Merseyrail wins excellence award

TRANSPORT company Merseyrail was named Business of the Year at the North of England Excellence awards last night.

Warrington-based 3P Logistics, which provides order fulfillment services to businesses trading online, was named High Growth Business of the Year, while the Co-operative Bank won a special award for Innovation for the overhaul of its business processes that took place in the wake of its merger with Britannia Building Society.

Other North West award winners at the event, which took place at The Point venue at Lancashire County Cricket Club last night, included social housing provider Harvest Housing Group (Customer Service, Learning & Development), Trafford Council (Innovation and Leadership), ENWORKS (Sustainability) and consultancy Artemis for a project based on Lean principles.

David Teale, chief executive of North of England Excellence, said: “Our winners demonstrate the strength of business practice across the North.

“These awards quite rightly highlight and celebrate the success of businesses committed to continual improvement and innovation, with management and staff at all levels working together to deliver outstanding results.”

Guest speaker at the event was BBC Radio 5 Live controller Adrian van Klaveren, who reiterated his organisation’s commitment to the area following its relocation to MediaCity:UK in Salford.

He said the move represented a fairer deal for licence payers.

“Too much of that money has been spent in the South East,” he said. “We are trying to change that on behalf of the 17 million people across the north of England to make sure the BBC’s investment makes a real difference to what they see and hear.”