AVQ Ltd - ‘one heck of an enterprise'

12:49pm Wednesday 16th May 2007

AMID a cannonade of tickertape, explosive applause and triumphant music, AVQ Ltd - dubbed by judges as "one heck of an enterprise" - became The Press Business of the Year 2006.

It was the third time in one night that the 300 people who gathered in the Voltigeur Suite at York Racecourse for last night's 16th annual glittering final had hailed the Stockton-on-the-Forest audio visual solutions firm.

Earlier, AVQ scooped The Press Growth Business of the Year title, followed by victory in the Small Business of the Year category.

In their citation, judges described AVQ as "a complete business, acting with humble objectivity, verve and energy" - a firm which had "thought and fought its way out of stagnation and is now reaping the rewards".

AVQ, introduced by Business Link to adviser Chris Fordy, of Action International business coaching, learned how to work on, rather than in, the business.

The result? They doubled year on year turnover, gained Investors In People status and earlier this year beat off 30 other companies to triumph in the Action International Marketing Award sponsored by HSBC.

And now comes the ultimate victory as AVQ embodies belief in this year's award slogan, A New Tomorrow.

Brandishing his winners' trophy, managing director Geoff McAuley said: "This is just unbelievable."

Pointing out the quality of all the finalists, he said: "Our efforts have been recognised in a way we could never have dreamed of."

It was the climax of a tense night woven smoothly together by television broadcaster Colin Hazelden in which AVQ was one of three finalists to collect more than one award.

Alice Adams, the dynamic founder of Ryedale Communications, who began selling alternative telecom providers to British business from a desk and phone on her upstairs landing, building it up into a small empire with more than £1 million turnover and ten employees, won both the Women In Enterprise Award and the Business Personality of the Year.

Welcom Software of Harrogate, whose 60 staff retained its Progress Through People title, also won the Large Business of the Year trophy.

The Balloon Tree Farmshop and Caf in Gate Helmsley - last year's overall winner - beat off other finalists to keep the Retailer of the Year title it won last year.

Cherie Federico of Aesthetica walked away with the Young Business Entrepreneur of the Year trophy.

She and partner Dale Donley started Aesthetica Magazine in 2002 when they were students. Today, working from the Fishergate Centre in York, the publication remains a national leader in communication of the cultural arts, with 10,000 readers per issue.

Stockbridge Technology Centre, the company which carries out research and development and technology transfer in horticulture, won the Best Business and Education Link. Hundreds of schoolchildren have visited the centre in Cawood, Selby, to study food growing processes and to grow their own.

Think Green Business of the Year went to Cartridge World, of Clifton Green, York, where franchisee Ashley Cooper is passionate not only about thinking green but also, in his own words, "black, blue, red and yellow too".

New Business of the Year went to Avacta, based in the Biocentre at York Science Park, which this year launched on the AIMS market, reaching a £25 million cap on its four pence per share price.

Jane Tyler, founder of RedBlack Software in King's Street, York, collected the Science and Technology Business of the Year Award. Apart from supplying management software to more than 50 major bakeries across the UK and Northern Ireland, judges were impressed that the firm's software was used to help more than 60 local companies of all kinds to turn their business ideas into reality.