Business leaders have described their pride after scooping prizes at the North East Business Awards 2024.

More than 300 people gathered at Hardwick Hall for the highlight of the business community’s social calendar, where 10 awards were handed out to recognise the brilliant companies and individuals in our region. Robotics firm Wootzano took the top prize of North East Business of the Year at the end of the night, after the gathered guests heard how the company, initially based at NETPark in County Durham and now at Cobalt Business Park in North Tyneside, is now accruing orders from around the world after developing world-leading expertise in its field.

Jesse Opoku, chief operating officer at Wootzano, said the firm’s next 12 to 18 months will be about delivering on a series of multimillion-pound international contracts landed in recent months. Wootzano’s move to larger premises on Tyneside has made room for production capacity to grow.

He said: “Now it’s about how we grow, and it’s great to have businesses like Chroniclelive and Teessidelive helping us. In this country, everything you hear is London. Everybody is trying to be in Oxford and Cambridge. But this means people hear about us and know what we’re doing.

“It’s not just about displacing people – it’s about really bringing jobs into the area, and good quality jobs. We’ve got three people on the stage tonight who are local – from Teesside, Darlington and Yarm. And we have a Northumberland boy too.

“So, yes, we attract a lot of people from outside of the country but we’re still trying our best to recruit local people. The passion they have is really unmatched.”

Muckle LLP took home the Best Place to Work Award for a second year running, which HR director Nic Feyden and partner Charlotte McMurchie described as being very much a collective effort.

Ms Feyden said: “For me, the challenge is to make a difference to people, and to give them a great day at work every day and ask ‘what can we do better’. That’s what drives us, and it really is everyone at Muckle who thinks about what we can do better. We all care about our people, our clients and community.”

Rising Star award winner David MacGregor joined Osbit during his university placement, later carrying out his masters in engineering with the Northumberland company, and the engineer is now helping to design world-leading pieces of offshore kit for customers all around the globe – a role he thoroughly enjoys.

He said: “You’re jumping around from meetings about the finances to what the next commercial decision is, to design reviews and something I really enjoy is spanning a lot of ground. I’ve been lucky enough to go all over the world with Osbit. I’ve been to work in Brazil, Singapore, Greece, the Netherlands – and what’s really quite impressive is business in the North East spanning that much around the globe.

“There are incredibly talented people at Osbit who are delivering really first of kind equipment and, as a customer said to us, it’s tough because every one is a protoype and it’s got to work first time.”

Start-up award winner Noggin HQ was created by childhood friends Evangeline Atkinson and Laura Mills to help people who are prevented from borrowing money when they need it because of their credit score, or because they don’t have one at all. The pair came up with the idea three years ago, officially launching earlier this year.

Ms Atkinson said: “It’s going really well – and finally working with customers after coming up with the idea three years ago, hearing real people’s experiences, it’s a very nice step for us. There are lots of problems we keep identifying. We now want to invest as much back into the North East as we can.”

After Pacifica scooped the Environmental, Social and Governance award, CEO Kevin Brown told how the business is helping the societal move towards sustainability.

He said: “When we realise that there aren’t going to be endless commodities we’ve got to get back to a society that can keep reusing appliances – and it doesn’t have to be our own personal product. We should all make sure it can be put into re-use and get back into the economy.

“We’ve done a lot to engage with our staff to make sure that they are fully engaged in all our ESG initiatives and we’ve created our own internal club called the Picca Club, which is about making sure staff feel involved, and that they have a chance to change the direction of the business and have an impact.”