The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 48: April/May 2020 | Page 5

BUSINESS NEWS Two Wiltshire winners in South West small business awards Two successful small businesses from Swindon and Wiltshire were chosen as among the ‘best in the West’ at the FSB South West Small Business Awards final on 26th February - an event where the county had four other nominations on the shortlist. The South West area finals of the FSB ‘Celebrating Small Business Awards 2020’ took place at Somerset County Cricket Ground and winners in a range of categories included everything from the producer of sleeping bags for babies to a biscuit manufacturer and a cats’ café. Indian cookery school Pure Punjabi Ltd from Salisbury won the prized Family Business of the Year Award trophy, whilst Swindon’s Excalibur Communications won the all-new Wellbeing Award for their enthusiastic commitment to support their staff. Excalibur’s Henrietta Boucher said she was extremely grateful to the FSB for their trophy as it recognised the company was totally committed to improving wellbeing for their employees. “I think it is great to win this award,” she said. “So much is being said about wellness in the workplace at the moment and the managers and staff at Excalibur have worked really hard to achieve an ambition to make it an even better place to work.” Surinder Hothi-Bellamy from Pure Punjabi said she was also thrilled to be taking the award back to her three children in the family business - Safia, Samir and Aaron. “We are delighted to win this award as the whole reason we created this business was for the family. My real purpose in starting the company was so that if my three children ever needed to take time out of work to look after their children they would be able to do so and always have a good business to go back to.” The four other Wiltshire-based firms shortlisted for one of the 12 trophies on offer were Blue Bee Solutions (Salisbury), Hartifull (Swindon), Key Property Associates Ltd (Chippenham) and Saffron Indian Takeaway (Salisbury). The South West final is one of 12 regional finals taking place across the UK. For more details of how to enter for 2021 see www.fsbawards.co.uk. To find out more about the FSB visit: www.fsb.org.uk or contact local Development Manager Ruth Lambert at [email protected]. Surinder Hothi-Bellamy (left) of Salisbury Indian Cookery School, Pure Punjabi, taking home the prized Family Business of the Year Award. @fsbSomAndWilts Henrietta Boucher took home the Wellbeing Award for Swindon’s Excalibur Communications. GET SOME ZEST FOR XERO WITH PURPLE LIME’S INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS 01225 904898 [email protected] www.purplelimetraining.co.uk THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2020 5