A manufacturer founded in 1875, a £50m annual turnover construction and civil engineering business, a children’s nursery led by its founding family’s third generation and with over 500 staff, a fifth generation farming family ice-cream business, a builders merchant, property management company, haulage firm, marketing business, and waste management company, are all amongst the finalists in this year’s Midlands Family Business Awards.
Of the 44 family businesses and leaders reaching the final judging stage for the ten categories in the region’s only not-for-profit independent awards for family businesses and their leaders, 26 are based in the East Midlands and 18 in the West Midlands.
East Midlands family firms dominate the shortlist for the headline Family Business of the Year – Nottingham’s A1 Flue Systems and Children 1st Day Nurseries, Derbyshire’s Bowers Electricals and Glossop Cartons, and LJ Fairburn & Sons of Alford, Lincolnshire, with haulage business Roadlink International of Willenhall representing the West Midlands.
The Best Small Family Business (turnover up to £5m) has finalists split equally between the East and West of the region – Brocklebys of Melton Mowbray, Rock Fall UK of Alfreton, Steve Soult of Nottinghamshire, General Building Plastics of Rugeley in Staffordshire, Churchfields Farmhouse Ice Cream of Droitwich, and Teal Patents of Chelmsley Wood.
The 2015 finalists include family firms founded over 100 years ago and as recently as 2008, and are based the length and breadth of the Midlands, from Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham and Solihull.
Other family businesses amongst the 2015 finalists are fifth generation family firm Chasetown Civil Engineering, 140-year old fourth generation manufacturer Crofts & Assinder, retailer Chapmans Electrical that was founded in 1925, importer and £30m turnover family firm Bonnington Plastics, and Mereway Kitchens, a £20m turnover business with three generations of the founding family still working in the business.
All 44 finalists will face the judges over the next few weeks, with the ten category Award winners announced at the Midlands Family Business Awards celebratory black tie dinner at Leicester’s Athena on Thursday 12th November 2015.
Each of the judging panels for the ten categories in this year’s Awards includes a senior family business figure and a leading industry expert. This year’s judges include Stuart Garner of Norton Motorcycles, Parveen Kumar Mehta of family business Minor Weir & Willis Limited, David Robinson, the President of Speedo International, Bobby Kalar of family business Yu Energy, Benjamin Fletcher, Managing Director of Boots Opticians, Mark Samworth of Samworth Brothers, John Horrell of Dodson & Horrell Limited, David Evans of Manor Pharmacy, Tim Storer of Pukka Pies, Jason Wouhra of East End Foods, Rebecca Manfredi of Suncream Dairies, and Peter Westerman of Westerman International.
Backed and run by The Wilson Organisation, the Awards are now in their sixth year and the regions only independent, not-for-profit initiative to recognise the work and achievements of family businesses. Wilsons’ MD Charlotte Perkins, the third generation of the family to lead the business alongside her sister Annabel Prow, comments: “All entries this year demonstrate the exceptional pedigree of the Midlands’ family businesses, and the shortlist includes businesses with ten to over 500 employees, and annual turnover ranging from £0.5m to more than £50m.”