Awards Told Business Is 'Backbone' Of Growth

National Business Award Winners

Updated: 3:34pm UK, Wednesday 14 November 2012

The National Business Awards Winners:

The Daily Telegraph Award for a Decade of Excellence in Business: Kate Swann, CEO, WH Smith

The Orange Leader of the Year: Phil Smith, the UK and Ireland CEO of high-tech giant Cisco

The Entrepreneur of the Year: Online bathroom retailer, Better Bathrooms

The Coutts FTSE 100 Business of the Year: Consumer product testing company, Intertek

The Ecommerce Strategy of the Year: Online clothing retailer, Zaggora.com

The Santander Small to Medium-Sized Business of the Year: Children's luggage creators, Magmatic (Trunki)

The Start-Up Business of the Year: Online courier service, Shutl

The Small Online Business of the Year: Online bathroom retailer Bath Empire, Luxury For Less Ltd

The BlackBerry Growth Strategy of the Year: Kitchen utensil designer, Joseph Joseph

The Business Enabler of the Year: Operational consultants, Newton Europe Ltd

The Croner Employer of the Year: Management consultancy, Baringa Partners

The Huawei Customer Focus Award: International payment and currency exchange, World First Ltd

The ICAEW Sustainability Award: High-street retailer, Marks and Spencer

The Orange Innovation Award: Caterers, apetito

The Transformational Change of the Year: Children's care provider, London Early Years Foundation

The 3i International Growth Business of the Year: Organic baby food company, Ella's Kitchen

The Leadership Diversity Award: Legal experts, Eversheds

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EC 'Rejects' Law To Boost Women On Boards

The European Commission has stopped short of imposing legally-binding quotas to bolster the number of women on company boards.

Commission Vice President Viviane Reding wants a target set instead to have women comprise at least 40% of the boards of publicly-traded European companies by 2020.

State-owned companies will have an earlier deadline of 2018 under the plan, which is yet to be fully endorsed and is subject to alteration.

The current proposals would demand that from 2016, companies where women make up less than 40% would have to choose qualified women to fill vacancies or face penalties, but it would be up to individual EU countries what penalties there would be for failure.

She suggested punishments could include fines or the annulment of the appointment of a male board member.

At present, women make up 15% of the board membership of Europe's largest companies. "This is a waste of talent," Ms Reding said.

Ms Reding faced a storm of protest over plans to write the 40% target into law - with some women's groups arguing the best person for the job should get the post.

While agreeing women are under-represented, they suggested positive disrimination to correct the imbalance risked alienating male counterparts.

Fiona Hotston Moore, a corporate partner at the accountants Reeves, told Sky News that "unconscious bias" was the biggest obstacle to the problem as self-regulation had failed.

She called for temporary quotas to help improve the imbalance.

But in giving his response to the European Commission's directive, the Business Secretary, Vince Cable made it clear that self-regulation was to continue.

He said: "The UK welcomes the Commission's decision not to impose mandatory quotas for women on boards.

"We remain fully committed to increasing women's representation in UK boardrooms but along with like-minded Member States, we have consistently argued that measures are best considered at national level.

"We believe that the UK's business-led, self-regulatory model, as set out in the Davies Review, is the best approach for us."

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Toyota Issues Another Massive Recall

Toyota has announced its second huge recall of vehicles in as many months in a move affecting almost 2.8 million cars world-wide.

The company blames problems with steering mechanisms and its hybrid system water pump.

The Japanese firm said it was recalling 1.5 million vehicles in Japan, 670,000 in the United States and 496,000 in Europe to correct  steering intermediate extension shafts which can be damaged at slow speed.

But it insisted that the problem, seen in cars such as the second-generation Prius and certain Corolla models, could be fixed in about 50 minutes.

Separately, the car-maker is recalling 630,000 vehicles worldwide, including 350,000 in the US and 175,000 in Japan, to fix water pumps in hybrid vehicles.

Toyota UK told Sky News there were 75 thousand British cars affected by the two recall issues in total and there had been no reported accidents in the UK as a result of the steering problem.

Customers whose cars are subject to the recall will receive a letter to that effect within 6 weeks, the company said, though anyone concerned could enter their car's registration into a special search database on the Toyota UK website to check whether their vehicle is affected.

The move is the latest in a series of embarrassing recalls for the firm.

In October, Toyota said it was pulling back more than 7.4 million vehicles worldwide to fix faulty power window switches, the industry's biggest single recall since Ford took 8 million vehicles off the road in 1996.

A previous series of Toyota recalls involving more than 10 million vehicles between 2009 and 2011 damaged the firm's image but it recovered and earlier this month raised its full-year net profit forecast to $9.7 billion (£6.1bn), citing solid sales.

This year's profit forecast comes despite a big drop in car sales in China since September, when anti-Japanese protests erupted over a diplomatic row.

More follows...

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Sainsbury's Sees Pre-Tax Profit Up 2.5%

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has reported like-for-like sales for the half year rise by 1.7%, with pre-tax profit up 2.5% at £405m.

Revenue, excluding VAT and fuel, for the six months to September 29 was up 4% at £12.16bn.

Total sales in the period were 4% higher at £13.365bn.

In early trading shares in the company were down 0.85%.

The profit boost for Britain's third largest supermarket chain was helped by the development of its online and convenience stores business, the two fastest growing grocery sub-sectors.

Sainsbury's, which has enjoyed 31 consecutive quarters of underlying sales growth, has continued to outshine industry leader Tesco.

Last month Tesco posted a 12.4% fall in first-half UK trading profit. Asda, the second largest in the market, is due to report its third quarter figures on Thursday.

Chief executive Justin King told Sky's Eamonn Holmes: "If you compare our performance with all our major competitors, we are currently doing the best, both in terms of sales and profit – and it is that combination that is important."

"The only way to grow profit at the moment is serving more customers and selling more groceries, and that is what we have done."

Mr King said that the firm would employ around 20,000 temporary staff during the Christmas period, and said habits are changing with festive spending.

"One of the changes we are seeing in customer shopping behaviour now is that they are spreading the cost of Christmas over a longer period of time."

Sainsbury's said consumers continue to be shrewd when it comes to purchases, with "customers putting on average one fewer item in their basket".

The chain has expanded its convenience store business by 20%, year-on-year and has made plans to further target customers who use the Nectar card, in the previously announced joint venture - Insight 2 Communication (I2C) - with loyalty programme owner Aimia.

Meanwhile, Mr King told Holmes consumers can have a say on the thorny issue of multinationals failing to pay UK corporation tax.

"I think customers have to understand that they can vote with their wallets," he said.

"If they believe that the companies that they are doing business with are not paying an appropriate level of tax and those companies have competitors who are, then they can switch where they spend their money."

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Report: Keep Heathrow As UK's Hub Airport

Heathrow bosses will put the case for the UK to maintain a major hub airport on Wednesday in a new report.

Chief executive Colin Matthews will send the report, entitled One Hub Or None, to the Aviation Commission.

At present, Heathrow is the UK's major hub airport and the need to maintain such a facility is at the heart of the commission's work.

Headed by former Financial Services Authority chief Sir Howard Davies, it will present an interim report on aviation policy to the Government by the end of next year and a final report in summer 2015.

Mr Matthews is expected to argue that splitting a hub between Heathrow and Gatwick - the so-called "Heathwick" option - is not practical and building up other airports as major hubs will not work either.

The aviation policy debate is likely to run for months.

London Mayor Boris Johnson met Sir Howard on Tuesday to reiterate his opposition to a third runway at Heathrow.

He favours a new Thames Estuary airport or possible expansion of Stansted.

The "Boris Island" scheme gained little support from MPs in a poll earlier this week.

Of 93 members surveyed, 46% supported expansion at Heathrow, with only 16% backing the estuary plan.

Sir Howard's team's initial report will focus on what can be done to cope with aviation demand in the immediate future.

The all-party 2M Group, which represents more than 20 local councils close to Heathrow, has said that it will be telling the Davies Commission that loosening restrictions on Heathrow's existing runways would destroy the quality of life for people living under the flight path.

The group wants a guarantee that "runway alternation" and night-flight restrictions will not be sacrificed so the airport can handle more planes.

The campaign group says allowing both runways to be used in tandem for arrivals and departures - a system called "mixed mode" - would be just as damaging as creating a third and fourth landing strip.

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UK Unemployment Total Drops By 49,000

Unemployment has fallen to its lowest total for over a year, although there has been an increase in the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance, according to official figures.

The jobless total dropped by 49,000 in the quarter to September to 2.51 million, the lowest figure since last summer.

But the so-called claimant count jumped by 10,100 last month to 1.58 million, the highest since July, and the biggest monthly rise since last September.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of people in work increased by 100,000 in the latest quarter to just under 30 million, a rise of more than half a million over the past year.

Other figures from the ONS showed that long-term unemployment - those out of work for over a year - increased by 12,000 in the quarter to September to 894,000, while 443,000 people have been jobless for over two years, up by 21,000.

A drop in London jobs was seen as a result of the Olympics winding down

Part-time employment increased by 49,000 to 8.1 million, close to a record high, while there were 51,000 more people in full-time jobs, at 21.4 million.

Employment minister Mark Hoban told Sky News he believed a portion of the higher number seeking jobseeker's allowance were those no longer claiming disability allowance.

"These figures suggest that our welfare reforms are working, with fewer people on long-term sickness benefits and more people either in or looking for work."

He added: "It's good news to see yet another increase in the number of people in work and to see unemployment fall again.

"The fall in youth unemployment is particularly welcome, although we're not complacent about the scale of the challenge still facing us."

Unemployment among women fell by 10,000 to 1.09 million, and by 39,000 among men to 1.43 million.

Meanwhile, unemployment among 16 to 24-year-olds fell by 49,000, which accounts for the total fall in today's jobless figures.

More young people are classed as economically inactive, most of whom were in full-time education.

Neil Carberry, the CBI's director for employment and skills, said: "It's encouraging that people are continuing to find jobs and that the unemployment rate is falling.

New incapacity benefit rules means more people are on jobseeker's allowance

"But progress on getting people into work is much slower than we saw earlier in the year, and last month there was a troubling rise in the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance."

Average earnings have failed to match inflation. They increased by 1.8% in the year to August, up by 0.1% on the previous month, giving average weekly pay of £471, including bonuses.

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Energy Firm SSE Defends 38% Profits Rise

The energy firm SSE has defended a 38% rise in half year profits at a time when its gas and electricity bills are rising by 9% on average.

The company, formerly known as Scottish & Southern Energy, made an adjusted profit before tax of £397.5m in the six months to September 30.

SSE's retail business, which supplies electricity and gas to homes and businesses, reported an operating profit of £75.7m for the first-half after posting an operating loss of £101.4m a year ago.

Lord Smith of Kelvin, the firm's chairman, said: "While some observers may choose to criticise SSE for making a profit and paying a dividend (of 25.2p per share - a rise of 5%) I believe that profit and dividend allow SSE to employ people, pay tax, provide services that customers need, make investments that keep the lights on and create jobs while providing an income return that shareholders like pension funds need."

In August SSE, which trades as Southern Electric, Swalec and Scottish Hydro and is the UK's second-largest generator of electricity, became the first of the so-called 'big six' energy firms to announce inflation-busting increases to household bills.

It blamed "sustained increases" in the cost of using the electricity and gas networks, costs associated with mandatory Government schemes and the price it had paid for energy in the wholesale markets for the 9% rise, which came into effect last month.

Wholesale gas charges had risen 14% year-on-year, the group said and its bill increase would add another £8.53 a month on to the typical monthly direct debit, dual fuel customer - taking the average annual bill to £1,274.

In its statement today SSE said that despite the rise its retail profit margin was just 1.5%.

"The prices achieved for generating electricity have been weak and higher gas and non-energy costs unfortunately had to be reflected in the increase in household energy prices."

Adam Scorer, Director of Policy and External Affairs at Consumer Focus, suggested energy firms only had themselves to blame for criticism of profits.

"The furore over wholesale costs, energy pricing and company profits has deepened consumer distrust in the energy industry.

"Energy companies need to make profit so they can invest in our energy infrastructure. But if confidence is to be rebuilt in this market, the information that all energy firms are required to provide must be fully transparent, comparable, and include profit and trading information from across the whole of their business."

SSE's share price opened up slightly when trading began on the FTSE 100.

At the same time, rival npower - another of the 'big six' confirmed an operating profit - a different measure to that of SSE - of £238m for its first nine months.

That represented a 2% fall on the same period last year, the company said.

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Bank Of England Downgrades UK Growth Forecast

The Bank of England has downgraded its growth forecast for the UK economy next year to around 1%, blaming a worse than predicted impact from the financial crisis.

The bank now believes output will remain below pre-financial crisis levels for the next three years and may even shrink in the final quarter of this year while inflation may not now come back to its 2% target until the second half of 2013.

Its governor, Sir Mervyn King, announced the figures at the release of the bank's quarterly inflation report.

He admitted the UK was facing an "unappealing" combination of inflation and growth in the short term.

Only on Tuesday was it confirmed that the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation had risen sharply from 2.2% in September to an annual rate of 2.7% last month.

The factors behind the increase - such as bad weather hitting crops and rises in tuition fees - are outside the bank's control.

Because economic growth remains weak, the bank is unable to raise the base rate of interest to control inflation but Sir Mervyn confirmed that the bank's Monetary Policy Committee had not given up on Asset Purchases - also known as Quantitative Easing (QE) - to help boost money supply despite the inflationary pressures the policy adds.

At the MPC's last meeting it decided not to boost QE beyond its current total of £375bn as it had only just been confirmed that the UK economy had exited the longest double-dip recession since the Second World War.

Today, Sir Mervyn explained that the committee decided not to extend QE further in November because the Treasury was starting to take in the approximate total of £37bn in excess cash held by the Asset Purchase Facility at the bank.

The move was aimed at making the money - the interest earned from the gilt purchases - work for the country to keep its borrowing down.

The Chancellor has been struggling to meet his targets amid falling tax receipts - brought about by the weaker than expected growth.

Speaking about the reasons behind the more depressed future outlook for the UK economy, Sir Mervyn said: "Output grew strongly in the third quarter. Welcome as that is, it is not a reliable guide to the future.

"Just as growth in the second quarter was depressed by one-off factors and gave a misleadingly weak picture of the economy, so growth in the third quarter has been boosted by one-off factors and gives an overly optimistic impression of the underlying trend.

"Continuing the recent zig-zag pattern, output growth is likely to fall back sharply in the fourth quarter as the boost from the Olympics in the summer is reversed - indeed output may shrink a little this quarter."

Sir Mervyn said it remained the MPC's view that the biggest threat to the UK economy was from the eurozone debt crisis.

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Global Smartphone Sales Boom By 47%

More than 427m mobile phones have been sold globally in the third quarter of 2012, with smartphones sales up 47% compared to a year ago.

Market analysis firm Gartner said a rapid spread of smartphones means that a total of 169m of the hi-tech gadgets were sold in the period.

Smartphones are now bought at the rate of 1.83m per day around the world.

Total phone sales also increased by 8m units from Q2 to Q3, however there are signs that mobile phone possession take up rates are easing as 3% fewer phones were sold compared to Q3 of 2011.

Data shows the market is still dominated by three disparate nations – South Korea's Samsung, Finland's Nokia and the US' Apple.

Ailing Nokia, however, saw its market share drop by more than 20% in the period, falling from 23.9% in Q3 of 2011 to 19.2% in Q3 this year.

According to Gartner, in the same period Samsung's market share rose 4.2% and Apple's rose 1.6%.

Second-tier Asian makers such as China's Huawei and ZTE, and South Korea's LG also saw more modest growth rates in Q3.

Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) saw its share plunge 30% because of lacklustre BlackBerry models.

RIM has suffered a four-year slide in its stock price but hopes a resuscitation of its fortunes will occur with the launch of the BlackBerry 10 on January 30.

It's market share is now just 2.1%, just above Taiwanese firm HTC at 2%.

Motorola Mobility, owned by Google, also dropped its share from 2.5% in 2011 to 2% this year.

Meanwhile software continue to be dominated by the Google Android operating system, with 72.4% of all smartphones sold using it – up from 52.5% in 2011.

Apple's iOS trails in the software stakes with 13.9% market share, down from 15% last year.

Microsoft's Window phone system now stands at 2.4%, up from 1.5% in 2011, while Samsung's Bada jumped to 3% from 2.2% previously.

The big software operating system loser has been Symbian - a descendant of Britain's Psion - which dropped from 16.9% penetration to 2.6% now.

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Anti-Austerity Strikes: Protests Grip Europe

A wave of anti-austerity anger is sweeping across Europe with general strikes in Spain and Portugal and walkouts in Greece and Italy - grounding flights, closing schools and shutting down transport.

Millions of workers are taking part in the dozens of co-ordinated protests in a so-called European Day of Action and Solidarity against spending cuts and tax hikes.

Italian media reported that six police officers were injured, including one seriously, as clashes broke out with protesters at demonstrations in Milan and Turin.

Around 20 activists allegedly beat an officer with a stick and baseball bats in Turin, while five officers were hurt during running street battles in central Milan.

In Spain - the fourth-biggest eurozone economy - activists and unions will be staging an evening rally outside the parliament in the Madrid.

Protests got underway early in Madrid and Barcelona, with protesters clashing with police as they attempted to blockade buses and cause disruption at food markets.

Spanish police used night-sticks to quell unrest on picket lines

Riot police fired rubber bullets at hundreds of protesters in Madrid's Cibeles Square and used night-sticks to quell picket line disturbances as more than 80 people were arrested.

:: Live: Follow the protests across Europe as they happen

Airlines operating in the country including Iberia, Iberia Express, Air Nostrum, Vueling, Air Europa and easyJet cut more than 600 flights including some 250 international routes.

Heathrow said that of its normal 1,300 daily services, 39 flights - nearly all involving Spain or Portugal - had been cancelled.

Hospitals in Spain will fully staff emergency and surgery rooms but non-essential care will be scaled back.

Spain, where one in four workers is unemployed, is now teetering on the brink of calling for a European bailout, with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy trying to put off a rescue that could require even more EU-mandated budget cuts.

Parts of Rome were at a standstill as protesters clashed with police

Italy's biggest trade union CGIL called strikes in dozens of cities - and thousands of workers took to the streets calling for more safeguards for jobs and pensions and protesting against Prime Minister Mario Monti's government.

Student Mario Nobile, 23, said: "Europe is waking up today - from Rome to Madrid to Athens."

Protests are also being called in 40 towns and cities across bailed-out Portugal, including Lisbon and Porto.

Portuguese airline TAP said it was grounding more than 160 flights, most of them international.

Greece, struggling to satisfy international lenders that it has cut spending sufficiently to qualify for bailout funds and to avoid default, has called a three-hour walkout and a rally in Athens.

The European Trade Union Confederation said it was the first time that it had appealed for a day of action that includes simultaneous strike action in four countries.

"By sowing austerity, we are reaping recession, rising poverty and social anxiety," its general secretary Bernadette Segol said in an online statement.

"In some countries, people's exasperation is reaching a peak. We need urgent solutions to get the economy back on track, not stifle it with austerity. Europe's leaders are wrong not to listen to the anger of the people who are taking to the streets."

Union-led rallies are also being called across France and in Poland, while high-speed Thalys rail services between Belgium and Germany have been cancelled for the day.

Just 20% of Spain's long-distance trains and a third of its commuter trains are expected to run, while Lisbon's Metro will be shut completely with only 10% of rail services in action.

Tensions have been rising in Spain since last Friday when a woman jumped from her apartment to her death as bailiffs tried to evict her from her home in the country's second apparent suicide linked to evictions.

On Monday, the country's largest banks agreed to halt repossessions for the most vulnerable for two years.

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