Bristow & Sutor announced first double winners at CIVEA Awards

Bristow & Sutor announced first double winners at CIVEA Awards

The Bristow & Sutor Group is celebrating after winning two major industry awards at the annual CIVEA Conference held in London. The enforcement specialists, based in Redditch, left the inaugural CIVEA awards proceedings as winners of both the Training & Development category and the Tier 1 & 2 Innovation in Enforcement award.

Additionally, Executive Director Andy Rose was also the recipient of a prestigious lifetime achievement award, after 40 years of service including roles as Managing Director and CEO of Bristow & Sutor. 

Reflection & Collection, the past, present and future of enforcement was held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden on Thursday 21st April 2022. The annual enforcement networking event expanded this year to include an awards ceremony for the first time, recognising the ongoing efforts, commitment and success of leading industry organisations and personnel. In addition to Bristow & Sutor, other winners on the night included CDER Group, Whyte & Co, Rundle & Co LTD and Dukes Bailiffs Limited.

Training and development have been a key focus for Bristow & Sutor in recent times. Last year, over 100 different examples of directly employed Enforcement Agent (EA) bodycam footage were reviewed and analysed to identify successful methods and techniques. Directly observing conduct rather than theory resulted in audio and visual findings being shared through ongoing peer review learning workshops. This ensured every member of staff at the company had the opportunity to debate approaches as part of ongoing training and development.

Likewise, the business has remained at the forefront of innovation in the sector, such as its partnership with Webio to implement WhatsApp Business API as an inbound channel for debtors. This primarily benefitted people with outstanding debts, increasing the number of platforms available for communication, as well as offering 24hour engagement. Optimising internal performance was another factor and agents can now handle 3 times as many cases compared to traditional webchat.

CIVEA is the principal trade association representing enforcement firms across England and Wales. Firms entering each awards category were tasked with providing evidence of dynamic and proactive support provided to central and local government clients, including responses to unforeseen challenges like the coronavirus pandemic.

Emma Watson, Head of Client Solutions at the Bristow & Sutor Group, said, “We are delighted to have become the first-ever double-winners at the CIVEA awards night and dinner. Our business was incredibly proud to score 100% in our recent CIVEA audit and this recognition is the next step in our ongoing journey of success. Special congratulations also to our Executive Director, Andy Rose, for his well-deserved recognition and lifetime achievement award after 40 incredible years of service.

“The annual conference was fantastic and it was inspirational to hear of the other incredible outcomes businesses have achieved over the past year in areas as diverse as technology, social value and communication. We would like to congratulate all the other nominees and winners from awards night, we are very proud to have received these accolades amongst such an esteemed group of industry peers.”

Bristow & Sutor has over 44 years of experience in the collection of local council tax, non-domestic rates and unpaid Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs). The company is one of the UK’s leading players specialising in debt recovery and regularly encourages conversations between Debt Advice personnel and Local Authorities, utilising shared connections for the good of all involved.