Shropshire Chamber of Commerce (“us”, “we”, or “our”) uses cookies on www.shropshirebusinessawards.co.uk (the “Service”). By using the Service, you consent to the use of cookies.

Our Cookies Policy explains what cookies are, how we use cookies, how third-parties we may partner with may use cookies on the Service, your choices regarding cookies and further information about cookies. 

What are cookies

Cookies are small pieces of text sent by your web browser by a website you visit. A cookie file is stored in your web browser and allows the Service or a third-party to recognise you and make your next visit easier and the Service more useful to you.

Cookies can be “persistent” or “session” cookies.

How Shropshire Chamber of Commerce uses cookies

When you use and access the Service, we may place a number of cookies files in your web browser.

We use cookies for the following purposes: to enable certain functions of the Service, to provide analytics, to store your preferences, to enable advertisements delivery, including behavioural advertising.

We use both session and persistent cookies on the Service and we use different types of cookies to run the Service:

a. Essential cookies. We may use essential cookies to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts.

Third-party cookies

In addition to our own cookies, we may also use various third-parties cookies to report usage statistics of the Service, deliver advertisements on and through the Service, and so on.

What are your choices regarding cookies

If you’d like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, please visit the help pages of your web browser.

Please note, however, that if you delete cookies or refuse to accept them, you might not be able to use all of the features we offer, you may not be able to store your preferences, and some of our pages might not display properly.

Where can you find more information about cookies

You can learn more about cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org

Last updated: June 21 2017

How the shortlisting process works

• Carried out by an independent team of businesspeople from across the county, including category sponsors
• The Chamber staff play no part in the shortlisting process
• Entries are assessed against the published award criteria
• A maximum of 10 points are available for each of the requested areas
• A maximum of 10 further points are allocated for overall quality of the entry
• A minimum of two members of the shortlisting panel score each entry
• No-one with any conflict of interest in a particular category is permitted to help shortlist those entries
• The decision of the shortlisting panel is final
• All entries will be acknowledged by the Chamber, and all entrants will be told whether they have been successful in the shortlisting process
• Shortlisted finalists will be announced by Shropshire Chamber ahead of the judging process, and all information is confidential and embargoed until that date

The Judging Process

Other important notes:

• Judging of all categories will take place over the course of one working week excluding Company of the Year which will be the following week
• No-one with any conflict of interest in a particular category is permitted to be involved in the judging panel
• Finalists will be assessed against the published category criteria
• The decision of the judging panel is final
• Winners will be announced at the awards event on June 21st, and all information is confidential and embargoed until that date

Shropshire Chamber of Commerce has an excellent track record of organising well attended awards dinners. Our annual awards event attracts business professionals from a wide spectrum of Shropshire businesses and organisations.

Our Privacy Policy

Shropshire Chamber of Commerce (“the Chamber”) honours the rights of its members, employees and other users’ including website visitors’ right to privacy and data protection. The Chamber is fully committed to complying with the provisions of all applicable Data Protection legislation and regulations such as Data Protection Act and EU GDPR. The Chamber honours the rights of its members, employees and other users to privacy and data protection. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how the Chamber collects, uses, shares, and retains personally identifiable information provided by users of this website. The Policy is effective as of 25th May 2018. The policy will be continuously assessed against new technologies, business practices, regulatory changes and the evolving needs of the Chamber and the memberships services provided the Chamber. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office, the UK’s Data Protection Authority.

Data Controller

The data controller for all personal data collected via this website is Shropshire Chamber of Commerce with its registered office at Trevithick House, Stafford Park 4, Telford TF3 3BA. This means that we are responsible for deciding what data we collect and how we hold and use your personal data. We will implement appropriate data security measures for protecting the data from unauthorised access and loss, as laid out in the Security section of this Policy.

Data Collection

The Chamber collects and maintains a variety of personally identifiable information, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, payment information, social media profiles, business addresses, demographic information such as the local authority area or industry sector of the business and details of Chamber services the users may be interested in such as international trade opportunities, events and training courses. The Chamber collects information directly from individuals or from the parent companies of the individuals. The information could be collected through e-mails, phone calls, online registration forms, event registration forms and face to face meetings. The Chamber does not collect personal data about individuals except when there is a legitimate business requirement or when such information is provided on a voluntary basis.

Users should also be aware that non-personal information and data may be automatically collected through the standard operation of the Chamber’s web servers, and by the use of cookies technology and/or Internet Protocol (“IP”) address tracking. Non-personal identification information might include the browser used by you, the type of computer, the operating systems, the Internet service providers, and other similar information. The Chamber’s web server also automatically gathers information about the top viewed and visited pages and links on our website, top entry and exit points, number of form completions, time spent on pages, top downloads, top keywords used offsite to lead customers to our website, your internet protocol (IP) address, information collected via cookies, the areas you visit on the website, the links you may select from within the website to other external websites and device event information such as system activity, crashes, hardware settings, browser type etc. Most browsers are set to accept cookies. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent; however, if you disable cookies, the full functionality of the Chamber’s websites may not be available to you. The information thus collected enables us to develop and customise our services better to meet your needs and preferences, and to bring to your attention member services, events, networking opportunities and training courses.

Purpose of Processing

The personal data collected is used by the Chamber to give you information relation to Chamber membership, the Chamber’s website, other Chamber services, customer administration, prospecting new members, account management with existing members, to process and respond to queries received from the public or other relevant stakeholders, to contact you to seek your views or comments on emerging political or economic issues and to send marketing communications on the Chamber’s behalf or on behalf of the Chamber’s patrons and strategic partners. The Chamber may perform statistical analyses of user behaviour and characteristics to measure interest in and the use of various sections of the website. The personal data held by the Chamber may also be used on an aggregate basis without any personal identifiers to provide third parties with information, such as the composition of membership, and to help us develop new member services and products, improve the features and content of the website or other marketing material, and to provide sponsors and others with aggregate information about our members, website users and their usage patterns in relation to services and/or the website.

If you or your parent company are a current member of Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, opting out of promotional emails will not stop all communication from us. By becoming a member of the Chamber, your firm is signing you up to receive certain information related to the organisation. It is a constitutional requirement for us to send this information to you.

If you are not a member of the Chamber or if your or your parent company’s membership has lapsed, you can choose to opt in or out of further contact with us. We also receive non-member data through networking (e.g. business cards, event registrations) and add these details, if relevant, onto our CRM or other data management system. We may on occasion purchase ‘opt-in’ data (lists from reputable providers) for promotional campaigns.

Data retention

The personal data collected is stored in the Chamber’s CRM system and other appropriate data management systems, both paper based and electronic. Personally identifiable information will not be disclosed to any third party except if permission has first been obtained from the users. The data will not be transferred to any agency located outside the EU. At regular intervals, we will:

review the length of time we keep your personal data for
consider the purpose or purposes for which we hold your personal data for in deciding whether (and for how long) to retain it
securely delete information that is no longer needed for that purpose or those purposes
update, archive or securely delete information if it goes out of date.

Security

The Chamber uses reasonable measures to safeguard personally identifiable information. The implemented measures will be appropriate to the type of information maintained and compliance with all relevant legislation governing protection of personal information. Measures are implemented to preserve the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the personal information. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to only those employees, contractors or agents who have a legitimate business need to have access to that data. The employees, contractors or agents will process your personal data in accordance with our instructions. They will be subject to a duty of confidentiality and due care with respect to handling the personal data. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so. The Chamber’s employees are trained on data security and information protection. Relevant areas of the Chamber’s website will employ Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”) or Transport Layer Security (“TLS”) encryption technology to enhance data privacy and help prevent loss, misuse, or alteration of the information collected and retained by the Chamber.

Links to Third-Party Sites

Where appropriate and only for the legitimate business needs of the Chamber and its members, the Chamber may provide links to third-party web sites, or advertisements which contain links to third-party sites. These links are provided as a service to website users. The linked third-party websites are operated by independent entities that have their own privacy policies. This Privacy Policy does not apply to such other websites or to the use that those entities make of your information. The Chamber has no control over the content displayed on such sites, nor over the measures, if any, that are taken by such sites to protect the privacy of your information. The Chamber’s website may also serve third party advertisements, or other content that contains their own cookies or tracking technologies. The Chamber does not control the use of those technologies.

Opt-Out

The Chamber is a membership organisation and for its legitimate business interests, must maintain contact information on its members and the wider business community to communicate information on membership, events, training courses, policy and research, international trade and any other Chamber products or services. The Chamber also sends promotional material promoting its events, training courses, membership services, business support services, policy and research work and other relevant offerings. From time to time, the Chamber collaborates with other relevant organisations and companies to promote other programs that may be of interest to members and the wider business community. In such cases, the Chamber does not provide these organisations with any personally identifiable information but may distribute the organisation’s information on their behalf to those who may legitimately be benefited from receiving such information or have elected to receive such information. If you do not wish to receive marketing material, you may opt out. Every marketing e-mail will include an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom. You may also notify the Chamber in writing as set out below. If your parent company has nominated you as a relevant contact required to receive information on its behalf, you cannot opt out of important information the Chamber is required to provide you as per the Chamber’s contractual obligations to its members.

Social media

We may use third party provided tools such as Hootsuite to manage our social media interactions. If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message may be stored by Hootsuite. Like other personal data, these direct messages will not be shared with any other organisations.

Access, Review and Correction

The General Data Protection Regulations gives you the right to access your personal data held by us (“subject access request”). If you have an established business relationship with the Chamber, you may request from us a list of the categories of personal information held about you. Subject access requests must be made in writing to the details below. We will endeavour to respond to the request within a reasonable period and in any event within one month as required by the relevant provisions in the GDPR.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. We will take all reasonable measures to ensure that the personal data we hold about you is accurate. We have also implemented procedures to enable you to review and correct your personal information, should there be any changes to your circumstances or errors in the gathered data. When you make a request to access or review the personal data we hold about you, we will request you to verify your identity before the request can be fulfilled.

Privacy Rights

In addition to the rights of access, review and correction, you have the right to object to your personal data being processed for any particular purpose, or to request that we stop using your information. If you wish to exercise these rights, please e-mail or send a letter marked “Data Protection” to the Chamber’s offices at Trevithick House, Stafford Park 4, Telford, TF3 3BA. If you have further concerns about how we use your personal data, you also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the data protection authority for the UK. Please visit here for more details on your data protection rights and how to contact them..

The British Chambers of Commerce

The Chamber is part of a network of 53 Chambers of Commerce across the UK accredited by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). One purpose of the Chamber is to “influence the function of …any governmental body”. This objective is stated in the Chamber’s ‘Articles of Association’. We will provide BCC with your company’s email address in order for BCC to conduct research into the impact of policies on your business.

What does the BCC do with your data?

BCC will not contact your business for any other purpose other than to notify you of an opportunity to respond to a national policy survey. Each year, BCC conducts around five surveys which directly help us develop and shape Government policy across a range of areas, including business taxation, international trade, and employment conditions. The data from these surveys are completely anonymised and aggregated so that individual responses cannot be identified. The anonymised data are then presented in closed briefings with stakeholders across UK Government, and shared publicly through BCC’s press team.

The purpose of carrying out the surveys is to produce reports, which BCC and the Chambers can then use in their activities in promoting and protecting the interests of UK businesses; in other words, they are part and parcel of the function and purpose of BCC and the Chamber.

You can contact us if you do not wish to be contacted by BCC, and you will have the opportunity to unsubscribe from BCC’s research mailing list at any point. If your or your parent company’s membership of a local Chamber has lapsed, the BCC may continue to contact you about opportunities to respond to business surveys. You can choose to opt in or out of further contact with the BCC.

This privacy policy was last updated on 25th May, 2018.

Get to know your 2024 judges

The shortlisting and judging process is carried out by an independent team of businesspeople from across the county, including category sponsors. We have a further bank of judges on the waiting list should any conflict of interest arise when finalists are announced.

Please meet the judges below:

Company of the Year

Sponsored By Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council

Judge

Anita Roberts

Santander

Judge

Andy Begley

Shropshire Council

Judge

Elizabeth Wakeham-Jones

Telford & Wrekin Council

Best New Business

Sponsored By Aico

Judge

Matthew Small

Aico

Judge

Beth Heath

Shropshire Festivals

Judge

Craig Hughes

Chrisbeon

Best Small Business

Sponsored By AZETS

Judge

James Dawson

AZETS

Judge

Catherine Armstong

CA Consult

Judge

Alasdair Hobbs

Human Results

Outstanding Customer Service

Sponsored By Sponsorship Opportunity Available

Judge

Nigel Ryan

EVC Solutions

Judge

Harriet Cooke

HR Dept

Judge

Andrew Goff

Interactive Opportunities

Outstanding Business Growth

Sponsored By Sponsorship Opportunity Available

Judge

Kirsty Smallman

J&PR

Judge

Patrick Riketts

Support and Guidance for Business

Judge

TBC

TBC

Community Champion - Business in the Community

Sponsored By Paveaways

Judge

Charlie Davies

Pave Aways

Judge

David Bissell

Shoothill

Judge

Marcus Matthews

Make Your Life Count

Excellence in Manufacturing & Engineering

Sponsored By Aaron & Partners

Judge

Hugh Strikland

Aaron & Partners

Judge

Stuart Danks

DMOS People

Judge

Matt Giles

Pre Loved Tech

Retail, Leisure & Hospitality Achievement

Sponsored By WR Partners

Judge

Jenny Head

WR Partners

Judge

Beverley Baxter

Community Resource Org

Judge

Chris Hartley

Hartley Consulting & Events

The Trailblazer Innovation Award

Sponsored By Sponsorship Opportunity Available

Judge

Michael Wright

Aico

Judge

Hollie Whittles

Purple Frog Systems

Judge

Andrew Buchan

Barclays

The Eco Award

Sponsored By Sponsorship Opportunity Available

Judge

Stuart Mackenzie

McPhillips

Judge

Paul Cook

Start Tech

Judge

Leanne Simcoe

Little Stars

Young Business Person

Sponsored By Sponsorship Opportunity Available

Judge

Richard Hinckley

Beaver Bridges

Judge

Sarah Hooper

Thrive HR

Judge

Natasha Fox

Dyke Yaxley

Informative 'how-to' video guides

Click a thumbnail image below to view the video in a popup:

How to book your seat

How to apply for an Award

How to use the 2024 Awards site

Here are the Shropshire Business Awards categories for 2024 that are now open to enter.

Click the category titles below to view further details and to see what criteria the judges will be looking for:

Shropshire Chamber Business Awards 2024 - Terms and Conditions

1. Eligibility Criteria:
   • The awards are open exclusively for businesses with an operating base in either the Shropshire Council or Telford & Wrekin Council Authority areas.
   • Entrants must be aged 18 or over.
   • Entrants do NOT need to be members of the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce.
2. Authorisation:
   • Entrants must be authorised to enter their business, client or staff member into the Shropshire Chamber Business Award.
   • When applying on behalf of a connected business, the business that you are applying for must be aware and agree to the full terms and conditions.
3. Exclusion of Organisers:
   • Any business or individual professionally contracted to assist in organising the awards is not eligible for entry.
4. Entry Deadline:
   • The closing date for entries is midnight on 12th April.
5. Award Categories:
   • Companies can enter a maximum of THREE awards categories.
6. Submission Requirements:
   • All entries must be submitted in English through the online entry form and completed in full.
   • Entries meeting all terms and conditions will be acknowledged on receipt.
   • The business name on the entry form will appear on an engraved award for winners.
7. Shortlisting and Judging Process:
   • Entries will be shortlisted by an independent cross-sector panel selected by the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, ensuring no participation by Shropshire Chamber staff.
   • The shortlisting and judging process will be looking at the criteria of the category applied for, with a scoring sheet against each element.
   • Finalists will be visited in person and assessed by a panel of independent business representatives and category sponsors, ensuring there is no conflict of interest.
   • Finalists must make themselves available for visits on the specified date provided by Shropshire Chamber.
   • The organisers and award category judges reserve the right to withdraw an award for false information and to audit any information supplied by applicants.
8. Insufficient Entries:
   • Judges may decline to make an award in any category if there are insufficient entries of a winning standard.
9. Notification of Finalists:
   • Finalists will be notified by email, and a list will be announced on the website and in the local press by 19th April.

10. Award Winners:
    • One winner will be selected from the finalists in each category.
    • Winners will be announced at the awards event, and a representative will receive a trophy.
11. Certificates and Publicity:
    • All award finalists will receive a commemorative certificate and a finalist logo to use on any PR, email signatures etc.
    • Details of the winners will be published online, in the local press, and on social media.
12. Attendance and Filming:
    • Finalists must have at least two paid for representatives at the awards evening.
    • Finalists must be available for official awards videographers or supply suitable in-house material.
    • Winners must take part in post-event publicity.
13. Use of Awards Logo:
    • Winners are licensed to publicise their award with the Shropshire Chamber Business Awards logo, stating the winning year.
14. Final Decision:
    • The decision of the shortlisting panel and judges is final, scoring sheets are used throughout to ensure a fair and consistent process.
15. Agreement to Terms:
    • By entering the Shropshire Chamber Business Awards, entrants are deemed to have read, understood, and agreed to these terms and conditions, including any instructions set out with the entry form.

The Shropshire Chamber Business Awards has been firmly established as the largest business event in the county for nearly a quarter of a century.

More than 13,000 people have attended the black tie presentation evenings since the event was first launched in 2001. Winning a trophy is a real badge of honour which has become recognised as a kitemark of excellence. Nearly 300 trophies have been awarded over the years.

Although they are organised by Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, the awards are not just for Chamber members – any business with a base in either the Shropshire or Telford & Wrekin areas can enter. Winners of the showpiece Company of the Year accolade have come from all corners of the county, including Telford, Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Whitchurch, Bridgnorth and Ludlow.

The event also has a proud track record of raising thousands of pounds for local Shropshire charities – which it will be doing once again this year.

Roll of Honour – Previous 'Shropshire Company of the Year' Winners

• 2001 - McConnel, Ludlow
• 2002 - Lyreco, Telford
• 2003 - CJ Wildbird Foods, Upton Magna
• 2004 - Grocontinental, Whitchurch
• 2005 - Smartwater, Telford
• 2006 - Caterpillar Remanufacturing, Shrewsbury
• 2007 - Salop Leisure, Shrewsbury
• 2008 - Dodd Group, Telford
• 2009 - SP Holding, Telford
• 2010 - McPhillips, Telford
• 2011 - Pebble Learning, Telford
• 2012 - Natural Welsh Water, Oswestry
• 2013 - Grocontinental, Whitchurch
• 2014 - Hawk Group, Prees
• 2015 - Grainger and Worrall, Bridgnorth
• 2016 - Orchard Valley Foods, Burford
• 2017 - Reconomy, Telford
• 2018 - Grainger and Worrall, Whitchurch
• 2019 - Paveaways, Knockin
• 2020 - Aico, Oswestry
• 2021 - Event not held due to Covid
• 2022 - Aico, Oswestry
• 2023 - Aico, Oswestry