Winners of TBE Awards 2024 revealed
The inaugural TBE Awards, sponsored by Thrings, has highlighted the best and brightest businesses, organisations and individuals in the South West.
Celebrating a wide range of individual and team accomplishments over the past 12 months, TBE Awards announced winners across the following 14 categories:
- Best Creative Campaign
- Best Start-up
- Innovation Award
- Going for Growth
- Eco Champion of the Year
- Positive Business Award
- Rising Star Award
- Charity/ Not-For-Profit of the Year
- Going the Extra Mile Award
- Using Tech to Transform Business
- Best User Experience
- Leader of the Year
- Dream Team Award
- Flying the Flag for the South West
Held at Cumberwell Park in Wiltshire, the event also included entertainment from Bath’s Natural Theatre Company, an inspirational talk from Judo Paralympic Champion Chris Hunt Skelley MBE, and fantastic food and drink all brought together in a lively atmosphere of celebration.
Kate Westbrook, Head of Commercial at Thrings, said, “Thank you to TBE South West for hosting an unforgettable evening. It is about recognising the talent, innovation and sheer hard work happening across the South West.
“We’re proud to be involved in shining a spotlight on these incredible businesses. We’ve been looking forward to this night for a long time and all of the entries have been inspiring.”
Anita Jaynes, Founder of The Business Exchange, said, “The TBE Awards wouldn’t be possible without the support of our sponsors and our fantastic judges who give their time, so we would like to thank everyone involved for being part of this celebration of our business community.
“Recognising the achievements of our peers is so important. It rewards people for their hard work and dedication, it gives businesses and organisations the chance to highlight what they do, but most importantly it inspires others to continue to strive for excellence.
“I would like to congratulate all of the nominees. The standard of entry was so high which is testament to the creativity, innovation and professionalism throughout our community.”
Read on to find out about this year’s winners and what taking a TBE Award back to the office means to them.
Best Creative Campaign
Category sponsor: The Workshed
Winner: Clearly PR, Baton of Hope
“This is slightly overwhelming. All campaigns are important and the businesses nominated showcased the creative talent in the region. We like to think that the importance of Baton of Hope was such that it saved lives, as it was a suicide prevention initiative. The impact of getting the charity in front of millions of people, through broadcast interviews, online articles and print coverage, such that it was seen and recognised by the then Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is something we’re extremely proud of. More than that, it was the opportunity to create a conversation that desperately needed to be had that made this project such a privilege to work on. The TBE Award is therefore the icing on a rather incredible cake.” James Gwinnett, Client Services Director
Best Start-Up
Category sponsor: SVGC
Winner: The Pursuit Agency
“Starting any business is incredibly tough. Our team do an absolutely incredible job and there are lots of people who have supported us along the way. This award reflects the hard work of everyone at The Pursuit Agency who do all the heavy lifting and keep everything going.“ Rob Curtis, Founder
Innovation Award
Category sponsor: Business West
Winner: Fluff Software, Huntly app
“Huntly has been such a passion of ours to drive real change and get children outdoors to explore the world around them. Our team do such hard work behind the scenes to get us to where we are. Thank you for this Award.” Scott Gulliver, Founder
Going for Growth
Category sponsor: Milsted Langdon
Winner: The Tanning Room
“We’re really proud to have grown to six stores. Growing’s not just about revenue, it’s about employing people and creating jobs. We’ve gone from a team of 2 to 30 across three counties. The Award is significant for us – like a lot of businesses we suffered through Covid but we expanded post-pandemic and we’re proud of where we are now.” Simon Hargrave, The Tanning Room
Eco Champion of the Year
Category sponsor: Severn Wye
Winner: Mogers Drewett
“We are overjoyed to get this Award. We have worked really hard on this for the past couple of years, getting down to the nitty-gritty of carbon offsetting. The real plaudits go to our team across all offices who make the real differences. It’s a growing theme for us and something every single member of staff takes really seriously every single day.” Les Redwood, Head of Marketing & Business Development
Positive Business
Category sponsor: Richardson Swift
Winner: Dave Southby Financial Planning
“We try and put the community at the centre of everything we do and this Award is fantastic recognition for everything we do in this respect. Thank you very much!” Dave Southby
Rising Star Award
Category sponsor: University of Bath School of Management
Winner: Lara Ettel, Gooding Accounts
“Receiving this award is an inspiration to keep going. Everyone at Gooding Accounts has been so supportive and it has been a really, really great year! I would like to thank Sam Gooding and the team at Gooding Accounts for their support. ” Lara Ettel
Charity / Not-for-Profit of the Year
Category sponsor: Rural Hubs
Winner: Bath Arts Collective
“We’re delighted to have won this Award. We have a background in festivals, events and arts across B&NES and we’re keen to support those involved in the sector throughout the region. We’ve got very big plans and we’re hugely ambitious. We would like to thank everyone for their support.” Bath Arts Collective
Going the Extra Mile
Winner: Genesis Trust
“Genesis Trust has been a Bath-based charity for 34 years. We’re local people supporting local people. We have a small team and dedicated volunteers, but we can’t do what we do without our local community including businesses. Thank you very much for this Award, we are absolutely delighted.” Hilary Long, Community Manager
Using Tech to Transform Business
Winner: Fluff Software
“The Using Tech to Transform Business Award is an amazing achievement for the Fluff team. I’m humbled to win this one amongst some great nominees. Transforming businesses through tech is what we do so we are delighted to win this one. ” Scott Gulliver, Founder
Best User Experience
Winner: Digital Wonderlab
Leader of the Year
Winner: Sam Gooding, Gooding Accounts
“It’s great to win this. I really appreciate this Award – it’s great and very humbling. For us as a firm though, the victory for Lara as a rising star is a bigger achievement. We foster a culture of developing business leaders of the future and we’re continuing to build the team around that.” Sam Gooding, Partner
Dream Team Award
“Thank you to all of the judges. We often submit entries for awards for the projects we do to help business support and develop their own cultures, but we also work really hard at creating our own culture. To be recognised as the Dream Team and take this Award back to the office is fantastic.” Hayley Blacker, Relationships Director
Flying the Flag for the South West
Category sponsor: Thrings
Winner: Nine Feet Tall
“Thank you very much for this TBE Award – it is a real honour. We love the South West, we have been here for pretty much all of our journey. It really is a great place with amazing talent and amazing people.” Esther McMorris, Founder & CEO
