Reed Boardall Transport has sponsored 16 year old Boroughbridge student Michael Woodgate at the European Water Ski Championships in France.

The Team of the Year can come from any area of supply chain and this year the judges chose to shortlist four outstanding entries: British Sky Broadcasting, Belron, Carlsberg UK in partnership with Gist; and Procter & Gamble.

The Individual Contribution Award is unique in that the winner is chosen by a vote of the readers of Supply Chain Standard.

Innovation is always a difficult category for the judges – mainly because it’s difficult to determine what an innovative step is, exactly, as opposed to the application of known technology or methods.

The second of the Innovation categories considered the wider, more strategic, supply chain innovations that have been deployed to best effect.

As may have been expected, the Logistics & Fulfilment category received a great number of entries again this year – and hence, the shortlist was long, making the judges’ task that much harder.

Exemplary customer service is central to supply chain excellence, and this Award certainly offered a fine selection of initiatives aimed at driving up customer satisfaction levels.

From a slow start a few years ago, the Contribution to Environmental Improvement category is now one of the most active, with a growing number of very worthy entries.

This year there were only two companies that met the strict criteria for reaching the shortlist in the Sourcing & Procurement category.

Traditionally, the Hi-tech, Communications and Electronics category is the highest scoring sector, and this year certainly didn’t disappoint.