BUSINESSiQ Award to be held at Ramside Hall on April 28

Tickets are on sale NOW for what will be one of the biggest Northern Echo events - when the spotlight is turned on outstanding businesses and their leaders at Ramside Hall on April 28th, where the event will be hosted by Alfie Joey and with a keynote speech from Dragon’s Den star Sara Davies.

The full list of businesses chosen by our judges to go onto the shortlist is:

• To get your tickets for the BUSINESSiQ Awards, CLICK HERE

Diversity and Inclusion

PD Ports: Employing around 1,500 people nationwide, PDP owns and operates ports along the East coast of the UK. With headquarters in Middlesbrough, it is also the Statutory Harbour Authority for the Port of Teesport and Hartlepool.

AV Dawson: Celebrating 80 years of supporting manufacturing supply chains by handling and moving freight, AV Dawson’s Port of Middlesbrough operates from a 40 hectares port on Riverside Park, Middlesbrough.

Durham County Council: The elected assembly of 126 councillors accountable to more than 513,000 people in County Durham, responsible for providing a wide range of public services to the people of the county.

Alfie Joey and Sara Davies (Image: Press release)

Export Champion

Blacksheep Brewery: Located in Masham, North Yorkshire, Paul Theakston made the decision to establish his own independent brewery in his home town in 1992. The  brewhouse uses the Yorkshire Square Fermentation system.

Beanies The Flavour Co: Beanies was launched in 2013 to offer coffee lovers a choice of easy-to-make flavoured coffees, and it now sells to more than 30 countries. It has received a Queen’s Award for International Trade.

Gestamp Tallent: Gestamp Tallent designs, develops and manufactures safety critical chassis products for the automotive industry. Supplying major clients as Nissan, JLR, VW, Ford, BMW. 

Innovation Award

Wootzano Ltd: Founded in 2018, the company works closely with the fresh produce supply chain to create commercial robotic solutions.

Global Teacher: The company's mission is to empower one million marginalised students, through education, using high-tech products, including the world’s first 3D-printed, solar-powered educational learning system.

Exis Technologies: A leading global supplier of IT compliance systems for the management of dangerous goods in sea transport, based on the Faverdale Industrial Estate, in Darlington.

Net Zero Award

Cummins: A global power technology leader assembling around 250 diesel engines a day for use in a range of applications. Cummins has announced a new Powertrain Test Facility at the Darlington Campus.

TCR The Hub: A unique, state of the art facility, home of the charity Teesdale Community Resources (TCR) that has delivered an  extensive programme of activities to young people in the Teesdale area for over 30 years.

Power Roll: Opened its solar film pilot manufacturing facility in County Durham and is the first facility in the world to produce low-cost, lightweight, flexible solar film.

New Business of the Year

Hightech Industrial Access: Industrial Services Provider, working at height training provider, plant hire, and specialist access platforms.

Wootzano Ltd: Founded in 2018, the company works closely with the fresh produce supply chain to create commercial robotic solutions, using their own patented electronic skin to give their robots human-like characteristics.

Smart Manufacturing Solutions Technology: A cloud based manufacturing platform enabling the removal of paper in all manufacturing sectors whilst enabling compliance. SMS Tech has tested its product in multiple manufacturing sectors.

Raise a glass to business excellence (Image: Press release)

Community Impact

REFUSE Café: Environmentally friendly cafe that each month intercepts around 12 tonnes of food that would otherwise go to waste, from retailers around the region.

Darlington Building Society: The society has provided savings accounts and mortgages for over 166 years, and has strong community links by working with local charities and good causes right across the North East.

County Durham Community Foundation: Grant-making charity supporting communities and individuals in County Durham, with some wider work across the North East.

Creative Business of the Year

Cocoon & Bauer Ltd: An interior design firm which creates interiors for high end residential homes and the commercial and hospitality sectors in the North East and nationwide.

Animmersion UK: Founded in 2006, and a leading supplier of visualisation tools throughout the UK, specialising in five areas: User Interface & User Experience Design; Animation, Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality, Holograms & Mixed Reality, and Interactive Displays.

Double Eleven: Based at the growing Boho site in Middlesbrough and with offices now open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the company is one of the most influential names in gaming.

Employee Health and Wellbeing

Darlington Building Society: The society has provided savings accounts and mortgages for over 166 years, and has strong community links by working with local charities and good causes right across the North East.

ATOM Bank: Founded in 2014 as the UK's first app-based bank and was the country's first digital-only bank to be granted a regulatory licence.

Active Chartered Financial Planners: A team of specialist Independent Financial Advisers that provides a full suite of holistic financial planning services to private individuals, corporate businesses and professional practices.

Training and Skills Award

Education Training Collective: A group of vibrant Tees Valley colleges incorporating Stockton Riverside College, Redcar and Cleveland College, NETA Training, Bede Sixth Form College and The Skills Academy.

Learning Curve Group: A national training and education specialist working with further education providers, employers and learners to help them achieve top results.

Tees Components: Family-run and award-winning, heavy engineering subcontractor in Redcar & Cleveland, with one of the largest machining capacities in the UK.

Business of the Year

Cummins: A global power technology leader assembling around 250 diesel engines a day for use in a range of applications. 

My Property Box: Ben Quaintrell founded My Property Box in 2010, starting out as an innovative letting agency and property management service - using tech to improve the experience for landlords and tenants.

Razorblue: An award-winning provider of managed IT, cybersecurity, connectivity, cloud, and software solutions to over 500 businesses across a wide range of industries.

BUSINESSiQ will then choose its own winnner of the Leader of the Year Award. 

With so much business success across the North East, we knew that we needed to find the right way to recognise, applaud and reward companies large and small that were contributing to the region’s ever-growing profile

Writer, comic, actor and presenter Alfie told us: ‘As a County Durham lad, who was brought up in a Northern Echo household, I am so proud to host the first BUSINESSiQ awards. This will be the perfect occasion to sing from the rooftops about the exciting local visionaries and companies who really are making waves in the world of business.”

Read next:

• Two hundred jobs at new high-tech North East engineering facility
• Premcor to build three new factories next to Amazon in Darlington
• £3m Innovate UK Launchpad fund for energy and renewables SMEs

Sara Davies MBE, who grew up in County Durham and still lives in the region, founded Crafter’s Companion, a crafter’s supply company, whilst at university in 2005.

In 2019, she joined BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den as the show’s youngest ever female investor and became a household name in 2021 when she was a contestant on BBC’s hit show Strictly Come Dancing.

She said: “Just one of the reasons that I’m so proud of our region is because it’s overflowing with innovation and ideas being realised by hardworking, determined people with tons of tenacity. It’s an honour to recognise some of that amazing success.”

Join us all for the chance to celebrate pure business excellence.