ENTRIES for the CFJ Awards 2024 have opened on Kick-Start Publishing’s Award Force system. Award Force is software-as-a-service which means entrants get a platform ready-to-go. It’s highly configurable, fast to get started and you benefit from regular innovations and improvements.

Entries for the installations awards will close on Thursday 29 February, so please make a note of this date in your diary.
Each year the awards has been growing in size and next year’s event on a date yet to be confirmed, will be no exception.

This is your best chance to shine, receive accolades for your installations and get loads of free publicity. If you have one or more installations you’re proud of, don’t hesitate to enter them in this year’s awards.

This year’s awards generated huge excitement among industry professionals; the level of dazzle and impressiveness exceeded expectations. The event welcomed a prestigious gathering of influential figures, including contractors, manufacturers, and distributors.

Many of them left the ceremony proudly clutching well-deserved trophies. The ambience at Dallas Burston Polo Club, located on the Stoneythorpe Estate in Southam, Warwickshire, was electrifying, with entertainment provided by our host, comedian Justin Moorhouse.

The awards will be divided into three sections: the first deals with the Manufacturer and Distributor of the Year, which will be voted on online by SurveyMonkey. Look out for our emailer reminders and articles in CFJ to find out when the voting opens and closes for those.

The second section of the awards involves the installations awards: these are the ones entered on our Award Force system where you’ll need the following information: the category you wish to enter; the number of floorlayers involved; manufacturers and their products (or contractors if you’re a manufacturer); end-user comments; sustainability initiatives; details of the initial installation brief; challenges faced and overcome; installation beginning and completion dates; and a selection of hi-res jpeg images to illustrate the project.

The third and final section of the awards will deal with individual awards such as the CFA Apprentice of the Year; the CFJ Lifetime Achievement of the Year Award; and a brand new award, Employee of the Year. 

An independent panel of seasoned judges meticulously evaluates every entry, guaranteeing that only the worthiest candidates advance to the final stage. The panel consists of:

Richard Renouf
Richard is an independent consultant and consultant member of the CFA, a member of the UK Register of Expert Witnesses and a provisional member of the Expert Witness Institute. He’s also worked as an independent expert witness for furnishings complaints for more than 27 years, writing reports and giving evidence in court claims. He’s also a community first responder, attending 999 calls to save lives in his community – so he knows how to deal with matters of life and death.

Fiona Bowman MBA FCMI CIWFM
As a facilities management consultant with more than 25 years’ experience in the property and facilities management world, Fiona has extensive client-side contract flooring experience both of fitout, refurbishment and construction projects with large corporates, financial institutions, insurance sector, education sector, healthcare sector, local authorities and charities. Understanding the complexities and pressures encountered by flooring contractors and manufacturers, delivering in tight timescales with sometimes difficult access issues into complex workspaces, has given her an excellent background to judge the CFA/CFJ Awards for the past four years.

Graeme Dewar
Following extensive experience working in the public and private sectors for large multi-disciplinary practices, Graeme founded GD Surveyors in 2007 with the aim of providing a tailored, friendly and personalised service to clients. Graeme has developed a specialism in the insurance sector working on commercial and residential losses of varying values including fire, flood, subsidence and insurance surge situations. His work involves negotiation with insurers, loss adjustors and loss assessors, specification and project management of the reinstatement work. As well as residential his work has taken him into the education, commercial, retail and automotive sectors. In addition to building surveying, Graeme also undertakes project management work, gaining experience in the Nigerian market following regular work with a Nigerian investment company.

John Butler
John entered flooring as a carpet-fitter in 1963 and was trained by Keith Shenton, who until recently was the oldest active floorlayer in the UK. John formed his first company, Butler & Machin, in 1967. Later, he formed Contract Floor Installations which ran until 1995. Today, he runs John Butler Contracts, which specialises in several areas of flooring including retail areas in airports.

After the success of the 2023 awards, Stuart Bourne, managing director of Kick-Start Publishing, which publishes CFJ, said: ‘I couldn’t have been happier or prouder as he looked back on the resounding success of the awards ceremony.

‘My heart swelled with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude. The hard work, dedication, and meticulous planning paid off, and the smiles on the faces of attendees were a testament to the event’s triumph. It was a moment of immense satisfaction, a reflection of my vision turning into a remarkable reality, and a promise of even greater achievements to come.’