Bondholder Masterclass

The East Midlands 2020 Business Masters Awards, celebrating the achievements of the region’s most innovative, ambitious and successful companies, crowned Bondholders Frontline Recruitment, Morley Hayes, Pattonair, Ward and Wathall's as winners.

From over 150 entries, the Masters judging panel selected finalists in 13 different categories honouring businesses of all sizes, from all over the region.

Bondholders won the following categories:

• Frontline Recruitment – Investment

• Morley Hayes – Medium-sized business

• Pattonair – Contributing to the Community

• Ward – Large Business; Donald Ward – Ambassador of the Year

• Wathall’s – Family Business

Sam Metcalf, Midlands editor at TheBusinessDesk.com, told the audience: “I’d like to thank every single company who entered the awards this year. The standard was incredibly high and everyone who has made it onto the shortlist this evening should be incredibly pleased with their efforts.”

The ‘Contributing to the Community’ category crowned Pattonair following its CSR activities in 2019, when the company raised over £60,000 for charity.

The sum included £57,000 raised for Dementia UK at the company’s annual Autumn Ball. The charity is close to the hearts of many Pattonair employees and the money raised funded Derby’s first Admiral Nurse – a specialist dementia service – that will now be able to deliver an extra level of care for those most in need.

Pattonair/Wesco president Wayne Hollinshead explained the importance of the local community to the firm: “The community is at the heart of everything we do and we’re always looking for ways to support charitable and community efforts in Derby and the wider East Midlands.

“We’re delighted to have won this award and that our CSR efforts have been recognised. We are looking forward to continuing our charity and community-based activities this year. We have chosen East Midlands based charity Rainbows for our ball charity and we’ll be closely supporting Mind throughout the year also.”

Ward celebrated double award success, with the firm’s Donald Ward being named Ambassador of the Year, while the company was also named the ‘Large Company of the Year’ for 2020, retaining the title from the previous year.

On the joint award win, Donald Ward, Operations Director said: “We can’t believe it! This is amazing. So proud of the team for all their hard work. To be recognised for the second year as the best Large Company of the Year at the Business Masters Awards is a fantastic honour and credit to the sustained growth and investment we’ve made over the past year. Our new metal shredding equipment, the launch of textile recycling service WARDRobe and continued expansion of our metal export capabilities at Immingham dock are all helping to build continued growth.”