Digital transformation, innovation and excellence in customer service are among qualities recognised at Leicestershire’s East Midlands Chamber Business Awards 2025/26.
Radio personalities Jo and Sparky hosted the packed ceremony at Leicester City Football Club’s King Power Stadium on 26th February, where the recipients of 12 award categories were announced.
The flagship Business of the Year Award, which is selected from one of the ceremony’s category winners, went to COBA Plastics Group, after first winning the Excellence in International Growth Award.
Considered one of the most important events in the Chamber’s calendar, the Leicestershire Business Awards were the first in a series of three ceremonies to be held in each of the region’s three counties.
East Midlands Chamber Chief Executive Scott Knowles said: “Long established for manufacturing, innovation and creativity, Leicestershire never stands still, always moving forward at pace, as we have seen with the county’s approach to sustainability and digitisation. The businesses and individuals that drive this forward momentum, display resilience against challenges and fuel growth of the Leicestershire economy are worthy of recognition.
“The Leicestershire Business Awards showcase outstanding achievement and are a perfect opportunity to foster strong connections. I would like to express my thanks to the partners and sponsors that made the ceremony such a superb event.”
Knights were the headline sponsor for the event. Regional Client Services Director Jessica Neyt said: “As a passionate supporter of business growth across the East Midlands, Knights are proud to be headline sponsor of this year’s Leicestershire Business Awards. It is an event that we are keen to support to showcase our commitment to the region and its business community.
“Being part of the judging process and seeing for ourselves the wealth of outstanding business talent the East Midlands has to offer has been a great experience. We are proud to also be sponsoring the Collaboration of the Year Award and pass on our congratulations to those nominated and the winners, HMP Fosse Way and HMP Leicester.
“In person relationship building is the cornerstone of business and we spent the night nurturing existing relationships whilst creating new ones. This is something that is vitally important to the overarching success of our region and we are delighted to be involved in such an occasion.”
COBA Plastics Group Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Atkinson, after winning the Business of the Year Award, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled and absolutely proud to have received this award which is testament to the team at COBA.
“We’re a business that values its customers and puts them first. We’re a privately funded group of manufacturing businesses, producing a million components a day for many of the world’s best vehicle manufacturers. We’re extremely proud to do that.”
The Collaboration of the Year Award, sponsored by Knights went to HMP Fosse Way and HMP Leicester.
HMP Fosse Way Prison Employment Lead Shelley Drew said: “Receiving this award means a lot to us, especially as it recognises the joint work we do with HMP Leicester to make sure the continuum of care comes through from Leicester to Fosse Way. For a public jail and private jail to work so closely together has not been done before in the prison system, so it’s massive for us to get this award.”
The Apprentice of the Year Award, in association with Generation Next went to Sofia Coviello of IMA Architects. Speaking afterwards she said: “It was a long and challenging journey, but brilliant. Just to be nominated for an award like this is amazing but to have won is incredible and I thank the people that supported me and IMA Architects for being there throughout.
“Apprenticeships are hugely important, especially for a career like architecture. To be able to work and get academic experience at the same time is really valuable and I don’t think I’d be in the position I am in today if I hadn’t gone through this route.”
The Digital Transformation Award, sponsored by Digital Planning, went to Datalink Electronics, which also won the Small Business of the Year Award, in association with the East Midlands Manufacturing Network. Managing Director Mariam Smith said: “We’ve worked so hard to transform our systems to move from paper to digital so it’s incredible to have received this award.”
Business Development Director Aran Sharma said: “It’s great to see we’ve been recognised for the changes we’ve made as a business and it’s great to be able to take the award back to the business and say to the team that the work they’ve done has been amazing. Getting recognition for that is priceless.”
ER Recruitment sponsored the Excellence in Customer Service Award. Managing Director Eileen Perry MBE DL said: “Leicestershire is a great place to live and a great place to work. It’s really collaborative. If businesses thrive, charities and communities thrive as well. That’s what’s brilliant about these Awards. We’ve got businesses, we’ve got charities, we’ve got universities. Everybody is inclusive and everybody counts.”
Digital Planning sponsored the Digital Transformation Award and the Innovation of the Year Award. Co-Founder and Director James Ferraby said: “We’re passionate about digital transformation. We see the massive change that it can bring to a business when done well so to support businesses that have a passion for doing it in an excellent way is meaningful for us. It backs up everything we think, our whole ethos about high quality change. That’s why we sponsored, to see other businesses doing it well and help celebrate their success.”
Co-Founder and Director Mark Underwood said: “Innovation has to be embedded into the culture of a business and Leicestershire as a county has a ton of small businesses, mid-sized enterprises. There’s so much culture around innovation and innovative thinking and ideation of how to solve problems, not always with the biggest budget but how to make do, how to mend sometimes and how to work your way through a particular set of problems in an innovative way. I think that’s embedded in the culture in Leicestershire.”
emh Group sponsored the CSR Leadership Award which went to Better-IT. emh Group Chief Executive Charley Gibbons said: “We provide affordable housing and care services. Businesses contributing their resources, time, energy and skills into local communities is something we support and we’re proud of Leicester as a city. We were really proud to present an award to Better-IT as they showed they’re taking their responsibility seriously and it’s embedded throughout their culture, their strategy, their plans.”
East Midlands radio personalities Jo and Sparky hosted the Awards. Speaking afterwards, Jo said: “In the East Midlands there’s a real sense of everybody helping everybody. That’s why we love the region so much. When we’ve been on the radio, we’ve been able to put feelers out if somebody in the region needed some help. We’d get so many people going, ‘we’ll help, we’ll do it’. People want to look after each other here.
“The Awards celebrate how great local businesses are, let them can mingle, network and celebrate.”
Sparky said: “We’re passionate about the East Midlands. We’ve been lucky enough to broadcast here for the last 10 years. Celebrating wins like this, especially for business, for local business, that’s part of the landscape that we’ve been part of.”
East Midlands Chamber Leicestershire Business Awards 2025/6 recipients:
Business of the Year Award – selected from award recipients from all categories
WINNER: COBA Plastics Group
Digital Transformation Award – sponsored by Digital Planning
WINNER: Datalink Electronics
CSR Leadership Award – sponsored by emh Group
WINNER: Better-IT
Collaboration of the Year Award – sponsored by Knights
WINNER: HMP Fosse Way & HMP Leicester
Green Business of the Year Award – in association with Enterprising Women
WINNER: Honest-Inks
Commitment to People Development Award – sponsored by De Montfort University
WINNER: The Carpenter’s Arms (Midlands) Trust
Apprentice of the Year Award – in association with Generation Next
WINNER: Sofia Coviello, IMA Architects
Excellence in International Growth Award – in association with the Trade Department at East Midlands Chamber
WINNER: COBA Plastics Group
Education and Business Partnership of the Year Award – sponsored by Scholars School System
WINNER: Loughborough College Group
Excellence in Customer Service Award – sponsored by ER Recruitment
WINNER: Better-IT
Micro Business of the Year Award – in association with Voluntary Action Leicestershire (VAL)
WINNER: The Simulator Company
Small Business of the Year Award – in association with East Midlands Manufacturing Network
WINNER: Datalink Electronics
Innovation of the Year Award – sponsored by Digital Planning
WINNER: Berkfield
