18 | Aycliffe Today Business
Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 19
Pamela Petty is urging
Aycliffe firms to get
involved in this year’s Make
Your Mark awards event.
MAKE YOUR MARK 2015
THE CATEGORIES
MAKE
YOUR
MARK
Subsea specialists Tekmar
Energy scooped the
Company of the Year award
last year.
Dozens of businesses and guests enjoyed a
glitzy ceremony at the Xcel Centre last year.
them.
“Sometimes we choose not to enter
awards. If nothing has really changed with
what we’re doing. We don’t want to be serial
award enterers who go in for anything and
everything. We do try to enter awards where
we think we have a good chance of winning
and it making a difference.
“Of course, that all boils down to who else
has entered, and sometimes the competition
can be really fierce.
“For me it’s about whether we’re better
than we were last year. I believe that we are,
but to the public eye not a lot has changed.
Internally we’ve changed a lot and we’re
gearing up for a big drive forward with
mashing machine manufacturing.”
Ebac were joint runners-up in the Company
of the Year category in 2014, along with
Finley Structures and Merchant Place
Developments.
“It was a very strong shortlist for that
award, and that’s because there are some
brilliant companies on Aycliffe Business Park,”
insists Pamela.
“A few compete with other, but there’s
also a lot of diversity and that makes the
fields strong. For most of the categories last
year, there was a lot of debate, because you
could easily have given all the shortlisted
nominees an award.
“The strength of the categories surprised
me a little, with it being the first time.”
Tekmar Energy followed their Aycliffe win
APPRENTICESHIPS
For an organisation that has implemented
an apprentice scheme as an integral part of
developing their workforce.
COMPANY OF THE YEAR
This award will go a company on Aycliffe
Business Park who has performed
outstandingly this year.
EMPLOYER OF THE YEAR
Celebrating organisations on Aycliffe
Business Park seeing the best return on an
investment in people, this award recognises
the employee strategy that best attracts,
retains and develops talent – and how it
contributes to sustainable growth and being
an employer of choice.
ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING
AWARD
To recognise and highlight a company
that has demonstrated engineering and
manufacturing excellence.
Ebac boss Pamela Petty tells Aycliffe Today Business editor
Martin Walker why Aycliffe firms should get involved in this
year’s awards competition...
Ebac know a thing or two about awards.
And the woman at the helm of the
Aycliffe’s pioneering manufacturing company
is urging her neighbours to get involved in
this year’s Make Your Mark - Aycliffe Business
Park’s annual business awards ceremony - in
November.
Mass producers of dehumidifiers, now
chest freezers and soon-to-be washing
machines, Ebac was named Manufacturer
of the Year at the 2014 North East Business
awards.
The firm formed by John Elliott - Pamela’s
father - followed that up last September
when they won the Engineering and
Manufacturing award at the inaugural Make
Your Mark event, held at the Xcel Centre.
They beat off competition from Finley
Structures ad PWS - two other Aycliffe
manufacturing heavyweights - to that gong.
And even though they lost out to Tekmar
Energy for the big one, Pamela is urging
businesses of all shapes and sizes to get
involved this year.
“What I like best about awards is that you
can come back into the factory, and tell all
the staff here that there’s recognition for all
the hard work that we do,” she said.
“Recognition is probably the biggest
motivation. It’s nice to have the logos to
put on your emails and website, but more
importantly it shows your customers and
suppliers an independent voice saying how
well you’re doing, rather than just us telling
APPRENTICE OF THE YEAR
This award is looking for nominations for
apprentices from their employers on Aycliffe
Business Park, to celebrate and reward
people working, currently engaged in,
or having completed, an Apprenticeship.
Applications should explore how becoming
an apprentice has benefited both the
apprentice and the business.
Pamela Petty picked up Ebac’s Manufacturing award at
last year’s ceremony.
up by bagging the Export award at this year’s
North East Business Awards.
Pamela added: “Tekmar have swooped
quite a few awards this year so that makes
us feel a bit better that they p \ Y \