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Business Network Magazine

The Chamber’s highly respected flagship publication is produced ten times a year and read by thousands of business people throughout the region – with news from members featuring prominently.

Thursday, 26 November 2020

Air IT named Nottinghamshire Business of the Year at Chamber's awards after big year of growth

Air IT's 'reaction' video to its win featured staff celebrations on a mock video call

Air IT, the fast-growing managed service provider with an international reputation, has been crowned the Nottinghamshire Business of the Year by East Midlands Chamber.

The Sandiacre-based firm was recognised with the top honour, as well as the Outstanding Growth Award, at the Nottinghamshire Business Awards tonight (Thursday 26 November).

The company offers services such as fully converged IT solutions, managed support, communications, cyber security, digital transformation, cloud and business intelligence solutions.

It climbed 40 places to position 142 in the global rankings of the 2020 Channel Futures MSP 501 list, an industry league table. It also placed ninth in the UK and number one in the East Midlands.

Earlier this year, it received investment from private equity firm August Equity Partners LLP, and recent acquisitions of London-based Netstar UK and Birmingham-based Microtrading doubled its headcount to 140.

The Nottinghamshire Business Awards, headline sponsored by Mazars, recognised winners across 13 categories, ranging from Excellence in Customer Service and Innovation in Manufacturing within an organisation to individual honours for Entrepreneur of the Year and Apprentice of the Year.

This year’s event featured two new categories in the Environmental Impact Award, launched as part of the Chamber’s new Sustainable East Midlands campaign, and the Generation Next – Young Professional of the Year Award to mark the new Generation Next network for the region’s future leaders.

Finalists, chosen by a judging panel from 220 entries across the region, discovered their fate during a virtual awards ceremony hosted by BBC Radio Nottingham presenter Frances Finn.

The event, broadcast live via YouTube, had been pre-recorded at ‘AV IT Media’s studio in Derby, with finalists asked to send in their “reaction” videos.

There was a double screening of Air IT’s winning clip, set up as a video call with a collage of employees celebrating, after the company was selected from the 13 category winners to scoop the Nottinghamshire Business of the Year title.

Scott Knowles, chief executive of East Midlands Chamber, said: “Clearly, 2020 has been full of new experiences for us all and this is certainly not how we expected this year’s event would be held when we launched back in February, but like many things over the course of the past eight months, just because things are different, it doesn’t mean they’re any less special.

“There is so much to celebrate within our business community, which has really shone through during what has been a very challenging period for many. Throughout this time, there have been some incredible examples of real business success. We’ve been in awe at how many companies haven’t just stood still and clung on for their lives, but have continued to innovate and grow their way through the crisis.

“We are in the middle of an economic recovery and these are just the kinds of businesses we should be highlighting when we’re shouting about everything the East Midlands has to offer. We know it’s a great place to do business and these are living proof.

“All of this could not be possible without our sponsors. In 2020, their support has been especially huge, and it means a lot that they have stood alongside us in these strangest of times.”

The awards were the second of East Midlands Chamber’s three Business Awards across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to be held over the coming weeks.

Chamber president Dawn Edwards, a past winner of the Nottinghamshire Entrepreneur of the Year Award and owner of Woodborough-based training firm Challenge Consulting, added: “East Midlands Chamber’s Business Awards showcases the very best of businesses in the region. Many of us have heard distinctions and comparisons made between the three counties, but there’s a lot more that brings us together than divides us.

“There is innovation, resilience, fortitude, pride and generosity in everyone in our region, and it is the latter which means that whichever of the three counties you are in, there is an overwhelming sense of community.

“The tales of resilience and honesty in some of the submissions we received for the awards was truly humbling and show that the key to business success is more about overcoming setbacks, and learning from them, as it is about luck. That and a great deal of hard work and dogged determination, of course.

“The platform and promotional opportunities that come with winning at the Business Awards are wonderful, but the sense of pride and feelgood factor – not just for the recipient but for their team, supply chain and their customers – is equally, if not more, important.”

For more information on the Nottinghamshire Business Awards, visit www.emc-dnl.co.uk/businessawards/nottinghamshire/.