Gripple & Loadhog celebrate winning joint Innovation in Business Award!

Last Friday, at a glittering ceremony held at the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds, Gripple and our sister company, Loadhog collected a special award for Innovation in Business at the ‘Yorkshires’ Business Awards.

The awards event, which was attended by 420 business leaders from the Yorkshire region, was organised by the Yorkshire Children’s Charity, an organisation that aims to transform childhoods for thousands of disadvantaged children in the Yorkshire region.

Michael Hodgson, Chair of GLIDE, said: “This was a very special event for Gripple and Loadhog.  It was fantastic to receive this award alongside so many other leading Yorkshire businesses.  Innovation is the key to growing our companies sustainably; from our continuous investment in new product development, to our employee ownership model, our manufacturing processes, and our approach to employee wellbeing and development, our focus is on ensuring our people are empowered to challenge the norm.”

Innovation in Business is a new award this year and was introduced to pay tribute to innovation in both business ownership and product development.  The Innovation in Business Award recognises organisations that have demonstrated creativity, forward-thinking and the ability to drive change, as well as prioritising innovative practices regarding ownership and product. 

The judging panel at Yorkshire Children’s Charity visited our manufacturing facilities in Sheffield and recognised that across our businesses we take innovation seriously. Our new innovations start out life within our Ideas and Innovation Centre (our dedicated site at Don Road, Sheffield, UK) – where we have a team of over 30 Product Managers, Designers, Engineers and Marketeers who work closely with customers to come up with ideas that solve their challenges and put them into development.

Paul Rose, Chair of the Yorkshire Children’s Charity Judging Committee, explains: “We were blown away by our visit to Gripple and Loadhog’s manufacturing facilities in Sheffield.  These proud Yorkshire businesses have been built top-down and bottom-up.  The exceptional culture created by employee ownership results in sustainable growth, with a demonstrable long-term track record of success. The Gripple and Loadhog team live and breathe innovation – they have an exceptional business.”

Other awards presented on the night included Business Leader of the Year, ESG Excellence, Large Corporate of the Year and Mid-Market Corporate of the Year.

*GLIDE is an employee-owned private company which represents all the 900 shareholder members working in its partner companies. GLIDE is an acronym of: Growth Led Innovation Driven Employee Company Limited.