The finalists of the 2020 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards were unveiled this morning as the programme’s organisers praised British businesses for their resilience, agility and innovation over the last 12 months, despite being faced with untold economic and logistical challenges as a result of COVID-19.

The nation’s most impressive public, private and third-sector businesses made this year’s shortlist, ranging from huge multi-national and well-established organisations, to challenger brands, fledgling start-ups, entrepreneurs and disruptors from academia.

The diversity of entrants closely mirrors recent UK consumer behaviour, with a number of industries unsurprisingly well represented; over the last five months, as much of the nation has been forced to stay at home under lockdown, spending on food, household goods and technology has increased throughout the UK, pet adoptions have rocketed, and the logistics industry has kept the country running and fed. 

The Lloyds Bank National Business Awards 2020 shortlist includes (the full list is at the end of this release):

• Food: Mindful Chef, Riverford Organic Farmers, Little Freddie, Millbrook Dairy, Bladnoch Distillery, Company Shop Group (the largest commercial distributor of surplus food)  and SD Ramsden (the largest international wholesaler of British grocery brands)      
• Pets: Bella & Duke, Lintbells, ProDog Raw (all food), plus The Saddlebank, which manufacturers equestrian saddles 
• Logistics: DPD, Hermes and Bibby Distribution
• Technology and gaming: VR gaming firm nDreams, and Touchlight, which has revolutionised DNA to advance genetic medicine, including vaccines for  COVID-19
• Home and garden: Powersheds and Frenchic Paint 

Regionally, the UK is well presented with finalists from England, Scotland, Wales and North Ireland. London, Yorkshire and the Midlands also fared well with large clusters of businesses from those areas making the final list.

• Scotland: 7 nominations
• London: 46 businesses securing 52 nominations
• Yorkshire: 12 nominations
• Midlands (east and west): 9 nominations 

Four businesses topped the nominations table with three apiece: Mindful Chef, S-Cube (both London), Invopak (Hyde, Manchester) and Lintbells (Hitchin, Hertfordshire).

• With backers including GB Olympians Sir Andy Murray and Victoria Pendleton, Mindful Chef has grown from a handful of hand delivered meal kits five years ago, to employing over 70 people across two UK locations delivering approximately 30,000 boxes per week. For each meal sold, Mindful Chef donates one school meal to a child living in poverty, donating over 2 million to date
• S-Cube is a high growth technology venture spinout from a world-leading research group at Imperial College London. It is a cloud-based service company focused on imaging of the earth's subsurface, primarily for the energy industry, with the most automated and efficient algorithm ever developed.
• Family-owned Invopak is the leading supplier of metal and plastic rigid containers in the UK and Ireland, providing a comprehensive range of packaging to over 5,000 B2B/B2C customers.
  
• Lintbells has been making premium quality, natural supplements since 2006, when John Davies and John Howie discovered a shared passion: the difference great nutrition can make to pets' lives. 
  

National Business Awards director Sarah Austin: “It would be an understatement to say that this year has been challenging for UK businesses. No one could have predicted COVID-19 or the economic and personal impact it has had on us all. What we’ve all been through over the last five months means it’s even more important that we celebrate, congratulate and shine a light on those organisations and entrepreneurs who have shown true innovation, creativity, resilience and agility to not just survive this pandemic and all of the challenges it has thrown at them, but to positively thrive. We received a staggering number of entries this year, so our finalists really are the crème de la crème of UK business.”

Paul Gordon, Managing Director, SME & Mid Corporates, Commercial Banking at Lloyds Banking Group: “The National Business Awards are a great opportunity for us to celebrate success and to see the businesses who have performed well get the external recognition they so readily deserve. At Lloyds Bank, UK businesses are core to our purpose, so it’s wonderful to be associated with such talent and to be able to recognise their success on a national scale.”

Lloyds Bank National Business Awards are the UK's premier cross-industry accolades for enterprise excellence. Previous winners include fitness sensation Joe Wicks, Timpson CEO James Timpson, DPD UK, Hotel Chocolat, dementia newspaper Daily Sparkle and online fast fashion success story Missguided. 

This year’s winners will be unveiled on 10 November 2020, including the Pivot for Purpose Award: a brand new trophy celebrating the fantastic achievements of UK organisations to support communities and key workers during the lockdown.

This category will reward businesses that that have gone above and beyond their usual practice to deliver essential services, assistance and support to vulnerable people, local communities and key workers.

Broadcaster and Lloyds Bank National Business Awards advisory board member Declan Curry, commented: "Many companies acted responsibly and generously to protect their colleagues, customers and their wider communities during the Coronavirus crisis. This award is a thank you to all those businesses that did the right thing. Good behaviour creates great businesses, and this should be celebrated and rewarded." 

The Pivot for Purpose award is free to enter and entries remain open until 18 September—learn more about this award and how you can enter here.