With over 550 people in attendance the Oakville Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club of Oakville West the Oakville Awards of Business Excellence - OABE - is one of Oakville’s highest profile business events.
OABE judges:
Criteria to be a judge is 10 to 15 years of intensive business experience.
- Kerry Colborne – Entrepreneur, Finance
- Michael Allington – Finance
- Debbie Avery – Finance
- Lisa Azzuolo –Law, Marketing and Communication
- Michele Bailey – Entreprener,Advertising/Marketing/Communications
- Mrybeth Edge – Finance, Small BUsiness Development
- Doug Eglington – Entrepreneur, Business Management
- Robert Krizman – Law
- Christine Langevin – Finance
- Pat Madden – Finance
- Fahad Meer – Finance
- Les Ross – Finance
- Linda Stalker – Manager – Finance
Judges for YPEG Award
Members of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professional & Entrepreneur Group (YPEG) Committee
- Alexandra Manthorpe - Law, Chair of the YPEG Committee
- Michelle Antunes - Communications
- Sean Urquhart - Finance
OABE Categories and Winners
Small Business
1 to 5 full time employees up to $2M in annual revenue
While most of us who go through challenging experiences will tend to complain and eventually move on, there is the occasional visionary who takes a negative experience and turns it into a mission and opportunity. That is the spirit of the founder of this year’s recipient of the Small Business Award.
Grounded by personal experience in struggling to find adequate home health care services for aging parents, the recipient was founded with the vision to be the best community home health care and client advocacy company in Canada.
Since launching five years ago, the recipient has expanded its offerings to include Healthcare Advocacy and Navigation services, Therapeutic recreation, e-healthcare through digital technologies and virtual monitoring, and other state-of-the-art, at home healthcare solutions.
Congratulations to Rick Menassa and his entire team at iCare Home Health for delivering best in class personalized home health care services in Halton and beyond!
Recipient: iCare Home Health
Midsize Business
5-10 full time employees from $2M to $10M in annual revenue
This year the Bell Mid-Size Business of the Year Award recognizes a local business in Oakville that is celebrating its 40th anniversary, each day taking pride in the products they sell and the customers they serve.
As a small shop they differentiate themselves from the larger chains by approaching each customer with an exceptional quality product and excellent personal service.
After 30 years in business they moved from their well-known location and their clientele followed, in just 10 years since that move they have more than tripled their staff and are now planning another new expansion.
Recipient: Florence Meats
Large Business
20 plus full time employees with $10M plus in annual revenue
The recipient the RBC Royal Bank Large Business of the Year Award has been working in partnership with its clients for 50 years in Canada and the U.S.
Based in Oakville, this premium provider of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and compressed air maintenance services has achieved outstanding employee and client loyalty.
Innovative use of technology, a commitment to training and innovative employment practices distinguish this company. Customers benefit from minimization of long term operating cost and equipment downtime.
Recipient: Naylor Building Partnerships Inc.
Franchise
Nomination must be supported by Franchisor
This year’s recipient of the Franchisee of the Year Award is one of the larger employers in Oakville. Over 350 people are employed throughout their five locations, where the customer is always top priority.
The team is known in Oakville for their extensive community involvement. It is extremely important for the company to give back to the community where their customers live and work.
The team works very hard to ensure that every client leaves with a smile saying “I’m Lovin’ it”
The Franchisor provided strong feedback confirming that John Piper has ketchup running through his veins.
Recipient: Piper Foods Inc.
Restaurateur
business acumen
Nestled in the heart of Bronte for more than 25 years, these restaurateurs bring a little piece of France to our community. The second generation of this family business have transformed and expanded this business during the last 3 years. This specialty restaurant is passionate about providing wonderful food attracting customers from abroad.
Recipient: La Parisienne Creperie
Entrepreneur
leadership and or innovation
This company provides first class IT managed and consulting services through a variety of technological platforms. Its passionate owner is focussed on providing prompt and excellent service to all of its clients. This company has made a significant investment in its employees and has been an active contributor to the Oakville community.
Recipient: Matthew Zarrillo
Professional Services
professional designation
The recipient of the Professional Services Provider of the Year Award has had outstanding growth in all aspects of its business over the past 5 years.
The energetic and engaged leadership team has employed cloud-based solutions to deliver paperless bookkeeping, enabling clients from Halifax to Vancouver to receive responsive service and advice.
The staff of 7 regularly survey clients to ensure service is being delivered at the highest level.
Recipient: Positive Accounting
Young Professional & Entrepreneur
under the age of 40
This year’s recipient of The Young Professional and Entrepreneur of the Year (YPEG Award) is passionate about health, fitness and living well – and the definition of entrepreneurial!
He started by purchasing, turning around and successfully selling a Cross Fit Gym. He then founded Limitless Training Systems, where he helps amateur and professional athletes improve their fitness and performance using the latest technology, including full body analysis tracking and cutting edge training principles.
In addition, he coaches local hockey teams, he’s working with Cloud DX, which is developing wearable athletic monitoring devices, and he’s a partner at TruLocal, which delivers locally-sourced, antibiotic and hormone-free meat products right to your door, for which he was recently featured on Dragon’s Den.
Recipient: Paul Ferri – Limitless Training Systems
Leadership
Innovation and leadership in energy reduction
Oakville Hydro is pleased to present this year’s award to Canlan Sports Oakville who operate 4 pad ice complex. Canlan took great energy conservation leadership by undertaking numerous energy efficiency improvements throughout their facility with their replacements of all their interior and exterior lighting, with energy an efficient LED system. This project involved the replacement of over 500 lighting fixtures and resulted in a saving of close to 300,000 kWh annually. Canlan also upgraded their refrigeration and pump systems with higher efficiency equipment. Canlan has shown great commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency at its Oakville location.
Congratulations to Canlan and the four other finalists, for doing their part to reduce energy consumption in Oakville.
Recipient: Canlan Ice Sports Corp.
OABE Criteria
1. Physical Presence in Oakville
2. In operation for 36 month within the Oakville
3. In operation for 24 months for Entrepreneur, Young Professional & Entrepeneur, and Restaurateur
4. Must not have won in the last 5 years
Recipients' descriptions were provided by the Oakville Chamber of Commerce.