British Business Awards 2025 - Innovations

Unknown to us, our bankers, RBS, nominated Sarco for consideration in these awards’ Innovation Category”. The British Business Awards are the largest and most
prestigious cross industry business awards in the UK.

Over 300 companies were reviewed, and we were advised last week Sarco has been shortlisted as one of the 8 best companies in the UK for the Innovation Business Award. It is amazing we have got anywhere near a short list when considering the calibre and size of the many entrants.

The final this year takes place in Edinburgh at the EICC on April 24th. There is only one winner and no 2nd, 3rd or 4th places, so when considering the other 7 companies in our category, think even with the small, shortlisted field participating, the bookies would have us as a 150/1 shot at best!

We are now up against: Tri Sass, KPMG UK, Terumo Aortic, Simply Asset Finance, UXLI, Domin & The Bigword. The awards this year are raising funds for Beneficiary Homelessness Charity “Social Bite” with a target of raising £1M.

The independent judging panel recommended us to be shortlisted for the final 8 based on several key considerations.

1. Success in winning a King’s Award for Enterprise ’24, demonstrating a market leading reputation for product innovation.

2. Success of Hydro Bag® Technologies, deployed in Aquastop & Hydrant Wizard systems. This technology utilised in a range of flow stopping & bypass systems for water distribution and other bespoke applications, allowing leakage repairs, maintenance and asset creation completed under pressure, with minimal supply interruption to customer’s supply.

3. Sarco’s culture of innovation, noting that our systems have evolved considerably since first being launched in 2001, and are now used extensively in the UK and other countries.

We were notified back in mid-January ’25 by RBS and the Awards’ panel that we were under consideration, and that we were required to complete a comprehensive submission about our company activities, products and applications, focusing on the initial review panel’s key considerations. This work was completed by the deadline and is now being reviewed by the judging panel for the final.

This success of being shortlisted and reaching the final 8 as giving further recognition for our products and services following on from our King’s Award last year.