Southland business awards held

Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill. PHOTO: ODT FILES

Traffic Management Services, a company which judges said "lives excellence end-to-end" won the top prize at this year’s Southland Business Excellence Awards.

TMS had clear leadership, robust systems and a genuine people-first culture, judges said.

"The application was comprehensive and well-evidenced, showing a business focused on performance and growth."

Under the leadership of Kerrian and Lara Simpson, TMS had expanded from four to nearly 30 staff members in four years while maintaining a flawless record of zero notifiable incidents over that period.

More than 400 business leaders, sponsors and supporters attended the awards event, a sold-out gala held at Ascot Park Hotel on Friday.

Judges were also impressed with WM Environmental’s entry — the firm won both the small business and primary industry excellence award.

They said the firm had gone through a "courageous" reset and implemented a clear strategy. Through commercial rigour and identifying measurable results, it had grown into an impressive business.

"Their end-to-end primary-sector support demonstrated genuine innovation with real impact, underpinned by a people-first wellbeing culture and strong growth potential."

Southland Business Chamber chief executive Sheree Carey said the breadth and calibre of entries from across the region had made the judging meetings a difficult exercise, and demonstrated the robustnesss of the Southland business community.