It was Bonfire Night, so things really did kick off with a bang! On Thursday 5th November 2026, the SoGlos Gloucestershire Business Awards 2026 brought finalists, partners and guests together at Cheltenham Town Hall to celebrate businesses from across Gloucester and the wider county.

For us at Optimising IT, this year came with a change of perspective: we joined the 2026 awards as entrants. With our HQ in Gloucester, it was a chance to celebrate the business community we call home, alongside organisations sharing the same local roots and ambitions.

From award sponsor to Gloucestershire Business Awards finalist

Last year, our Senior Account Manager, Steve Budding, joined the judging panel while Optimising IT sponsored the Business Leader of the Year category. You can revisit that chapter in our SoGlos Gloucestershire Business Awards 2025 blog.

Steve also had the honour of presenting the award to Mark Goucher, CEO of the Everyman Theatre, who was named Business Leader of the Year 2025.

This year, we were named finalists in:

• Business Leader of the Year – our Managing Director, Todd Gifford.
• Customer Excellence Award.
• Small Business of the Year.

Our journey began in July, when we were shortlisted from almost 300 entries. Some of our team then met the judges at the Meet the Judges networking event at Over Farm on 8th September, and our finalist places were confirmed after the judges’ panel meeting at Hotel Indigo in Gloucester on 7th October.

Representing Optimising IT on the night were Todd Gifford, John Barker, Matthew Cartwright and Steve Budding, who joined fellow finalists and guests for the live reveal.

Congratulations to the winners in our three categories, who each stood out in a high-calibre field: Sarah Travell of Virgate Accounts (Business Leader of the Year), Holiday Architects (Customer Excellence Award) and Over Farm (Small Business of the Year).

It wasn’t our night to take home a trophy, but what a night! Being named finalists gives us plenty to be proud of. It reflects how far we’ve come as a business here in Gloucestershire and, more importantly, the people behind Optimising IT, whose new ideas, growing knowledge and skills, and support for our customers keep pushing us forward. Our story was just one part of a much bigger celebration of the organisations and teams helping Gloucestershire move forward.

Celebrating Gloucestershire Business Awards 2026 winners

Congratulations to every winner, highly commended business and finalist. The results put a wonderfully varied mix of local organisations in the spotlight. Here are some of this year’s winners:

• New Business of the Year 2026: Embrace Renewables. A young business developing covers for renewable-energy equipment, including battery storage systems, air source heat pumps and EV chargers.
• Family Business of the Year, Medium Business of the Year and overall Business of the Year 2026: E G Carter & Co. A Gloucester construction business whose family roots and community connections remain central to its story, and the big winner of the night.
• Sustainable Business of the Year 2026: De Vere Cotswold Water Park Hotel. Recognised for embedding sustainability into its operations, strategy and culture.

From clean energy and construction to hospitality, these winners show the breadth of ideas and expertise on our doorstep.

Read the full Gloucestershire Business Awards 2026 results and categories on SoGlos.

A proud connection to Gloucester

For Optimising IT, Gloucestershire is more than a location on a map. Our headquarters at Twigworth Business Centre, on Tewkesbury Road in Gloucester, puts us within the community we are celebrating.

That is why seeing Gloucester business E G Carter & Co crowned Business of the Year, alongside its wins in the Family Business and Medium Business categories, feels particularly close to home. The achievement sits alongside stories from across the county, reminding us that local roots and wider ambitions can go hand in hand.

We see these awards as an opportunity to look beyond our own business: to discover what others are building, celebrate different kinds of success and keep making connections with our neighbours.

Supporting Gloucestershire businesses

The celebrations may be over, but our connection to local business continues. From our Gloucester HQ, we support Gloucestershire organisations through managed IT support, cyber security services and IT strategy consulting, helping them modernise systems, improve efficiency and protect sensitive data. Strong leadership and smart IT strategy go hand in hand: both are about making decisions, staying resilient and keeping sight of the bigger picture.

For us, being a local technology partner means keeping the conversation focused on the business behind the technology, whether you are reviewing your IT support or planning your next stage of growth.

Thank you to SoGlos, its headline co-partners Hazlewoods and Willans LLP solicitors, and everyone involved in bringing the evening together for giving our business community a night to celebrate.

Here’s to keeping that Bonfire Night spark alive, and to more shared success across Gloucester and Gloucestershire. We have plenty more we want to achieve over the next 12 months, and we’re excited to share what we’ve been working on very soon.

Looking for IT support in Gloucester or Gloucestershire? Speak to the Optimising IT team about managed IT support, cyber security and a practical IT strategy for your business.