A huge congratulations to Swimming with the Big Fish SME Matchmaker Service businesses who walked away with honours at the Britain’s Energy Coast Business Awards 2023, which took place in West Cumbria on Thursday, November 16.

It was a cracking evening for PAR Systems, who won the Growing Business title and – alongside fellow Matchmaker SME Cumbria Operations and Maintenance Services (COMS) and Forth Engineering – scooped the Collaboration award for their joint venture Resolve Engineered Solutions.

The Centre for Leadership Performance picked up the hotly contested Inspiring People award, while RB Electrical Services was Highly Commended in the Microbusiness category.

It was clear that each award was tough to call, so congratulations also go to finalists William King Construction (Growing Business), RAF Engineering (Inspiring People), Lucy Harrison of the Harrison Network and Anand Puthran of McMenon Engineering (both Business Person of the Year) for making the final cut. And the same goes to Programme and Project Partners (Sustainability: Social Value) and Key Delivery Partner (KDP) Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick (Sustainability: Environmental).

You’re all winners in our eyes!

To date, 116 SMEs have registered with the Swimming with the Big Fish SME Matchmaker Service delivered by Solomons Europe, in a bid to secure work through Programme and Project Partners (PPP), a £7bn framework of megaprojects which aims to transform project delivery, the supply chain and socioeconomic landscape of West Cumbria.

Registered businesses are already on the top of their game – committed to delivering project excellence while at the same time investing in the local economy, whether that’s creating new jobs and apprentices, establishing new or expanding existing facilities and offices, or delivering social impact activities that make a real difference to the lives of local people.

The SME Matchmaker Service has been engaged by PPP to support the inclusion of high performing SMEs in its supply chain. So far it has supported the agreement of 35 Heads of Terms between 23 SMEs and KDPs and is currently focused on converting these into frameworks. It has set a target of 21 framework agreements by the end of March 2024 – a figure that has potential to more than double.

Click here to learn more the progress it is making.