Congratulations to the 2014 winners!

“There has been huge public interest in the Awards this year with a record-breaking 7,000 votes cast,” said Paul Atherley, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, joint organisers of the Awards with the China-Britain Business Council. “Tonight has been a great advertisement for the growing achievements of British companies in China. Such is their success that in terms of trade we are well on our way to overtaking the French and now have the Germans in our sights!”

The Winners

British Company of the Year – InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of nine hotel brands, including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVEN™ Hotels and HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts. IHG manages IHG® Rewards Club, the world’s first and largest hotel loyalty programme with over 82 million members worldwide. The programme was relaunched in July 2013, offering enhanced benefits for members including free internet across all hotels, globally. IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,700 hotels and 697,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries, with almost 1,200 hotels in its development pipeline.
Award sponsored by:

Alumnus of the Year – Mr Du Yingzhou (Khan Wind; alumnus of University of Cambridge)
Du Yingzhou, with a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, was taught to work for lifetime success rather than quick gains. Since graduation from Cambridge, he has spent almost a decade in the development of next generation bamboo-composite wind turbine blade technology. The technology has been awarded The National Product of China, The National Touch Program and The National Energy Department Technology awards. The technology has also been widely used as a replacement for metal materials and many traditional composite materials, leading not only to better cost-effectiveness but also to significant carbon footprint reduction and better recyclability. In recent years, he has set up and personally funded The Essay Competition for ‘School of Hope’ Students. The aim is to encourage students in the Schools of Hope to improve their writing skills and to support the winners to visit cities and communicate with urban students. This charitable activity has been running for three years and has influenced students in several tens of Schools of Hope.
Award sponsored by:

Best Service – Haskoll
Haskoll is an international design-led architectural practice with dynamic and creative team, well-known for its retail and large mix-use development with untaken projects in 39 countries. Haskoll provides professional design consultancy service to clients. Haskoll has offices in Beijing and Shanghai with headquarters in London. In China since 2004, Haskoll has a team of 60 people in China that delivers the same high level of professionalism and experience in London. Having projects in 42 cities across China, Haskoll has been involved in more than 80 projects covering over 10 million square metres of construction site.
Award sponsored by:

Chinese Investor of the Year – Huawei Technologies UK
Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider with the vision to enrich life through communication. Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Huawei’s 150,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Our innovative ICT solutions, products and services have been deployed in over 170 countries and regions, serving more than one third of the
world’s population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.
Award sponsored by:

Corporate Social Responsibility – Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered is a leading international banking group, with more than 86,000 employees and a 150-year history in some of the world’s most dynamic markets. We bank the people and companies driving investment, trade and the creation of wealth across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where we earn around 90 per cent of our income and profits. Our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, Here for Good. In China, the Bank set up its first branch in Shanghai in 1858 and has remained in operation throughout the past 155 years. Standard Chartered Bank (China) Limited was one of the first foreign banks to locally incorporate in China, in April 2007. Standard Chartered has one of the largest foreign bank networks in China – with 26 branches, 78 sub-branches and 1 village bank, totally 105 outlets.
Award sponsored by:

Entrepreneur of the Year – Prime Fitness
Prime Fitness, established in 2012, operates personal training studios in Beijing and Shanghai. The ethos behind Prime is to use only natural movement patterns – pushing, pulling, jumping, throwing, lifting, etc – to improve the functional fitness and physique of our clients. Founded by Victor Rowse, an Oxford PPE graduate and former investment banker, and Denis Couprie, a world bodybuilding champion and former parachute commando, Prime combines ruthlessly effective training in a five star environment. At Prime, we like to keep things simple: personal training (your workout plan designed just for you); results-driven (your dedicated, professional trainer to work with you to achieve your goals); no membership fee (you only pay when you train); no crowds (we are 100% by appointment only).
Award sponsored by:

GREAT British Product (joint winners) – Hanovia and Koolmill
Hanovia was founded in 1924 and has been at the forefront in development of ultra violet (UV) technology for disinfection and chemical reduction applications for industry. Hanovia is celebrating 90 years of research, development and engineering of non-chemical water treatment systems that provide bio-security in various industrial applications where water and other liquids such as brine and sugar syrup are used to manufacture products. Various other industries today, such as the leisure industry, use Hanovia systems to provide a high level of water quality. From our company headquarters in Slough, UK, we have teams of scientists and engineers that design, develop and manufacture advanced UV systems for a wide range of industrial and leisure applications. Hanovia operates on an international level and provides support to a growing global customer base, with offices in Shanghai, China and Cincinnati, USA, including an extensive network of distributors.

Koolmill, a UK-based SME, having identified the need for a new technological approach to cereal milling, pioneered the development of a globally significant technology. Set to transform a global industry, Koolmill will make a significant contribution to a more sustainable future for the global rice industry. Millions live daily with food and fuel poverty and for 3.3 billion people rice is life. Existing technology dates back over 100 years and wastes power and rice. Koolmill IP is a truly innovative process delivering power savings (up to 80 per cent) and maximising the food return from a finite and valuable natural resource. Working closely with our Chinese JV partners, the low-power, simpler Koolmill process brings potentially zero emission cutting edge technology to all millers regardless of size or location. Our super-efficient displacement technology will make a positive impact on the lives of millions. Koolmill is a Sino-UK joint venture making a difference.
Award sponsored by:

Sustainability – Atkins
Atkins is one of the world’s leading design, engineering and project management consultancies, employing some 17,500 people across the UK, North America, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. Our people’s breadth and depth of expertise and drive to ask why has allowed us to plan, design and enable some of the world’s most complex and time critical projects. In Asia Pacific, we have over 2,000 employees located in 14 offices in 8 markets including Hong Kong, Mainland China, Macau, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Australia. Our business covers masterplanning, major infrastructure design, transport, water utilities and resources, environment consultancy, architecture, landscape design and project management. Our passionate experts strive to create a sustainable urban environment to benefit the local community – Future Proofing Cities – wherever we operate.
Award sponsored by:

“British trade with China is at a record high and exports are booming,” added Paul Atherley. “This year’s finalists demonstrate the wide range of success businesses are having in bringing the latest in British design, creativity, innovation and sustainability to the increasingly consumption-driven China market.”

The British Business Awards recognises companies and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to UK-China trade and investment through their innovation, enterprise and endeavour. This year there were 208 entrants in eight categories, a 40 per cent increase on the last edition in 2012.

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