From Dog Food To Data, Design And Distribution, Yorkshire Businesses Scoop 12 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards Nominations

Ten businesses from across Yorkshire have scooped 12 shortlist nominations for this year’s prestigious Lloyds Bank National Business Awards after an expert panel deemed them to be among the best in Britain.

The diverse group of organisations hail from Leeds, Hull, Saltaire, Skipton, Bradford and Bridlington, and include household name Hermes, which delivers 400 million parcels a year for the likes of ASOS, Next and John Lewis. The Leeds-based company is a double finalist with ‘The Give a Grad a Go Employer of the Year Award’ and ‘The Business Enabler of the Year Award’ category nominations.

Hyper Group – also based in Leeds and a second double nominee – has been shortlisted for the ‘The Lloyds Bank New Business of the Year Award’ and ‘The Data Excellence Award’. The company provides data science consultancy and cutting edge technology to help organisations build hyper-personalisation capability.

A worthy finalist in ‘The LDC Growth Through Innovation Award’ category, Skipton-based CPOMS is an innovative piece of software that allows school staff to record, monitor and analyse child protection and safeguarding concerns from nursery, right up to college.

The impact of COVID-19 on businesses cannot be underestimated and two finalists have experienced this in different ways. Burlington Care, based in Bridlington, was founded 12 years ago and is now one of the leading residential and nursing home providers in the north of England. It has been shortlisted for the ‘The Lloyds Bank Mid-Market Business of the Year’ award. Leeds-based Impex Parts Group (The Business Enabler of the Year Award finalist) specialises in health and safety R&D and has developed safety cabinets to prevent respiratory illnesses, activities that are now being focused around COVID-19.

Each of the 10 finalists has been praised for their business excellence, whether that’s impressive growth and profitability, their commitment to customer experience, start-up success or grass roots support through their graduate training programmes. Justin Whitston, CEO and founder of Saltaire’s Fleetondemand has also been shortlisted for the ‘The Inflexion Entrepreneur of the Year’ – the only category dedicated to rewarding an individual.

National Business Awards director Sarah Austin: “The wonderful thing about the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards is the opportunity they give us to recognise the very best of British business from all over the UK. Given that Yorkshire is home to fewer than 7 per cent of businesses in Britain yet scooped over 9 per cent of the finalist places, this speaks volumes about the innovation, creativity and resilience of organisations – and the entrepreneurs behind them – based in the area.”

Paul Gordon, Managing Director, SME & Mid Corporates, Commercial Banking at Lloyds Banking Group: “The National Business Awards are a great opportunity for us to celebrate success and to see the businesses who have performed well get the external recognition they so readily deserve. At Lloyds Bank, UK businesses are core to our purpose, so it’s wonderful to be associated with such talent and to be able to recognise their success on a national scale.”

The Lloyds Bank National Business Awards are the UK's premier cross-industry accolades for enterprise excellence. Previous winners include fitness sensation Joe Wicks, Timpson CEO James Timpson, DPD UK, Hotel Chocolat, dementia newspaper Daily Sparkle and online fast fashion success story Missguided.

This year’s winners will be unveiled on 10 November 2020, including the Pivot for Purpose Award: a brand new trophy celebrating the fantastic achievements of UK organisations to support communities and key workers during the lockdown. This category will reward businesses that that have gone above and beyond their usual practice to deliver essential services, assistance and support to vulnerable people, local communities and key workers.

Broadcaster and Lloyds Bank National Business Awards advisory board member Declan Curry, commented: "Many companies acted responsibly and generously to protect their colleagues, customers and their wider communities during the Coronavirus crisis. This award is a thank you to all those businesses that did the right thing. Good behaviour creates great businesses, and this should be celebrated and rewarded."