Hi-tech company lights the way
And the winner is… the appliance of science!
Hi-tech venture Xceleron, described as “a business with a global reach but a local heart”, triumphed at The Press Business Awards amid fusillades of fireworks and cannonades of golden confetti.
The York biocentre firm, which uses atomic-powered techniques to test drugs with micro dosing, scooped the Science & Technology Business Of The Year title before winning the overall John Guy Memorial Award to become The Press Business Of The Year.
More than 300 people attended last night’s glamorous event in the Voltigeur Suite at York Racecourse, where two giant light bulbs pulsed gleam for this year’s theme, Lighting The Way.
Television broadcaster Colin Hazelden, who compered the event, praised Xceleron’s chief executive, Colin Garner, for establishing the university spin-out as the destination of choice for drug-makers keen to save millions of pounds by speeding up their testing process.
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| Kathy Guy, second from left, widow of John Guy, and Kevin Booth, editor of The Press, third from left,
present the John Guy Memorial Award to Mark Seymour and Susan Proctor, of Xceleron. The company also received the Science And Technology Business Of The Year Award |
Judges were impressed with the recent growth of the 37-staff business, which uses its £2.75 million, 20 ton Accelerator Mass Spectometry facility at Sand Hutton to analyse tiny samples of blood. It beams at it millions of volts to measure isotopes atom by atom, clearly predicting which drugs will fail.
Mark Seymour, chief study director for Xceleron, said: “We are completely honoured.
“There is a spirit in York of encouraging entrepreneurs and small businesses. Until two years ago, Xceleron was five people and now it is a global company with aspirations to become a world force.
“You have a community which encourages that kind of self-belief.”
The Small Business Of The Year title was awarded to 9xb.com. Founders Rob Burns and Bob Reeve were finalists in this category last year, since when their web development and online marketing company has doubled staff at its Knaresborough HQ. It now has a portfolio of about 350 websites.
David Hattersley, described by judges as “large, expansive, cuttingly funny and doesn’t do shy”, was awarded Business Personality Of The Year. Under the banner of his De Bretton Group, he is the buyer of York’s 700-year-old Lendal Tower; the entrepreneur who transformed a back packers’ stopover into York’s four star Marmadukes Hotel; the opener of the acclaimed Harvilles Restaurant in Fossgate and, more recently, the acquirer of the Guy Fawkes Hotel in High Petergate.
Purenet Solutions at York Science Park’s IT Centre was the New Business Of The Year. Its PureClarity Framework of integrated services and products is making pure profits, with the order book for its first six months totalling £211,000.
Large Business Of The Year title went to Superbreak Mini-Holidays Ltd, whose 275 employees provide UK short breaks for more than 2.5 million customers per year as they prepare to move from the Ryedale Building, Piccadilly, York, to the nearby former Transco site at Heworth Green.
Free range farmer Peter Rhodes and his son, Michael, saw their business, Vegetable Oil Services, based at Storwood Manor Farm, Stockton-on-the-Forest, earn the Think Green Business Of The Year title. Its fully-computerised pressing factory can daily produce 5,000 litres of oil from 12,000 tonnes of rape seed.
Best Business And Education Link award went to CPP Group Plc. Its Ideas in Action competition and workshops linked to business studies and IT curricula mean that CPP is, according to judges, “playing a pivotal role in moulding the entrepreneurs of the future”.
Dan Savage, of Artstop studios, York, was the Young Business Entrepreneur Of The Year – a triumph for the young man whose masters degree in architectural glass was interrupted with the diagnosis of testicular cancer.
Now, after successful chemotherapy, there has been a huge and growing demand for his architectural glass art for modern buildings.
Sheppee International, of Elvington’s Airfield Business Park, was the winner of the International Trade Award – a fitting 100th birthday present, In three years, its exports have moved from 75 per cent of turnover to 90 per cent, confirming it as the world’s leading supplier of hi-tech hot glass handling equipment.
The Progress Through People Award went to Hunters Property Group, the York-based estate agency whose newly-formed Hunters Training Academy is fuelling massive expansion of its franchise scheme and which has been adopted as industry standard for management training.
Gear4music.com, a musical instrument and equipment firm, won the Growth Business of the Year. Started by Andrew Wass, the venture was said by judges to be “truly in tune with its 42,000 customers”.
From its base at York Business Park, sales are expected to reach £4 million – 35 per cent up on last year.
Retailer Of The Year title went to Farmer’s Cart, a family business steered by Edward Sykes, which attracts 2,000 customers a week to its premises at Towthorpe, York.
Jacqui Gernon won the Women In Enterprise Award. Jacqui, who owns Happy Jays nursery group, now has four nurseries at Boroughbridge, York, Scarborough and, more recently, Batley.
She cares for 400 children, employs 88 people and turns over more than £1.6 million.
Castle Howard Estate earned the Tourism & Hospitality Business Of The Year title, whose policy of customer care keeps its 200,000 visitors a year happy.
In a poll, 83 per cent of the 15,000 who visited the stately home over 12 days to Christmas rated the experience either “good” or “excellent”.
Lifetime Achievement Award for Sir Ron
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Sir Ron Cooke |
Amid roars of applause, a “completely surprised” Sir Ron Cooke, former Vice Chancellor of the University of York, received The Press Lifetime Achievement Award.
He was described as “an inspirational and visionary leader, an academic, entrepreneur and respected public figure, who over the years has displayed tireless devotion and ingenuity in bettering York’s stature and prosperity”.
Sir Ron has been influential within the York Archaeolo-gical Trust, the York Consortium for Conservation and York@Large, as well as helping to provide jobs for more than 10,000 people through his work at the university forming Science City.
He said: “York is the only city in the north of England that is in the top ten for economic development. All the rest are down south. When I came to York in 1992, there was 12 per cent unemployment, the railway and chocolate industries were in decline, but it has been a success story because of the collaboration between the city, university and businesses.”
With 15 categories attracting hundreds of entries, this year’s awards proved to be the biggest and best in its 17 year history. Excitement increased with speeches from former MP John Watson and Kristina Grimes, star of the hit reality TV show, The Apprentice.
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