Vote for your ‘Yorkshire Grit’ winner

READERS are today invited to vote for who they believe should be honoured in the Yorkshire Grit category in TheBusinessDesk.com’s inaugural Yorkshire Business Masters.

The Yorkshire Grit category has been created to celebrate individuals and companies which have shown determination through the recession and defied the odds.

TheBusinessDesk.com’s readers can vote on the three shortlisted entries by filling in the form below.

The inaugural Yorkshire Business Masters are sponsored by Gordons, KPMG, Walker Morris and Welcome to Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Grit category is sponsored by law firm Gordons.

Paul Ayre, managing partner at Gordons, said: “The Yorkshire Grit Award recognises an individual that has shown tremendous tenacity and a clear focus on achieving business success against the odds.

“We recognise that truly successful business people are able to triumph in adversity through their dedication, ability and sheer hard work.

“This award gives us the opportunity to congratulate someone who has clearly demonstrated they have what it takes to succed despite facing significant challenges.”

The shortlist for the Yorkshire Grit category is:

– David Twiddle, of Renovo

Renovo is a dynamic example of one company that has faced great adversity yet evolved and remodelled to become a key player in today’s recession rocked marketplace, now helping industry and employees to recover and prosper.

The York-based business was first established in 2004 as Hamilton Caine, an executive recruitment company specialising in the banking and financial Services sector. In 2007, like most businesses it experienced the significant impact of the credit crunch.

Following the demise of Northern Rock its chosen markets began a rapid decline that was relentless throughout the remainder of 2007, 2008 and 2009. As a profitable company with 18 staff in 2007, the company reverted to loss making in 2008 and was forced to reduce headcount to six members of staff by the end of 2008.

Learning from the impact of the recession through the entire employment lifecycle, Renovo radically changed its proposition and now provides low cost (affordable), innovative, workforce solutions for private and public sector organisations and government agencies. It does this by harnessing the power of leading technology (that it has invested in to deliver its own bespoke software) combined with the irreplaceable aspect of human interaction.

Through a new initiative entitled from ‘Recession to Recovery’, Renovo is supporting organisations through their journey out of recession through initiatives including assisting companies with making redundancies and providing support to displaced employees; helping organisations assess how engaged their employees are; and assisting organisations to recruit staff. 

Renovo is currently assisting more than 1,100 people every month, putting three people back to work every working hour, and is on course for pre-tax profits of £700,000 for 2010.

– Sheffield Forgemasters International

As the world’s largest independently owned forgemaster, Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd (SFIL) designs and manufactures large-scale bespoke steel forgings, castings and components to supply an increasing global demand for crucial, high quality engineered products in diverse industries such as defence, oil and gas exploration, power generation, marine and construction.

SFIL is one of only 14 large scale open die forging companies in the world and the only one of its kind in the UK. It has the largest forging and foundry facilities in the UK. With a 200-year pedigree the company has secured a profitable future through a considered diversification programme which now incorporates specialist project management provision and a state of the art testing facility.

Operations include melting, forging, casting and machining. SFIL manufactures some of the largest and most complex steel castings in the world. SFIL has succeeded through a shared vision and against all odds.

The company has emerged from a chequered past into a highly focused, successful and forward thinking company driven by a determined management team.

In 2005 SFIL, stood on the brink of disaster but was saved by a management buy-out, engineered by Dr Graham Honeyman, chief executive of Forgemasters, which secured 600 jobs and paved the way for a new start.

Five years on SFIL is still posting successful profit performances, winning worldwide orders, securing major government investment for civil nuclear power generation work, offering an award winning apprentice trained workforce, and putting valuable skills back into the British steel industry.

In 2009, Forgemasters showed resilience in countering the recession by posting increased turnover of £117.3m in 2009 compared to £114.7m in the previous year boosted by a series of high profile global contracts.

– David Share, of Share Jewellers

The family-run jewellery business has recovered from a series of raids by armed gangs to to refocus the business which has led it to celebrate online success.

Share Jewellers previously had four stores located throughout Yorkshire, but the 30 year old business became a target for armed robbers, intent on stripping the business of its assets.

Having reduced the business down to just two stores, one in Leeds, now trading simply as Share, and one in Barnsley, the sibling owners decided to take the majority of their business online to avoid the daily worry of attack and to open up to a wider market.

Facing closure and one of the worst recessions in British history, Share Jewellers has overcome adversity and by working closely with Leeds-based, full service digital agency Chapter Eight for the past 18 months, the company now enjoys a successful ecommerce business and has seen its ecommerce turnover increase by 150%.

[FORM: 23]

The deadline for voting for the Yorkshire Grit category is 4pm on Wednesday, May 26.

Our voting system will only allow one vote per user to be counted.

Readers can also vote on the shortlists for both the Yorkshire Newcomer and Yorkshire Innovator categories by clicking the links below:

Vote for your Yorkshire Newcomer
Vote for your Yorkshire Innovator

The Yorkshire Business Masters’ judging panel, which sifted through dozens of entires to come up with the shortlist, was made up of Paul Fullerton, agent of the Bank of England for Yorkshire; Stephen Martin, chief executive of Clugston Group; Helen West, chief executive of Business Link; James Newman, the Master Cutler; Ajaz Ahmed, founder of Freeserve and Andrew Palmer, regional director of the CBI.

The awards will be held at Aspire in Leeds on June 17.

To book tickets for the event please click here.

For sponsorship opportunities please contact david.parkin@thebusinessdesk.com .