News
29 Jun 2009: Social enterprise success at Biz Awards ceremony
The third annual Biz Awards ceremony celebrated the enterprising spirit of businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber.
The glittering awards evening held on Friday 26th June at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, was founded by the Business Enterprise Fund to award those who have overcome adversity when setting up their business and achieving success against the odds. The event was a great achievement for social enterprises throughout the region with three of the five awards being picked up by social businesses.
The big winner of the evening was Fresh Pastures CIC, a client of the Key Fund. The Wakefield based social enterprise dairy provides milk to schools via local authority contracts, whilst also providing employment opportunities to the long term unemployed and individuals with physical and mental disabilities.
In Februaury 2009 the Key Fund provided Fresh Pastures with a grant and loan package of £120,000 to support the expansion of the organisation, a critical move to enable them to deliver a number of their lucrative newly acquired contracts.
Fresh Pastures scooped the award for ‘Fastest Growing Business’. When they first established in early 2006, Fresh Pastures were managing two contracts for local authorities in Derbyshire and Bradford, supplying milk to 270 schools. Three years on the enterprise is managing 8 contracts throughout the country, supplying to over 1600 schools. The organisation also beat off strong competition for the prestigious ‘Business of the Year’ Biz Award.
Graham Morley, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Fresh Pastures, commented “We are thrilled to win the 'fastest growing business' award, especially as we felt we were up against very stiff competition. To then go on and win the prestigious 'Business of the Year' award was fantastic. We are very proud that the panel of judges saw the passion that we feel for Fresh Pastures. Being recognised for this raises the profile of how well Social Enterprises are doing within the Yorkshire and Humber region, through the help of organisations such as the Key Fund."
Fresh Pastures are planning on spending the £2,500 prize money on developing a viewing gallery at the dairy to enable children to learn about where their milk comes from.
The other social enterprise winner of the evening was ‘just coffee people’, the only specialist Fairtrade merchant in Leeds selling own-brand coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. The organisation was the winner of the ‘Enterprise in the Community Award’. The award, sponsored by Key Fund Yorkshire, celebrates the fact that profit and social objectives can make a winning combination.
The winners of the remaining two Biz Awards were Viewpoint Digital, a 3D visualisation service, for ‘Enterprise through Innovation’ and UpStaged, a vintage clothing store in Leeds, for ‘Best New Start’.
