Focus on nebusiness awards 2009 Tees Valley winners

May 4 2010 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette

TODAY we celebrate Tees Valley’s fantastic four.

Onyx Group, Cummins, Garlands Call Centres and Greenstar WES have all been named the region’s best in business.

All triumphed at the recent nebusiness awards 2009 North-east final - with Onyx lifting the top title, Company of the Year.

The awards, organised by The Evening Gazette and its sister paper The Journal in association with Business Link, were attended by around 800 executives at Hardwick Hall near Sedgefield.

Winners at the prestigious event had already scored well at sub-regional finals - held in Tees Valley, Durham and Wearside and Tyneside and Northumberland in recent weeks. And in total 13 awards were made including the Not-for-profit Organisation of the Year and Best Creative Business titles - which are only presented at the North-east final.

Despite the tough economic climate, the nebusiness awards 2009 received bumper entry levels.

And guest speaker Nick Hewer, best known as the right hand man of Sir Alan Sugar on The Apprentice, said awards were a tribute to the dynamism, entrepreneurial spirit and sheer get-up-and-go of the North-east business community.

Today KAREN McLAUCHLAN and KELLEY PRICE take a closer look at Tees Valley’s award-winning firms.

WHO: Onyx Group, Stockton

EMPLOYS: 113

AWARD: Company of the Year

THE North-east’s best in business - that’s Stockton-based Onyx Group.

While the economic gloom brought tough times, difficult decisions and rocky markets to other companies - Onyx has powered through the last 12 months to notch up a “momentous” year, as managing director Neil Stephenson puts it.

And as for 2010?

“Expect more of the same,” he added.

In the last 12 months Onyx has made the transition from being a regional firm to becoming a national technology provider by increasing its assets, geographic reach and making major gains in its target markets through a series of acquisition purchases.

During 2009 it also opened its new headquarters in Portrack, Stockton, and was named one of Britain’s fastest-growing technology companies in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100. It has bought five companies in 18 months and now has offices in London and Scotland, as well as the North-east. It recently announced plans to open its first international office and continue to pursue its target of becoming a £50m turnover business.

“We are so proud to receive such a prestigious award,” added Mr Stephenson.

“Last year was a momentous year for Onyx, a year when we were bold and brave. We are now a national business, with seven UK sites, but we are very proud to have our headquarters here in this region at Stockton.”

After such a significant year for the company Mr Stephenson said its future plans were simple - “We’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing,” he added.

“We’ve now got a winning formula that works for us.

“We’ve got good people in place and a great team.”

Onyx began life as an IT service provider. But in 1999 the company almost went bust after being snapped up by a US quoted telecoms business at a dot.com-inflated price.

After a turbulent ride on the Nasdaq, Onyx returned to calmer waters following a hastily arranged management buy-out by Neil and fellow director Alistair Waite in 2000.

Onyx diversified into data and network security and workplace recovery - and sales rocketed from £3m in 2006 to £12m in 2008.

Onyx now plans to set up its first international office in New York by the end of the year as a result of its new contacts within the financial markets and said it hopes to provide its data recovery services in districts including Wall Street.