Hickey’s Greenhouses, Foxtrap Automotive among ‘Bright Business’ winners

By Mark Squibb/October 21, 2022

The Town of Conception Bay South recognized outstanding members of its business community Wednesday during the 11th annual Bright Business Awards Luncheon held at the Manuels River Interpretation Centre.

The event is held each year to mark Small Business Week.

“When a business makes a decision to start up here in Conception Bay South, we roll out the red carpet, with our welcome and grand opening program,” said CBS Mayor Darrin Bent. “There is nothing more fulfilling than being able to assist in cutting a ribbon and opening up a new business here in CBS. So, it’s been great to be able to do that over the past year. We’ve had a couple of years where we haven’t been able to do that so much, so it’s fantastic being able to do that in recent months, and we look forward to doing more of that in the coming year.”

CBDC Cabot Executive Director Margot Soucy touched on a topic we’ve all been impacted by whether you’re a business owner or not — labour shortages.

“I know there are businesses in this room right now that are looking for employees right now,” said Soucy. ‘And we all know someone that is a youth that’s unemployed or a retired person that’s looking to get back out into the work force for just a couple of hours a week.”

She encouraged people to keep an eye out for openings.

“If you see that someone is looking for work, there is probably someone you know who would be perfect for that business,” said Soucy. “When I think back, businesses almost always closed because of sales, so that was a large part of it, but now there are businesses closing because they don’t have the workers.”

The Town handed out nine awards.

The Award for Most Beautiful Business was broken down into two categories. The Multi Tenant award went to Around the Block Quilting and Fabric while the Single Tenant award went to lone finalist Aurora Estates. The award goes to commercial businesses that show great pride in the exterior appearance of their buildings and grounds. Aurora Estates won the Single Tenant category in 2021, while Around the Block Quilting and Fabric won the Multi Tenant category in 2020.

Next was the Community Pride and Partnership Award. It recognises a business that contributes to recreation, amateur sport, community initiatives, arts and culture, education, or charitable groups. It went to Sisters in Fitness, which also won the award in 2019.

The David Murphy Leadership Award was open to commercial or home-based entrepreneurs who demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and innovation in their day-to-day business. That award went to Bloom Facilitation Services.

The Established Business of The Year Award went to Hickey’s Greenhouses & Nursey, while New Start up of the Year went to Seal Cove Grocery.

The Glenda Noseworthy Award, which recognizes an employee’s long service and devotion to their employer, went to Jeanine Scott of Sisters in Fitness.

The final award of the afternoon, the Sustainable Business of The Year award, went to Foxtrap Automotive. The award, newly introduced for the 2022 season, recognizes a business that strives toward more sustainable business practices. Businesses are evaluated on greenhouse gas production, use of renewable energy sources, sustainable material usage, water use reduction, waste reduction, and a number of other green factors.