Four British companies have been named ‘National Champions‘ with Marks and Spencer coming out top out of the 65 UK companies selected. The European Business awards were set up in 2007 to recognise and reward excellence to range of retailers from different sizes and sectors in the European business community. Previous winners include The Cambridge Satchel Company which won the RSM Entrepreneur of the year award in 2012 founder and managing director of the company is on the years judging panel..
The awards received a record breaking amount of applicants with 24,000 companies applying a 40% increase from last year. The highest represented sector was manufacturing, food, drink, travel and IT. Marks and Spencer is one of the top contenders for the Award of Environment.UK JoJo Maman Bebe the maternity and baby clothes retailer are selected as National Champions competing in the RSM Entrepreneur of the Year Award alongside menswear retailer Charles Tyrwhitt. To be a National Champion the retailer has to show commercial, environmental and entrepreneurial excellence.
The judging panel for the awards are independent and receive no financial or personal benefit for their participation. Some of the participants on the vast judging panel include Lisa Jackson the CEO if The Body Shop, Francisco Marco-Serrano who is a lecturer in Economics and volunteer business mentor, Craig Lee who is a customer experience lead at the Emirates Group and Helen Loveless who is the enterprise editor for The Mail on Sunday.
The next round requires the champion retailers to create a presentation video telling their unique story and explain the success behind their business. The winning group will then make it to the grad finale in 2015. The videos go live to the public vote on the 6th of January 2015. The 2014-2015 European Business Awards are sponsored by RSM International, a leading global audit, tax and advising network.
