Print Week Awards 2011

2010 Winner

First 4 Print Finishing

Commended
Printflow
XIC

Finalists
Checkprint (Tall Group)
Nationwide Print

This category is for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is designed to recognise the achievements of print companies with up to 50 employees and/or a turnover of less than £5m. Please supply any information which helps to substantiate your achievements, including report and accounts, and a 500-word summary on why you should win this award. Other information, such as letters of commendation, will also be considered.

Here the judges are looking at the business performance of the entering companies. This category takes into account the quality of the balance sheet and profit-and-loss accounts; investment in technology and people; and other achievements, such as the winning of new contracts, or the overcoming of exceptional circumstances. This means that we need to see real substantive evidence, including report and accounts, but we guarantee the confidentiality of sensitive information. The financial year under review is April 2010 to the end of March 2011.

1 Entrants must provide full profit-and-loss and balance sheet information for the period April 2010 to March 2011 (management accounts are acceptable for periods falling outside your financial year-end). Any submission without this supporting evidence will be disqualified.

2 You may enter as many different categories as you wish, however, you may only enter the same category once.

3 The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

4 All entrants must be registered companies in the UK.

5 The entrant must have been consistently trading solvently since 1 July 2009.

6 Confidentiality: all material will remain confidential to the judges, but winning case studies may be written up and published in PrintWeek based on the material provided. In the case of the Company of the Year and SME of the Year categories, the judging panel will consist of the editor and a team of chartered accountants, each of whom will, should you require, sign an agreement in order to guarantee the confidentiality of financially sensitive information. Entrants may mark various sensitive parts of their entry, such as information contained in their balance sheet and profit-and-loss account as ‘Not for Publication’.

While the accountants who help us judge this category are focussed on the April 2010–March period, to set these in context and ensure you have the best possible chance of being shortlisted they recommend that you supply accounts for at least the previous year or two.

Please pay special attention to the 500-word summary requested here, as this helps the judges to consider your entry. You can use this to highlight the strategy of the business, for example in terms of growth or investment plans. You can also use it to highlight any anomalies that you think the accountants may notice in your accounts, for example one-off exceptionals, property sales, etc.

The SME of the Year category is open to companies with 50 employees or fewer and/or a turnover of less than £5m; larger companies should enter the Company of the Year category.

• Three copies of the competed entry form
• Full set of accounts including profit-and-loss and balance sheets for the period April 2010 to the end of March 2011(management accounts acceptable for periods falling outside your financial year)
• 500-word summary
• Optional: Samples of work and customer testimonials