Picture shows Danny Bulloch, RBS, Ryan Duffy and Mark Maguire of Anderson Maguire and Catriona Shearer, MC of the event
At a glittering awards ceremony held in the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow, Anderson Maguire received a commendation in the category Scottish Family Business of the year 2012 (small to medium sized).
The judges were impressed by how the company has grown in the past 30 years whilst retaining a commitment to excellence in service through staff training and more recently, its involvment with the Commonwealth Apprenticeship Initiative via Glasgow City Council.
< p>The retailer – which stocks brands Barbour, Loake and Peter Scott – picked up fastest-growing family business and the small/medium family business of the year, showing how a strong focus can help a firm thrive even in a tough sector.
< p>Funeral director Anderson Maguire, which has several sites across Glasgow, received a commendation from the judges in the small/medium category.
< p>Edinburgh based Apex Hotels, founded by Norman Springford, was named large family business of the year. Since starting with one property in Edinburgh in 1996, it has expanded steadily and now has four sites across the Scottish capital, three in London and one in Dundee.
< p>Education specialist TeeJay Publishers, which has its headquarters in Glasgow, took the business innovation prize, and laminated material manufacturer Rearo was commended by the judges.
< p>Law firm Macdonald Henderson was named leading adviser to family businesses.
< p>The international growth award was won by Ayrshire engineering business Booth Welsh, which judges praised for its ambitious export strategy.
< p>Coatbridge’s Patersons Quarries won the commitment to the community category, with the Ardardan Estate receiving a commendation from the judges.
< p>The event – run in association with Business Gateway and supported by the Scottish Family Business Association, RBS, Craig Corporate and the Grand Central Hotel – also saw Donald Munro, partner at law firm Harper Macleod, given a special chairman’s award for his contribution to advising family-owned firms.
< p>The judging panel comprised Tom Craig, chairman of Craig Corporate, Hugh Lightbody, chief officer at Business Gateway, Danny Bulloch, a Glasgow-based area director of business banking at RBS, plus The Herald’s business editor Ian McConnell and group business correspondent Mark Williamson.
< p>Mr Lightbody said: “Family businesses play a vital role in the Scottish economy and I am delighted their achievements have been recognised in the inaugural Herald Family Business Awards.
< p>“The participating companies, which represented a number of industry sectors, were of the highest calibre and my congratulations go to all the winners.”
< p>Mr McConnell said: “I would like to congratulate all the winners, and those who were commended and shortlisted, and thank all those family businesses which entered.
< p>“Many of the categories were hotly contested, and I was delighted to judge entries from so many high-quality companies in the first year of the Scottish Family Business Awards.”
As well as investing in our people and premises as an on going part of the business, we have achieved Investor in People accreditation, we are members of the National Association of Funeral Directors, complying to a strict Code of Practice and are members of the British Institute of Embalmers. In the past two years, our staff numbers have increased by 25% and as well as our own family being an integral part of the business, we have a number of staff members working for us who are fathers and sons, mothers and sons and in-laws.
Strong values are important to us and we deal only with suppliers who share our ethics and practices. We insist that our coffins are manufactured by companies who subscribe to reforestation schemes and we want to offer our clients the option of utilising environmentally friendly products that reflect their ethical views. We have been at the forefront of offering alternative funeral services, including woodland burials at specific woodland locations. Our Funeral Directors have many years of experience arranging funerals and will use their expert and local knowledge to help deliver a personal and special funeral for loved ones. We can provide a range of high quality coffins and ashes caskets which have been chosen to minimise the effect on the natural environment of woodland burial grounds. All of our coffins and ashes caskets are made from bio-degradable materials.
As well as providing every conceivable environmental funeral product, we can cater funerals to families needs – whether that be a motorbike hearse or on occasion, an old London route master bus. We have also introduced a new IT system to the business which makes the company virtually carbon neutral and have an increased level of online enquiries, specifically for the funeral planning aspect of the business. We have seen a marked increase in the provision of funeral planning and we are offering bespoke plans which people can pay in to today and be secure in the knowledge that their funeral will be paid for no matter what the increase is in costs in years to come.
Each year, Anderson Maguire donates a proportion of our profits to a range of national and local charities, projects and good causes. In the past 12 months, this work has included the sponsorship of a number of school football teams throughout Glasgow. In return for this sponsorship, the school football teams have raised funds in their schools for Yorkhill ENT Department, specifically to help Yorkhill purchase specialised ENT discharge packs. The discharge packs are kitted out with a monitor, a suction pump and other specialised ENT equipment which families can use at home. On an annual basis, we sponsor Bowling Club tournaments throughout Glasgow and we recently came to the aid of Boswell Athletic Club in Cardonald by providing them with funds to help provide kit and training to this community initiative. We have a dedicated corporate social responsibility team who meet monthly to assess community initiatives and provide support where possible.
