A global biosciences company, a digital marketing agency, and an indoor dog play park were among the winners announced at the inaugural Cardiff Business Awards on 18th September.
Backed by organisations including Natwest, City of Cardiff Council and the Cardiff Business Club, the Cardiff Business awards were set up to celebrate the successes of businesses and entrepreneurs based in the capital.
Friday’s glittering ceremony, held at City Hall, celebrated individuals and businesses that have played a crucial role in establishing the city as a thriving centre for economic activity.
A total of 48 finalists from a wide range of sectors were shortlisted across 14 categories including tourism and leisure business of the year, young businessperson of the year and retail business of the year.
The full list ofwinners was as follows:
· SME – Orchard Media
· Start Up Business – Action Petz
· Creative and Digital -Yard Digital
· Technology and Innovation – Genesis Biosciences
· Young Businessperson – Nick Saunders of the Depot
· Retail – Tiger Stores Cardiff
· International Business – IQE
· Financial and Professional Services – Deloitte
· Green Business – SMS PLC
· Entrepreneur – Richard Theo of ActiveQuote
· Business of the year – IQE
· Tourism Hospitality Award – Wales Millennium Centre
Highly commended by the judges were Nata & Co, TB Davies and Fareshare Cymru. Henry Engelhardt, Chief Executive of Admiral, also received a special judges award for his contribution to the economy in Cardiff.
Winners were selected by a judging panel, which included Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, founder of the Wales Fast Growth 50 awards, Ken Poole, Head of Economic Development at City of Cardiff Council and representatives of award sponsors.
A range of local businesses backed the inaugural Cardiff Business Awards, with sponsors including Blake Morgan LLP, Cardiff and Vale College, Cardiff University, Eversheds, Cardiff Metropolitan University, First Great Western, Wales Environmental and the University of South Wales. A number of Cardiff’s entrepreneurial communications businesses such as Brighter Comms, Cleartech and Bluegg prov
ided support for the event.
Cardiff Business Awards founder, Liz Brookes of Grapevine Event Management said:
“We were overwhelmed at the amount of entries we received for the inaugural Cardiff Business Awards, and at the quality of the businesses that were nominated. Everybody we interviewed had a unique story to tell about their business success and journey, and picking the winners was a very tough task for our panel ofjudges.
“There are a huge amount of individuals and organisations that are doing inspirational work and contributing to Cardiff’s thriving economic scene. We set up the Cardiff Business Awards to really shine a light on these businesses and celebrate Cardiff as a great place to do business.
“It was fantastic to be able to recognise and publicly reward the very deserving winners, and we look forward to seeing their businesses grow and develop.”