Vital role played by the sponsors

The Telegraph & Argus teamed up with the Bradford Chamber and Bradford Council to bring you these prestigious awards.

And each individual category has been sponsored by a leading Bradford company.

These companies know that the business com-munity needs to pull together if it is to help drive forward Brad-ford’s regeneration.

Our sponsors are drawn from all fields across the district, and include Morrisons, Barrett Steel Ltd, Appleyard Jaguar Bradford, Sovereign Health Care, Bradford College, Bradford University School of Management, Westfield, Hiba Hampers, Bradford Chamber, Gordons solicitors and the Kirkgate Centre.

Each one has demonstrated success in its own business sector and shown by spon-soring these awards that they are an integral part of life in Bradford, and want others to succeed.

Small or Medium Enterprise of the Year – Morrisons

Morrisons started as a Bradford market stall in 1899, and over the years has grown into a superstore. It is now the UK’s fourth-largest food retailer, with 455 stores.

Uniquely, Morrisons sources and processes most of the fresh food it sells through its own manufacturing facilities, giving it close control over provenance and quality; and it has more people preparing more food in store than any other retailer.

Every week, nine million customers pass through the doors, and 132,000 colleagues across the business work hard each day to deliver great service to them. With competitive prices and hundreds of special offers, Morrisons says it is proud to save customers money every day.

The Morrisons vision to be the ‘Food Specialist for Everyone’ is now well advanced. Its constant focus on freshness, great value and outstanding service is appealing to more and more people. And Morrisons is now closer than ever to customers, opening many new stores last year.

Manufacturer of the Year – Barrett Steel Ltd

Barrett Steel is a Bradford steel stockholders supplying products and services to a diverse range of industries and market sectors.

It supplies nationally from a few bars cut to size to large structural components that need to be cut, drilled, shotblasted and primed. Its extensive stockholdings, coupled with leading-edge on-site processing facilities, means it can meet any requirements, however large or small.

Barrett’s customers have the unrivalled advantage of knowing they are part of the technologically-advanced and world-renowned Barrett Steel Group. This provides the solid backing of a leading global supplier of steel products and services, coupled with the benefits of the local, personalised and tailored service it has always provided.

As part of the Barrett Steel Group it has the backing of the UK’s largest independent steel stockholders.

New Business of the Year – Appleyard Jaguar Bradford

Appleyard Jaguar Bradford was established in Bradford in the 1960s.

General manager Chris Gardner is proud of the dealership’s long-standing reputation for delivering outstanding customer service to its loyal and valued Jaguar owners.

Last year was again a very successful year for the dealership, with new Jaguar sales up 30 per cent year-on-year.

Appleyard’s success has been recognised at a national level and it is shortlisted for Jaguar Sales and Service Dealer of the Year 2012.

This year promises to be another year of growth, with the New XF SportBrake, Jaguar’s first “estate” model for six years, now available.

Chris says: “We firmly believe in the highest levels of customer service. Drop by our dealership to meet us in person, for the chance to talk to our Jaguar Academy-trained staff.

“Appleyard Jaguar Bradford forms part of the highly-successful Jardine Motors Group which represents some of the most prestigious brands on a global scale.”

Environment, Health and Social Care Business of the Year – Sovereign Health Care

It has seen a lot of changes throughout its history, but Sovereign Health Care is thriving, and even in a difficult economy is determined to make 2013 its best-year ever.

The Bradford-based cash-plan provider turns 140 years old this year and is planning to celebrate its birthday and its heritage.

Founded in 1873 as the Hospital Fund of Bradford, Sovereign Health Care is now one of the country’s longest-standing cash-plan providers.

Throughout its history, the not-for-dividend firm has been proud of, and remained true to, its Bradford roots, not least thanks to its charitable trust, which has donated £4 million to good causes across the district and county in the past seven years alone.

Sovereign Health Care chief executive Russ Piper said: “Throughout our existence, we have strived to put the customer first and create competitively-priced cash plans to help people across the district and beyond.”

Job Creator of the Year – Bradford College

Bradford College has been delivering quality education and training for more than 175 years.

Each year it provides hundreds of courses to more than 23,000 learners from across the globe. The college is the fourth-largest in the country and the largest provider of higher education outside of the university sector in England.

The college’s years of experience offer a staggering choice of courses, with a huge variety of career-focused subjects and qualifications to start learners on the right career path.

Its dedicated and highly-qualified teaching staff are committed to ensuring every learner develops to their full potential.

Bradford College has a national reputation in a number of fields. It has been presented with a National Beacon Award for its outstanding contribution to equality and diversity by the Association of Colleges and awarded the Training Quality Standard – the highest accolade possible in recognition of its excellent work with employers.

Business or Technical Innovation of the Year – Bradford University School of Management

Established in 1963, Bradford University School of Management is one of the oldest university-based business schools. It is celebrating its 50-year anniversary in 2013.

In 1967, the University of Bradford acquired the school’s historic self-contained parkland campus, set in 14 acres of parkland in a leafy suburb just a short bus ride from the main university. The Heaton Mount building, a former wool manufacturer’s mansion, is now the centre for Executive Education and Development.

The school runs a full range of management and law undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees, as well as customised executive education and corporate programmes.

The school has its own dedicated teaching and learning facilities, library, careers service and other specialist support services to ensure students get the most out of their time. It also offers exclusive bar, conferencing, function and hotel facilities for businesses and private events, including weddings.

Retail, Leisure or Hospitality Business of the Year – Westfield

The Westfield Group – which is behind the much-anticipated shopping centre to be built in central Bradford – is one of the largest retail property groups in the world by equity market capitalisation, and one of the largest entities listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Operating on a global platform, the Westfield Group is an internally-managed, vertically-integrated shopping centre group, undertaking ownership, development, design, construction, funds and asset management, property management, leasing and marketing. It employs more than 4,000 staff worldwide. Westfield has interests in an investment portfolio of 104 shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the United States and Brazil.

Westfield has one of the UK’s most outstanding shopping centre portfolios with its range of existing centres and future projects.

Since entering the UK market in 2000, Westfield has opened three shopping centre developments – Westfield Derby, Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City.

Woman in Business Award – Hiba Hampers

Hiba Hampers is a wholesaler of unique stunning baskets, set up by Bradford-based lawyer Nasreen Karim in 2011.

The company’s ambitious mission is “to ensure every single home has one of our baskets as either a mithai hamper, flower display, gift basket or as a unique display”.

Nasreen says: “We are an audacious, dynamic and innovative brand; our handmade and hand-crafted baskets cannot be found anywhere else. The gift hampers we supply are customised to ensure a truly personalised gift. Hiba Hampers provides gift hampers and baskets to private customers as well as wholesale to selected businesses.”

Hiba Hampers’ most successful line to date is the mithai (Asian sweets) hamper which can be bought from mithai manufacturers and retailers around the country. It supplies gift shops as well as the customer direct.

Nasreen took part in the Telegraph & Argus Local Business Accelerators project, run by Dragon’s Den’s Deborah Meaden, to help boost her business.

Business Personality of the Year – Bradford Chamber

Bradford Chamber exists to help businesses across the district. As one of the major partners of the Bradford Means Business Awards, it has been instrumental in helping to organise, judge and present the competition for three years now.

The Bradford Chamber’s brand values underpin the ethos of the business and the people within it.

• Partnerships: working with companies and individuals to improve their business performance, by building strong relationships.
• Networking: providing an inclusive and effective network for businesses to do business.
• Intelligence: using our knowledge, intelligence and services to enable business people to work more efficiently and profitably.
• Championing: the voice and needs of local business.
• Supporting: helping to create a sustainable business-friendly and supported environment.

Employer of the Year – Gordons

Established in Bradford in 1844, award-winning Gordons is one of the UK’s most successful law firms, having achieved 11 consecutive years of growth, but with us it’s not business as usual.

Our approach is to make life simple, not complicated. Our clients want straightforward, practical advice from people they can trust, so that’s exactly what we provide.

We value relationships very highly. Many of our client relationships extend back over several decades.

For example, we have a 65-year relationship with the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket chain, Morrisons, who we advise on a wide range of corporate, property, employment, regulatory, planning, construction and litigation issues.

We are a modern law firm operating in the real world. We believe in hard work and professionalism combined with a personal touch. We aim to be lawyers who clients want to deal with and come back to – trusted as people and valued as lawyers.

We are still here in the heart of Bradford, 169 years on, employing more than 120 people.

Winner of Winners Award – Kirkgate Centre

The Kirkgate Centre in Bradford is the major shopping facility in the city centre, boasting dozens of stores over three floors right in the heart of the city.

The huge number of stores range from high-street names to individual local businesses, drawing in shoppers from across the district.

Not only at the heart of the city, the Kirkgate Centre is at the heart of Bradford’s community, too.

The centre regularly hosts community events, ranging from fundraising events for charities and local organisations, to photo-shoots for the T&A-backed modelling and Happy Tots contests.

It also contributes directly to fundraising initiatives from local charities and is always backing and supporting campaigns to improve the quality of life in Bradford, and the district’s image.

The centre is centrally located and open seven days a week, and has a strong presence online – it even has its own Facebook page which encourages discussion and debate about Bradford.

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