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Winner

Haden Young

Another great year for Haden Young was the judges鈥� verdict. The company proved its environmental credentials with ISO 14001, increased profits, increased its investment in training and, in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University, became the first firm in its sector to launch an employer-led foundation degree for engineers and quantity surveyors.

Haden Young also expanded its off-site modular manufacturing business, called Modular Systems +, adding a bathroom pod business in Weston-super-Mare.

Modular Systems + was responsible for producing the M&E service risers for Bristol鈥檚 Cardiothoracic Centre. Such risers would normally take a month to install; instead, each lift and installation took just two hours.

Runners-up

Crown House Technologies

Crown House provided a rare bright spot among the gloom that surrounded the new Heathrow Terminal 5. It delivered the satellite terminal building on time and in budget, winning praise from BAA. The airport project included 20 miles of pipework and 355 miles of cabling.

Every key project is allocated to a senior independent member of the Crown House team who assesses client satisfaction throughout using a complex set of criteria. This customer focus means 73% of the firm鈥檚 business comes from repeat clients. The company also measures its success against employee-based factors. Staff are trained for an average of three days every year, and nearly 拢2m was invested in apprentice training in 2007.

Dodd Group

Dodd鈥檚 60th year of trading proved to be a fruitful one. The anniversary was marked by the opening of three new offices, in Southampton, Cambridge and Dudley, backed up by a strong financial performance.

Work secured through partnering agreements rose significantly, and a detailed cost benchmarking exercise was undertaken with a local authority client. From the first year鈥檚 figures of partnering, it showed a saving of 41% on the average job cost for mechanical reactive work and 24% for electrical reactive work.

Balfour Kilpatrick

Customer feedback prompted the restructuring of Balfour Kilpatrick鈥檚 procurement department last year, with the supply chain reduced from 8,000 to 1,500 firms. The streamlining is expected to reap a 15% saving for the firm, which reported UK turnover up 13% and profits up 15% in 2007.

With 97% of its turnover attributable to repeat business, Balfour Kilpatrick has demonstrated a customer-centric approach to business, epitomised by its relaunched customer relationship management system as well as the restructured precurement operation.

Balfour Kilpatrick鈥檚 culture of innovation has seen an increase in prefabrication which, alongside its 鈥淲hatever It Takes! Be Safe鈥� campaign, has helped to improve the accident frequency ratio to 0.16 鈥� its lowest ever. The company received Investors in People accreditation in 2007. It has 253 trainees, including 168 apprentices.