FRED Wins the great lake taupo small business of the year

For the third year running, Team FRED have stood on the stage as a winner at the Great Lake Taupo Business Awards.

FRED were one of 20 local businesses who entered the Strettons Small Business of the Year Category of the 2011 Awards, one of two new categories introduced by a collaboration of Enterprise Great Lake Taupo and Taupo Chamber of Commerce.

The new categories (Best Small Business – Turnover Under $1M, and Best Medium to Large Business – Turnover Over $1M) were focused on commercial criteria with entrants having to submit a comprehensive document detailing the workings of their business. All entrants were judged by The ICEHOUSE, New Zealand’s leading start up incubator specialising in business development, training and angel investment, with finalists getting the opportunity to be exposed to national public relations benefits along with exposure to some of New Zealand’s top business minds.

FRED won the Small Business of the Year category in front of some 400 Taupo business owners and managers at the Awards Gala held on Friday 29th July at Taupo’s Great Lake Centre. Runner up to FRED was independent visitor centre Experience Taupo, while Best Medium to Large Business winner was Quality Print.

“We were absolutely blown away with the win” said FRED General Manger Geri Fallon. “The process was pretty comprehensive and took a lot of work, and to win the category outright is a real bonus.”

“The win has come at a time where we are about to kick off a series of promotional campaigns, so we’re definitely going to leverage off it.”

Winning at the Great Lake Taupo Business Awards is not a new thing to the FRED team. FRED won the Best Professional Business category in 2009 and was runner up in 2010, with the 2011 win giving FRED a clean sweep of wins for every year they have been trading.

“We’ve worked really hard over the past 2 ½ years that we’ve been open in Taupo and have grown very quickly” adds Geri.

“We’ve built a fantastic team of people around us making sure that everybody who works here feels part of the FRED family. To win this award is a huge compliment to the whole team.”