Turnaround brings award success

Published: 20 November 2013

Sheffield Forgemasters' turnaround story won the hearts and minds of judges at the first ever Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

The engineering giant's return from the brink of closure and its subsequent success meant chief executive Graham Honeyman took the Turnaround Entrepreneur award at the event at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

Dr Honeyman also secured a silver accolade in the Manufacturing Entrepreneur category of the awards which have been described as the new benchmark for entrepreneurial success in the UK.

He said: "Having entrepreneurial spirit is what British manufacturing is about. It is everything that drove our management buy out back in 2005 and what determines our future.

I am delighted to receive this award on behalf of my workforce which strives everyday to push our company in technical advancements and to be the best they can."

Simon Burton, Founder of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, said: "This has been a wonderful first year for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. True entrepreneurs are as much about their story as they are about their balance sheet. The Great British Entrepreneur Awards celebrate the truly inspiring entrepreneurs who are the agents of positive change in our country. Huge congratulations to them all."

The awards success follows a double win at the Yorkshire & Humber EEF Future Manufacturing Awards, where Forgemasters and its subsidiary Vulcan SFM, took top honours in the Investing in Skills and Business Growth categories.

Sheffield Forgemasters won its Investing in Skills Award for its apprenticeship project which transferred and improved skills to make a scorpion sculpture, sited at its Brightside Lane plant.

Vulcan SFM won for significantly increasing its global market share in the offshore oil and gas market by investing in material development and pursuing project opportunities in emerging economies.