Struer Erhvervsforening awards local companies

Hvidberg A/S, a demolition company, won the title as Company of the year 2021 based on their focused effort regarding sustainability, green transition and social responsibility. Besides Hvidberg, the fashion shop, Mr. Arthur, and the robot company, Conpleks, was nominated in that category. The nominees for the category Entrepreneur of the year 2021 was Retro Flower, Hesca and Fueli.

Every year the business forum, Struer Erhvervsforening, nominates three well-established companies and three entrepreneurs for the two categories. Company of the year is elected by the finance committee in Struer Municipality, while the entrepreneur of the year is elected by a specially selected panel. Afterwards, the winners are being honored at Struer Erhvervsforening’s annual galla event.

Looking back at 2021

Due to Corona the annual galla event was postponed from January to March. That didn’t stop the chairman of the business forum, Elke Hou-Carlton, and the mayor of Struer, Mads Jakobsen, from wishing all the 130 participants a prosperous New Year.

– The annual galla event is a great tradition allowing us to meet and celebrate the business community in Struer. It is important to us to build good relations between businesses and the municipality. At the same time, it is alright to be just a little prouder of where, we are coming from, to spread the positive, local stories and to join forces in order to solve the challenges and assignments in order to succeed, emphasized the mayor, Mads Jakobsen in his speech.

During the evening, one of the founders of SOUNDBOKS, Hjalte Wieth, made a presentation of a true entrepreneurial story. More specifically the journey of three high school students making their way from homemade speakers running on car batteries resulting in several meltdowns to a simple concept suiting the need of young people all over the world. A concept resulting in more than 50.000 SOUNDBOKS speakers spread over more than forty countries.

The award ceremony

The last part of the evening was dedicated to the unveiling of the two winners as well as the accompanying handover of diplomas and flowers. Just like at the Oscar’s, the results were sealed in golden envelopes. Before Mads Jakobsen could open the first envelope containing the winner of Company of the Year 2021, the three nominated companies were introduced with a video.

The presentation video of the three nominated in the Company of the year 2021 category.

– The winner has managed to grow the business steadily over the years and increased the number of employees significantly. The company has projects all over Denmark and thus enhancing the awareness of Struer. In addition, the winner has succeeded to integrate sustainability and green transition in the handling of work tasks, just as the company takes a social responsibility in connection with the training of apprentices and the employment of young, local people, highlighted Mads Jakobsen.

Elke Hou-Carlton then showed the presentation video of Retro Flower, Hesca and Fueli, who was nominated for the Entrepreneur of the year 2021 award, and finally Thomas Højland Gadegaard, owner of Fueli, received the diploma.

Flemming Hvidberg gives a speech after winning the award. Photo: Anders Trærup

Thomas Højland Gadegaard, Fueli, received the diploma for the Entrepreneur of the year 2021 award. Photo: Anders Trærup

The Conpleks candidacy

The reasons why Struer Erhvervsforening nominated Conpleks are many. First of all, it is due to the fact that Conpleks has been a part of Struer BusinessPark since the very beginning and thereby supporting the foundation of many other companies in Struer including the start-up environment two of the three nominated entrepreneurs originate from.

Additionally, Conpleks has played a huge part in the creation of a national robot test center in Struer. Last but not least, the ongoing development projects with different universities and other knowledge institutions as well as the great responsibility the company takes each semester in relation to the creation of internships, have weighed heavily in connection with the nomination.

– We have always been very clear about our opinion on road lengths, and that the length from east to west is exactly the same as the one from west to east. Furthermore, we believe that if the work is exciting enough, the employees will come and so will the interns. That this, together with our good collaboration with Struer Municipality regarding the robot test center, is now being appreciated and noticed by the business forum in Struer makes us extremely happy, and we are honored by the nomination, said a proud CEO of Conpleks, Tom Simonsen.

Thomas Højland Gadegaard and Flemming Hvidberg were proud of their awards. Photo: Anders Trærup