild Women" from Talk 107. The charity draw raised over £2000 for West Lothian's Ashwood Trust.

Enterprising School Award - sponsored by Russell Europe

This award recognises the efforts within West Lothian Schools to develop, build and deliver an enterprise culture. The judges look for a school that:

1. demonstrates a commitment to innovation, creativity and enterprise in the curriculum;
2. has a commitment to building an enterprise culture;
3. and celebrates creativity.

Winner - Mid Calder Primary

Mid Calder Primary has shown an excellence in encouraging enterprise throughout the whole school ? importantly everyone, pupils and teachers, has fun. This is highlighted in their 2007 Calendar when everyone dressed for the occasion ? from dalmations to gangsters. Producing the calendar was a true team effort under the name 'Calendar Kids'. The project  was funded by raising funds from local businesses, cold calling MDs and selling one of two advertising packages. Printing costs were covered by an external business. Additional income was raised through selling personal birthday spaces on the calendar ? true innovation! Sales exceeded the original forecast of 300 calendars - with over 650 sold to date.

Building on their excellent success the pupils and teachers are now working on their 2008 calendar.

Corporate Social Responsibility Award - sponsored by Ethicon in the Community

This award is presented to a business which has demonstrated, and delivered, continued commitment to social responsibility. Evaluation was based on:

1. Demonstration of responsible business practices in areas such as environment, community and customer care;
2. Commitment to creating and maintaining a culture of social awareness;
3. Being a role model for best practice in social responsibility.

Winner is Maximillion

Maximillion believe social responsibility is an essential ingredient in being a responsible business and have adopted the triple bottom line philosophy ? People, Plant & Profit. They support their local gala day and school fair, provide time off for staff to undertake volunteer work, contribute to staff charitable fund raising, and use fair trade products.

Over the last year Maximillion's greatest focus has been their environmental impacts and were awarded a silver for the Green Tourism Business Scheme. Not only do they recycle but go further by monitoring and logging energy use, provide staffing training on 'How to be Green', created the role of Captain Planet and employed an Environmental Management MSc student to investigate and improve the environmental sustainability of their events.

The success of their responsible practices is shown in their improved recruitment and retention and managing to attract a high calibre of client due to their responsible focus and positive PR in their industry and customer base.

Entrepreneur and Business Start-up Award - sponsored by West Lothian Council ? Business Gateway

This award is presented to a young successful business start-up company which has shown:

1. Innovative endeavours in business, which may include success in breaking into new markets;
2. Demonstration of entrepreneurial potential necessary for long-term business growth; and
3. A good role model for other start-up business.

And this year's award winner is Tumblezone

Tumblezone considered a location outwith West Lothian but after discussion with West Lothian Council realised that Houstoun Industrial Estate was the ideal site for their new soft play centre venture.

Since setting up, the directors have learned quickly and have negotiated reduced costs with their suppliers. Tumblezone have plans for continued success and growth, including provision of supervised childcare to increase their staff numbers and profitability.

Tumblezone provide safe play areas for children for early age to 11 years, go-kart (parents can join in), inflatable 5-aside football area, themed party rooms and their committed and friendly staff ensure all children and parents have fun.

In order to fund further expansion Tumblezone are working with Linc Scotland to source investment. After their first year's trading Tumblezone were visited by 66,000 children and held 680 parties and turned over £445,000.

Innovation Award - sponsored by Bank of Scotland

This award is presented to a company which has demonstrated an innovative approach to business growth. Nominations were evaluated against:

1. Innovative endeavours including success in breaking into new markets;
2. Development of innovative or creative business methods; and
3. Response to adversity - problems faced by the business and the method used to solve them.

Winner of the Innovation Award is Fasteq

Livingston based Fasteq was established in 2000 primarily to support electronics manufacturing companies. Between 2003 and 2006 contracts to the value in excess of £750,000 were lost to Fasteq. Due to the demise of manufacturing in Scotland and the relocation of businesses to Eastern Europe. Fasteq were left holding stock and debts incurred through the closure of some smaller companies.

Rather than scale down their business or lay off staff, Fasteq looked to improve their quality systems and offer a higher level of service than their competitors - not an easy task considering their two main competitors were multi million pound companies.

Their solution was to implement a more specialized quality standard by committing resources, time and money to improving traceability of material back to the original manufacturer. Fasteq also set up a satellite business in Hungary to try to capture some of the business moving out there.

Fasteq now aim their business at the Aerospace and Defence, Automotive and Export markets and have won business from BAE Systems and Thales Optronics as well as exporting to Hungary, Germany, Singapore and Ireland. Over the next year Fasteq plan to move to new purpose built premises in Livingston to further accelerate their growth.

High Growth Business Award - sponsored by MBM Commercial

This award focuses on organisations which have:

1. Demonstrated substantial economic growth over the last 2 years and
2. increase employment opportunities for West Lothian.

Winner of the High Growth Business Award is Russell Europe

Russell Europe have been committed to West Lothian since 1985 and their Livingston base is a European hub for design, marketing, sourcing and distribution. Russell's highly skilled team of textile experts enables them to have uniquely collaborative relationship with factories around the world, achieving the high quality standard Russell's brands are based on.

To grow the business Russell looked to move into the European market and launched the new brand "Russell Collection" in 2004, achieving a 75% increase in sales within the first year. Russell have now extended their ranges targeting the higher end of the promotional and souvenir markets in Italy and Spain, resulting in growth in sales in Spain by 53% and 60% in Italy.

Russell Europe continues to develop and expand sales opportunities by identifying gaps in the markets and producing ranges to meet these needs.

In late 2005 Russell Europe made its first company acquisition, a small company specialising in bespoke manufacturing. Customers can now design their own garments using a unique, internet-based software program. This acquisition, combined with Russell's existing international sourcing expertise and European customer base enabled Russell to greatly expand its product offering and sales opportunities

The judges were particularly impressed by (1) the range of evidence of high growth, (2) Russell's ability to achieve consistent growth over several years, and (3) the trends indicating that growth will continue well into the future.

Best Business of the Year Award sponsored by Land Securities.

This award is presented to a local business which has demonstrated true business excellence. In evaluating nominated organisations, the following benchmarks were used:

1. Increased sales, profit and growth;
2. Increased employment opportunities;
3. Commitment to leadership, development and benefits extended to employees; and
4. Innovation of product or service

Winners of the Best Business Award - Sibbald Ltd

Sibbald Limited was founded by David Sibbald in 1973 and has built up over the years to a point where they now hire out over forty items of heavy plant with a value of over £1 million. In the 1980s the company developed a training service and now provides SVQ training for the construction industry for more than 500 candidates at any one time.

The company now also has a permanent base in Northern Ireland and operates throughout the UK with activities as far afield as the Orkney Islands and the Falklands.

Sibbald is committed to developing its own staff and received Investor in People accreditation in 2003. Most of the staff are recruited locally and developed by the company. Their future has been secured with the recent investment in a 15 acre site at Blackridge with state of the art facilities and purpose built offices and training rooms.

The company has invested heavily in IT systems and is justifiably proud of its Customer Relationship Management (or CRM) system with records of over 11,000 companies and 51,000 trainees who have gained qualifications over the years.

Sibbald have grown consistently over the last five years and plan to continue this trend in the future. They participate in community activities, through the Chamber of Commerce, through local schools, and throughout the construction sector. David Sibbald himself is a mentor in the Chamber's Business Mentor Programme and the company is a model of local success and sustained profitable growth.

Despite the excellent quality of all the candidates for this award the judges had no doubt that the outstanding nomination was Sibbald Ltd.