Top city firms named at Edinburgh Business Awards

A WEALTH of prime business acumen and top city entrepreneurship has been recognised by the Chamber of Commerce in the biggest-ever Edinburgh Business Awards.
Members of the Grassmarket Community Project hillwalking group in Holyrood Park. Picture: Jane BarlowMembers of the Grassmarket Community Project hillwalking group in Holyrood Park. Picture: Jane Barlow
Members of the Grassmarket Community Project hillwalking group in Holyrood Park. Picture: Jane Barlow

The 69 nominees have been chosen from record levels of entries across 15 categories, highlighting the strength and diversity of business in the Capital.

This year the shortlist includes a diverse range of the Capital’s top businesses, including AM Bid Services, AWS Recruitment, The Yard and Edinburgh Airport, nominated in the best performing business category for their operational successes and for their innovative approaches to expansion.

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Hibs and the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home have made the shortlist in a new category – inspiring partnerships – which aims to celebrate the positive effect they have on their communities.

Also nominated in this category and two more, the Grassmarket Community Project, which offers a mixture of education programmes, drop-in services, social enterprise and social integration activities for adults who have been marginalised by lack of opportunity, said they were shortlisted among business “giants”.

Chief executive of the Edinburgh Chamber (ECC) Liz McAreavey, said: “The judges found this a challenging task, with very high quality entries for this year’s awards demonstrating yet again the growing importance of these awards in the Edinburgh – and Scottish – business calendar.

“All of the judges were impressed with the quality of entries, which does credit to the city and its business community in all areas, from innovation to social responsibility.”

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Vegware, the city-based compostable packaging manufacturer, is in the running for a gong for the Close The Loop initiative. A spokesperson said: “We were delighted to hear that Vegware has been named as one of the finalists.

“We’re up for the Responsible Business Award for our Close the Loop collection service, a waste collection service offering Vegware packaging and food waste collection to customers across Scotland’s Central Belt.”

20/20 Productions, Doig & Smith and Steedman & Company are finalists in one of the most hotly-contested categories, Developing the Young Workforce, which recognises organisations who support young people.

In the Best New Start Up category, community gym Projeckt42 rubs shoulders with modern law firm Ergo Law Ltd and business five-a-side football networking & teambuilding company Business Fives.

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The company, which donates 10 percent of profits to charity, said: “Business Fives has worked in collaboration with the Edinburgh Chamber since inception so the recognition deserves to go to our clients and partner organisations who have been inspired to come on our journey and helped us to grow over the past two years. We’re thrilled to be shortlisted.”

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce president Scott Black said today: “We had a huge number of submissions for the ECC Annual Business Awards this year.

“It’s great to see such a positive response, which highlights the excellent contribution our entrepreneurs and leaders, from all sectors, are making to the success of our capital city.

“With over 500 guests expected in February, we are looking forward to celebrating some of Edinburgh’s top business and third-sector achievements.”

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Broadcaster and football commentator David Tanner will host an awards dinner at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on February 8 where the winners will be announced.

Speeches will be made by Colin Temple, managing director at schuh and Sophie Dekkers, UK Country Director at EasyJet as part of the event.