Pets at Home chief wins CBI award
THE outgoing chief executive of Handforth-based retailer Pets at Home, Matt Davies, has won CBI North West’s Business Leader of the Year award.
Mr Davies, who announced that he was stepping down from Pets at Home in October, received the prize at the CBI North West’s annual business awards lunch at the Midland Hotel on this afternoon (December 2).
Mr Davies has spent the past decade at Pets at Home, initially joining as finance director before stepping up to become chief executive before the company was sold to Bridgepoint in 2004.
“I’ve had the most amazing time running this business,” he said. My challenge now will be to find something that is as exciting as running Pets at Home has been.”
Haydock-based Nichols was named as board of the year, while Stockport-based print management company APS Group won the Emerging Company of the Year award.
Nichols chairman John Nichols said that winning the award was “a great honour”, but argued that the company’s senior management team deserved greater praise than the board.
APS Group was started 50 years ago by the father of the current managing director, Nick Snelson. Turnover has climbed from £32.7m in 2009 to £52.3m this year. The group offers design and print management services for a range of blue chip clients include The Co-operative Group, Astrazeneca, Manchester Airport Group and the BBC.
The company made its first move into Europe 12 months ago after acquiring Dutch printer Relate4U, and Mr Snelson that he sees “significant opportunities for us to grow our business in Europe”, either organically or through selective acquisitions.
