A well-known and highly regarded private training establishment from Kāpiti with offices in Levin and Hutt City has been named the 2015 Electra Business of the Year.
HLC (Horowhenua Learning Centre), a private training establishment that has been delivering vocational training courses to the community since 1994 (and as far back as 1984 under a different structure), was awarded the supreme Business of the Year Award at the Electra Business Awards gala dinner in Paraparaumu on Friday, 9 October 2015.
It’s the second time the organisation has been named the Electra Business of the Year, following their success at the 2004 Electra Kāpiti Horowhenua Business Awards. They also won the “Past Masters” Award in 2008.
Based in Levin with a second campus in Hutt City, HLC is one of the largest training providers in the Kāpiti Horowhenua region, offering full time, part time and short courses to the community including security, hospitality, and care giver training, as well as training programmes in employment, work and community skills.
The organisation, which operates as a charitable trust, also had two other wins on the night squeaking in ahead of Turks in a tight contest to claim the Large Business Excellence Award, and also taking out the Sustainability Achievement Award.
Turks also won the new ‘It’s Great to be Here” Award, which celebrates businesses thriving because they are in our region, as well as the Health & Safety Award.
In announcing the supreme award, the judges said they were impressed with the leadership, teambuilding, and benchmarking performance of HLC. “HLC’s assessment revealed an exceptional performer who has steadily improved its performance, driven by a strong strategic plan. We are very fortunate to have such an organisation in our midst and as the 2015 Electra Business of the Year.”
Turk’s Poultry Farm Ltd received the BNZ Highly Commended Award with the judges recognising the company’s desire to continually improve and seek independent assessment of their performance, stating that: “Turk’s has demonstrated the results of this approach to growth, making a strong mark on the region and the industry it operates in. It is on the path to further success and the assessors and judges congratulate the company for its ambitious and disciplined approach.”
The other Excellence Award winners were:
Owner-Operator: Mr Sweep Kāpiti Horowhenua
Small Business: Marty’s Panel & Paint Ltd
Medium Business: Focal Point Cinema & Cafe Levin
The Achievement Award winners on the night were:
Health and Safety: Turk’s Poultry Farm Ltd
Sustainability: HLC
New Thinking: Marty’s Panel & Paint Ltd
Emerging Business: Smoooch Natural Products
Employer of Choice: CS Law
“It’s Great to be Here”: Turk’s Poultry Farm Ltd
