The Castle Fine Arts Foundry has been announced as the national winner of its British Small Business Champions (BSBC) 2008 awards.
This business was chosen from the six finalists from across the UK, winning it £10,000 which it will spend on improving facilities for its staff.
Castle Fine Arts Foundry, based at Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant, Oswestry, with studios in Oswestry and Stroud, Gloucestershire, was started in 1999 by Chris Butler. It is one of the country’s leading art foundries, and works closely with local, national and international artists to cast high-quality bronze sculptures; from small scale gallery pieces right up to monumental public commissions that are seen in many towns and cities in the UK and abroad.
BSBC was founded in 2002 by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) to celebrate and gain recognition for the UK’s small businesses of which there are over four million. It is the only national awards scheme exclusively for small businesses.
To qualify for entering BSBC, businesses must have been established for at least five years, not employ more than 50 people and be able to demonstrate that they are highly regarded by customers, staff and their local community.
The judging of BSBC 2008 was headed by Carol Undy, past national chairman of the FSB. She said: “Castle Fine Arts is a shining example of a successful, small business. This came across very strongly at each stage of the judging process – its written application, its interview with the BSBC judges and then, when I visited the foundry and met its staff.”
