Te Puke Business Excellence Awards nominations open

Te Puke Economic Development Group managing director Mark Boyle. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

Nominations are now open for this year’s Te Puke Business Excellence Awards.

The awards ceremony will take place in September and the awards have undergone a bit of a shakeup since the last event in 2021.

On top of the previous awards categories for retail, food and beverage, service, emerging business and agribusiness, there is a new manufacturing category.

There will also be new awards for best emerging business, outstanding community contribution, excellence in sustainability, excellence in innovation and leader of the year with the best employee award being replaced with an award for the ultimate customer experience.

The customer service award will allow judges to look beyond individuals, and the community contribution could come from the business or social service sectors.

There will also be a supreme award.

Te Puke Economic Development Group (EDG) managing director Mark Boyle says judging will be across four key areas.

These will be financial, customers and markets, how the business is run internally and the programme for learning and growth.

The closing date for nominations will be toward the end of August, but Mark says judging will begin once the first nominations start coming in.

The last awards were presented at a glitzy event in Te Puke Memorial Hall in July 2021, with Anann Pineapple Pub owners Miriam Canty and Leigh Bartosh taking the supreme award.

He says it is important to recognise business excellence.

“Businesses are meeting the needs of consumers and industry across the district, so it’s very important to highlight them, to give them the opportunity to participate in the process where we search for and judge excellence, and it’s a great way of bringing the business community together as one so that they can understand we have a value proposition.

“Business drives communities, so if you keep bringing it to the fore and highlighting it and judging it and making them part of the process, it shows that we are healthy and focused on being the best we can be.”

Visit the Te Puke EDG Facebook page to make a nomination.