Grower Of The Year Awards
The Grower of the Year Awards demonstrates the high calibre of UK nurseries that lead the way in quality, levels of service, innovation and peat-free production and it is fantastic to be able to recognise young and upcoming talent that will ensure our world-class industry can thrive in the future.
The winners of the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) Grower of the Year Awards will be announced at a celebration dinner following Horticulture, the Conference, held in the Garden Room of the Barbican Centre in London.
Grower of the Year Awards
This award aims to recognise a grower that has invested in their workforce in order to improve and develop business effectiveness.
Criteria:
- Approach to developing and embedding knowledge, skills, customer focus and company values among workforce
- Approach to ensuring workforce well-being
- Approach to ensuring employee engagement in the business
This award aims to recognise an individual aged under 35 who has made a significant contribution to production in their business or wider industry. A £1,500 bursary is available for the winner to put towards their professional development.
Criteria:
- Open to under 35s and must be nominated by their employer
- Extent to which employee has developed their impact by developing their knowledge, skills, undertaking new responsibilities, or going above and beyond the requirements of their role
- Extent to which the employee role models and champions plant production inside or outside the business with colleagues or customers and stakeholders outside of their business
This award aims to recognise a business which has implemented new or emerging technology in the last year to improve business performance
- Approach to identifying and defining a business need and potential return on investment for new technology
- Approach to ensuring a successful introduction of a new technology to the business
- Impact of the new technology on any of:
- improved quality of plants;
- improved customer experience;
- improved environmental impacts;
- improved financial performance (cost reduction, customer acquisition/retention, reduced waste)
This award aims to recognise businesses excellence among growers producing ornamental/environmental horticultural crops worth less than £2.5m per year in the calendar year 2025 at the ‘nursery gate’.
Criteria:
- Approach to ensuring excellent plant quality
- Approach to delivering excellent customer experience
- Approach to continuous improvement in the business
Initiatives of the Year Awards
This award aims to recognise a grower’s work in moving towards peat alternatives in the business and/or wider industry whilst delivering high quality plants and/or trees
Criteria:
- Approach to developing internal knowledge of working with peat-free or peat-reduced substrates
- Approach to contributing to initiatives to reduce peat-use more widely in the industry (e.g. supporting customers/suppliers in working with plants produced with less peat, involvement in cross-industry initiatives, partnership work with growing media manufacturers)
- Approach to managing the commercial impacts of transitioning to peat alternatives, for instance mitigating commercial risks and maximising commercial opportunities
This award aims to recognise a grower’s work in delivering improved environmental and social impact through their approach to business
Criteria:
- Approach to increasing efficiency of input use such as emissions, water, plant protection products, and excess packaging in their business and supply chains
- Approach to linking environmental and social outcomes to improved commercial performance
- Approach to measuring and managing environmental improvements in the business
- Approach to ensuring the business contributes positively to its customers and employees’ community(ies) and/or the communities in its supply chains
This award aims to recognise excellence in biosecurity within the business and the wider supply chain and industry
Criteria:
- Approach to ensuring robust approaches to mitigating biosecurity risks in the business
- Approach to mitigating biosecurity risks through its approach to working with suppliers and/or customers
- Approach to linking good practices in biosecurity to delivering improved business performance
HTA Grower of the Year Award Entry Form
Please fill in all relevant details to nominate or self-nominate a company or individual for the Grower of the Year Awards.