Local company makes a big splash in London with a national business award
Splash Projects, based in Exmouth, has won a BizX Award at the London Excel for ‘Best Community Impact’. The accolade recognises Splash’s delivery of 45 projects for 28 charities across 11 countries worth around £2-million to the charities in 2022 alone.
This is the first time a company from Devon & Cornwall has received this award at the prestigious BizX Forum and Awards. This year’s ceremony which took place on 20 April, 2023, honours the business excellence from businesses across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The two-day conference and awards banquet is organised annually by ActionCOACH and includes inspirational talks from prominent international business leaders such as Lord Sebastian Coe , Steven Bartlett from Dragon’s Den, Marcus Sheridan (author of They Ask You Answer) and PhilM Jones (author of Exactly What to Say), among others.
The Managing Director of Splash Projects, Simon Poole was in London with his management team to receive the award along with his business coach, Andrew De Groot of ActionCOACH Exeter. “We were hoping to win at least one of the 2023 BizX awards we entered,” said Simon, “It’s been a tough couple of years, but we got it! I want to thank our charity partners and Andrew, our coach, for galvanising and believing in us.”
The trophy was presented by broadcaster, Gabby Logan and ActionCOACH founder, Brad Sugars. Also on stage, to receive the award, were Splash Projects co-founder, Rachel Poole; Phil Weekes, Operations Director; and Colin Robertson who is Director of Projects.
“I feel elated for Splash Projects and pleased for the Southwest businesses,” said Andrew De Groot. "This will inspire many local businesses in Devon & Cornwall to win on the national stage and I look forward to seeing others enter to gain the rightful recognition and reward for their tremendous achievements.
“The national award they have received is well deserved. After many years of hard work, this means a lot because Splash isn’t just providing amazing jobs, they are changing lives. I believe that what they do is truly world class is not just national but international and they are worthy of a global award, so the stage is set!”
Splash Projects delivers experiential learning programmes internationally through real-life community projects. Their clients are companies like Santander, Heineken etc as well as centres of learning like the London Business School. They focus on building or reconnecting teams through charitable projects. That could be building children’s playgrounds, gardens etc, working with homeless people or children with severe behavioural issues.
“We feel strongly about leaving a better footprint on the world and along with our clients, we change people's lives for the better,” said Simon. “Winning at BizX has been a great team building experience not just for our employees, but also for our contractors, charity partners, community partners and our clients. We couldn’t have achieved this without them.”
ABOUT SPLASH PROJECTS
Splash Projects deliver award-winning innovative experiential team building and leadership learning programmes to develop individuals and teams through impactful, real-life community projects in the UK and abroad. Their clients are corporate companies and business schools and they partner with charities and the public sector to deliver projects that communities could never afford themselves.
The company was founded by Simon and Rachel Poole and became Splash Projects in 2005, with Simon, a former Royal Engineer with 25 years’ service, running the first projects in Japan, France and China. Building on his experience in the British Forces Simon has now overseen some 400 Splash Community Projects worldwide involving over 55,000 participants including 14,000 MBA candidates.
ABOUT ACTION COACH EXETER
ActionCOACH Exeter is headed up by Andrew De Groot who has passionate about business growth. He has excelled in various senior management roles internationally including at HSBC where he managed 3,000 people in 40 different countries. Andrew now lives in Devon where he aims to empower local businesses of all sizes and has a dream to take at least 25 people on a ‘millionaire’ journey.
