The FSB South East Small Business Awards final, held at The All England Jumping Course, Hickstead on Friday, saw firms from across Hampshire & Isle of Wight nominated for success. Racquet Sports Group from Emsworth, ActiveMe360 from Fair Oak, Innovative Physics from Shanklin, Trenches Law from Fleet, Jigsaw Early Years Consultancy from Romsey and The Book Shop from Gosport were all shortlisted in a tough competition.
For Shanklin based Innovative Physics it was a day of triumph as the experts in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Nuclear, Medical Imagery and Homeland Security won the hard-fought International Business of the Year Award which recognises companies who have grown and developed their strategy by trading internationally.
General Manager Robert Abbott (pictured above, centre), described the business’s joy at winning the trophy: “It has been a challenging time for all SMEs and many of us have had to look at creative ways both of generating overseas business and also of looking after the needs of existing clients.”
“Our staff deserve great credit for coming up with the required solutions. We are delighted to receive this award that demonstrates our collective success in solving complex science and engineering challenges which is the hallmark of the business.”
Fleet based Trenches Law won the Business and Product Innovation Award, and FSB’s Development Manager for Hampshire, Dorset and Isle of Wight, Nicky Kildunne congratulated all winners in what was a closely fought competition this year due to the quantity and quality of applications across all twelve categories.
Nicky said “We were amazed and delighted to discover that we had a record amount of entries this year as so many small businesses told us of their triumph against all the odds.”
“I know that the judges found even narrowing down to a shortlist to be a major headache - let alone trying to pick a category winner.”
“What this all says, I think, is what we all probably knew – the South Coast is an absolute hotbed of entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and small business expertise.”
All of the regional finalists now go forward to the FSB Small Business Awards National Final in May.
The full list for the South East area ‘FSB Celebrating Small Business Award’ winners for 2022 is:
Business & Product Innovation Award
Trenches Law (Fleet)
Family Business of the Year
The English Soap Company (East Sussex)
International Business of the Year
Innovative Physics (Shanklin, Isle of Wight)
Environmental/Sustainability Award
Puremess (Surrey)
Start-up Business of the Year
Prsnt Ltd (Kent)
Digital/e-Commerce Business of the Year
Highstreet Outlet Clothing Ltd (Poole, Dorset)
Micro Business of the Year
Simply Ice Cream (Kent)
Self-employed/Sole Trader of the Year
Pure Connection Pets (Kent)
High Growth Business of the Year
Puddle Ducks (Kent)
Wellbeing Award of the Year
We are Tilt Ltd (Brighton)
Community Award
Grandads Front Room (Bognor Regis)
Young Entrepreneur of the Year (under 30 years of age)
Ryan Jackson – OG Kicks (Brighton)
The South East final is one of a number of regional finals place across the UK with winners now invited to a national final in Glasgow. For more details see www.fsbawards.co.uk