Bath-based housing and support organisation Curo has today been named among the finalists of the region’s most prestigious business awards.
Curo, along with Corsham-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company Bath ASU, line up against some of the South West’s top firms in the accountants PwC’s annual West of England Business of the Year Awards. 
The coveted awards are now in their 28th year and previous winners read like a who’s-who of the region’s best companies.
They have a reputation built firmly on the thoroughness of the judging panel, which is made up of respected business figures from across the region. There are only two categories: for business with a turnover above £30m and for those turning over less than £30m.
Pictured: Last year’s winner of the large business category was Bott, the Bude-based workplace storage equipment firm
PwC regional leader for the West and Wales, Katharine Finn, said: “The short-listed companies represent the very best of business in the West of England. These businesses have created fantastic opportunities for themselves and those they employ.
“They are to be celebrated and recognised for their contribution to not only the regional economy but to the UK and overseas.”
The awards will be presented at a gala dinner in Bristol on July 6 hosted by Ian Axton of ITV Westcountry. They are staged in association with Circle2Success and Devon and Cornwall Business Council.
Bath Business News is once again official media partner of the coveted awards, along with its sister titles Swindon Business News and Bristol Business News.
Curo and Qualasept will battle it out against four other firms in the large business category.
Curo is a not-for-profit housing and support organisation which owns more than 12,000 homes across the South West. It recently formed a strategic partnership with one of the country’s leading housebuilders to build hundreds of homes at Mulberry Park, Bath’s former Foxhill MoD site.
Bath ASU provides a wide range of specialist pharmaceutical manufacturing services to the NHS and private hospitals, including patient-specific chemotherapy, dose-banded batch chemotherapy, central intravenous additive service (CIVAS), patient-controlled analgesia products (PCA) and total parenteral nutrition (TPN). It was founded in 2000 at the University of Bath and moved to Corsham after a management buyout in 2006. It now employs more than 120 people including pharmacists, chemists, biologists and technicians.
They are competing against property services firm Ian Williams and dental group Oasis Healthcare – both based in Bristol – Plymouth-based regional law firm Foot Anstey and Gloucester-based electrical contractor and electrical training specialist Clarkson Evans.
In the under £30m turnover category are Bristol-based mobility equipment supplier and retailer Oaktree MobilityGloucester-based, e-commerce retailer of kitchen furniture brands Direct Online Services (DOS), Taunton-based manufacture of high quality desserts Ministry of Cake, and money.co.uk, the Cirencester-based financial comparison website.
Previous winners of the large business title include Mitie, the fast-growing Bristol-based outsourcing group, Wiltshire-based household appliance giant Dyson, and Swindon-based construction group Beard.
