IoH Southern branch announce Hospitality Hero winners

The IoH Southern branch announced the Hospitality Hero award winners recently at Balmer Lawn Hotel, Brockenhurst, attended by over 60 local hospitality professionals.

The one-off awards, which aim to recognise individuals and businesses that made a difference during the last 18 months due to the pandemic, have announced the following category winners:

Unsung Hero award – Sponsored by Southampton Hoteliers Association

• Winner – Sarah Berry MIH  – Simply Sig
• Runner up  – Andy Lennox  – Fired Up Hospitality, Wonky Table Group, Dorset
• Runner up – Peter Baerwinkel – Holiday Inn Bournemouth, Interstate Hotels

Community Effort/Engagement award – Sponsored by Lye Cross Farm

• Winner – Marsham Court Hotel, Bournemouth

Unsung Hero award – Sponsored by Southampton Hoteliers Association

• Winner – Sarah Berry  – Simply Sig
• Runner up  – Andy Lennox  – Fired Up Hospitality, Wonky Table Group, Dorset
• Runner up – Peter Baerwinkel – Holiday Inn Bournemouth, Interstate Hotels

Community Effort/Engagement award – Sponsored by Lye Cross Farm

• Winner – Marsham Court Hotel, Bournemouth
• Runner up  –  Wonky Table Group, Dorset – Andy Lennox
• Runner up – The Burnt Chef Project – Kris Hall

Work-Related Achievement award – Sponsored by BH Area Hospitality Association

• Winner – Chefs Mate, Christchurch
• Runner up  –  Chelsea Hotel, Bournemouth
• Runner up –  Chewton Glen Hotel, New Milton

Leadership award – Sponsored by Bournemouth and Poole College

• Winner – Peter Baerwinkel, General Manager, Holiday Inn Bournemouth
• Runner up  –  Karl Goebel, Head of Operations, NQ2 Hotels,
• Runner up –  Oliver Weeks, Ideal Collection Group

Most Innovative Response to the Pandemic award – Sponsored by Balmer Lawn Hotel

•  Winner – Andy Lennox – Wonky Table Group, Dorset
•  Runner up  – Russ Kitching – The Lapstone Pub, Eastleigh
• Runner up – Balmer Lawn Hotel –  Brockenhurst, New Forest

The winners and runners-up who have all joined the IoH’s I’m in campaign #imin, were all commended by the judges and had some outstanding stories to tell. Including:

• Gave time for free to lead a volunteer team to set up an online database of local food and drink companies that remained open and were delivering during the pandemic. This was a vital lifeline to many thousands of local residents, and a network of 40 local COVID19 volunteer groups ensuring they could arrange hot meals and food shopping to be delivered to elderly, shielding and vulnerable residents, from Minehead to North Curry, Bridgwater to Churchinford.
• Setting up new information channels to help hospitality businesses across the South through the pandemic with the ever-changing information provided.
• Diversifying the business they worked in, trained and lead their team on new ways of working very quickly whilst staying open for essential/key workers.
• Raised £10k for 10 charities in the community to help them bounce back
• Changed their business model from delivering food to Hospitality businesses to delivering food to those in need the most

Tim Seward, chair, Southern branch, Institute of Hospitality said: “It was encouraging to see that during the pandemic we came together and supported each other from as far as Weymouth to Portsmouth and beyond. These awards are testimony to how people have supported, trained and cared for each other. Every hospitality business in the area should be extremely proud of what they have achieved during some challenging times. I congratulate each and every one of them” said Tim.

The main event sponsor was the award-winning mobile Hospitality app, Firsti.

Category sponsors were: Lye Cross Farm, Balmer Lawn Hotel, Bournemouth & Poole College, BH Area Hospitality Association and Southampton Hoteliers.

Guests were entertained by Saxophonist Graeme Budd a local performer during the drinks networking reception. The evening was hosted by local producer, presenter and creative director Andy Brennan.