The awards recognise organisations that demonstrate excellence in leadership, employee engagement, customer experience and workplace innovation.
Topflite managing director and co-owner Greg Webster was "stoked" to collect the trophy as a spotlight award winner presented by Extraordinary.
"It was great to get some recognition for the team. It was awesome. We had a good night celebrating," he said.
"We’re just lucky to have a good team that like to see the business do well."
Twelve Topflite staff, including customer service manager Sharni Cunningham and regional and key accounts sales manager Tena Donahue, helped represent the dedicated team on the night.
"Sharni, she’s been with us for 10 years and Tena, she’s one of our sales reps in the lower North Island. She’s moved her way up through the ranks to be on the road in the sales team, so it was really good they were both representing the team," he said.
BPTW chief executive Julie Gill said every organisation recognised at the awards had chosen to lead "with courage, clarity and care" to help lift the standard of workplace experience across New Zealand.
"Our winners prove that high-performing workplaces don’t happen by chance, they happen by choice, through continuous effort and team commitment," she said.
Other spotlight award business winners were Engineering New Zealand for human-centred impact, Tuatara Structures for innovation and tech, Brightly for sustainability and Rush for wellness.
Mr Webster said the Topflite team were " happy" with the win and it was a "great chance to mingle" with other businesses and sponsors on the night.
Although at one point they were not certain if the awards night would proceed, he said.
"About 10 minutes into the event, the fire alarm went off and we were all evacuated.
"There was a fire in one of the rooms, apparently, but they obviously got it under control and they let us back in and it carried on so that was good ... it was a good night."
The family-owned business had more than doubled in size since his return home from the United Kingdom to the business in 2013, growing from 14 staff to 35 fulltime employees.
The staff were a part of the BPTW journey "the whole way", Mr Webster said.
"The team was stoked, the survey they did initially was how we got on the shortlist."
An application to the finals revealed more about what it did people-wise and more about the business, Mr Webster said.
From its beginnings as a small seed-growing venture, Topflite has grown into one of New Zealand’s leading suppliers of premium nutrition for pets and backyard wildlife, known for its locally produced high-quality bird food for both aviary and wild birds.
The main sponsor of the Topflite National Bird Show hosted in Oamaru this year, at the heart of Topflite’s impact is its Soar Initiative, which supports conservation, education and grassroots organisations across New Zealand.
Mr Webster said the initiative was born out of a desire to fund chosen nature projects decided upon by the entire team.
"We used to sponsor Forest & Bird directly, but we decided rather than do that, we would have our own initiative where we can direct the funds directly to the benefit of nature rather than those bigger organisations," he said.
Each year, the entire Topflite team gets a chance to vote on two different organisations to support — this year, they chose the Whakatipu Reforestation Trust and the South Island Wildlife Hospital.
"The latter is a rescue hospital where they rescue all kinds of animals, but also a lot of birds, which obviously appealed to our team."
Although it had been a "quiet 12 months", business had started to pick up recently, which was good, Mr Webster said.
"The pet industry still stays pretty strong through a tougher economy, which is fortunate. So, the team’s pretty settled and things are going well."
Online investing platform Sharesies was named overall winner at the awards, held last week at Cordis, Auckland before an audience of about 400 leaders from organisations of all sizes across New Zealand.
