The Tauranga Chamber of Commerce announced the winners of the 2014 Young Read Woudberg Rocket Awards on Saturday, noting the high quality of young businesses, employees and innovative young professionals who had entered.
This year's winner of the Young Read Woudberg Business Owner award was the Bartlett Swim School, which has 13 employees and more than 630 students. The judges said the school had proven to be a real asset to the Tauranga community.
The school was established by former Australian international swimmer Scott Bartlett, who gutted an old warehouse in Mount Maunganui and created two purpose-built pools with a state-of-the-art heating system to focus on teaching children to swim.
"Scott impressed the judges with the design and implementation of his teaching programme and his growth strategies for the future," the judges said. "He shows a deep passion for his business, but still finds time to be the current coach of the New Zealand World Champion Surf Lifesaving team."
The winner of the Holland Becket Lawyers Young Employee of the Year was Gemma Hignett of Tui Products. Gemma has worked for Tui Products for the past two-and-a-half years as the marketing co-ordinator.