Winners of Co-operative Excellence Awards 2011 announced

The winners of this year's Co-operative Excellence Awards - sponsored by KPMG - have been announced.

The winners are Lincolnshire Co-operative, Oxford Cycle Workshop Training, Midcounties Co-operative and the People's Supermarket.

The awards, which are now in their third year, recognise excellence, innovation and ethics of businesses and individuals working within the co-operative sector of the economy.

Following a record number of entries from co-operatives across the UK, the successful organisations are:

• Lincolnshire Co-operative - winner of The KPMG award for co-operative enterprise of the year

• Oxford Cycle Workshop Training - winner of the Innovation in co-operative enterprise award

• The People's Supermarket - which won the Best new co-operative enterprise award

• The Midcounties Co-operative – which scooped two awards – The member engagement award and The healthy workplace award, sponsored by Simplyhealth.

The winners were announced at an Awards Dinner at Co-operative Congress 2011 - the national networking event for everyone interested in co-operatives and co-operation - at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole.

David Button, Chair of Co-operatives UK, the national trade body for co-operative enterprises which organised the awards, said:

"I was delighted to see both the record numbers and superb quality of entries for the Co-operative Excellence Awards this year. It is fantastic to see that co-operative businesses continue to develop and succeed in such challenging economic times and demonstrate so effectively what co-operative enterprises can achieve"

Nicola Quayle, partner at KPMG, said:

"We at KPMG have been absolutely delighted to support the Co-operative Excellence Awards 2011.

"Steering successful co-operatives through these unpredictable economic times takes courage, business acumen and enormous commitment and these awards help to highlight the fact that there are an abundance of successful co-operatives, from the small to the very large, who all have fantastic stories to tell."