Taking home both the ‘Outstanding Excellence’ trophy and Best Business to Work For award at the gala dinner on 10 May, the UK arm of the global business acts as a strategic IT solutions partner to companies and organisations around the country.
Now in their 25th year and organised by Newsquest Wiltshire, the Wiltshire Business of the Year Awards acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of the county’s dynamic and thriving business community.
More than 350 of the county’s leading entrepreneurs, SMEs and organisations gathered for the spectacular event at Center Parcs in Longleat Forest. Gemma Featonby and Ramona Derbyshire, awards judges and partners at Thrings, presented the top award to Bechtle Direct.
In an interview earlier this year for Wiltshire Business magazine, Bechtle managing director, James Napp told Thrings: “There’s this idea that IT professionals are the ‘geeks in the corner’ but that’s just not the reality these days – IT now sits on the Board of many companies, helping to decide strategy.
“We’ve gone from £36 million turnover in 2016 to almost double that this year after moving to our purpose-built base in Methuen Park. Investing heavily in technical and business support staff over the past five years has been a key factor in our growth.”
Also leaving the awards dinner with two accolades was Swindon cloud-based software business Appsbroker, who was branded Medium Sized Enterprise of the Year as well as winning the Customer & Staff Care award.
Businesses competed in a total of 11 categories – including the brand new Best Business to Work For award and Micro/Sole Trader Business of the Year – with all competitors gaining automatic entry into the Thrings-sponsored Outstanding Excellence award category. For a full list of the winners, please see here.
Ramona Derbyshire said: “Having impressed judges with their growing success over the five or so years they have taken part in the Wiltshire Business Awards, it was a particular honour to present our Outstanding Excellence award to Bechtle Direct. This year, the Chippenham-based tech team pipped their worthy competition to the post as they smashed their own financial targets, expanded their innovative product-base and reaped the rewards of investing in staff development.”
Prior to their recognition as a great place to work, James said: “We’ve tried to create an environment which is fun, with lots of autonomy and where people can really thrive… We recognised that investing in our workforce was really important and so launched a training programme and sales academy, which are going really well. Rewarding loyalty is a big part of our culture.”
Praising the runners up in Thrings’ category, partner and awards judge Kate Westbrook said: “With the strapline ‘expect extraordinary’, it’s no surprise that Appsbroker is punching well above its weight - for example in developing and delivering solutions on Google Cloud Platform for major brands such as Santander and Jaguar Land Rover. A special mention also goes to NCAB, who came in third place and run a world-class printed circuit boards business from Devizes. Huge congratulations to both stellar businesses, as well as the evening’s other impressive winners and runners up.”
For more information about the awards, please visit: www.wiltshirebusinessawards.co.uk
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