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Rover maker honoured with Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce award
February 19, 2015 | The Record Staff | The Record | LINK

KITCHENER — A business with out-of-this world aspirations was one of the companies honoured by the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce on Thursday night.

Ontario Drive & Gear in New Hamburg received the Business of the Year Award for companies with more than 50 employees at the chamber's Business Excellence Awards dinner at Bingemans.

The company, founded in 1962 and now employing 240 people, is known for its Argo all-terrain vehicle. It also has developed a rover that it hopes will one day traverse the moon or Mars. It is undertaking a 30,000-square-foot expansion because of growing interest in terrestrial versions of the rover.

Eleven other awards were presented at the dinner.

•Caudle's Catch Seafood was recognized as the Business of the Year for companies with 11 to 50 employees. The Kitchener-based company, launched as a two-person business 29 years ago, has grown to five retail locations and nationwide wholesale operations. It has more than 30 employees and distributes more than 25,000 pounds of fresh and frozen seafood to stores and restaurants across Canada each week.

•Zoup! won the Business of the Year Award for companies with one to 10 employees. Daryl Hunter opened the U.S. soup chain's first franchise in Canada in Waterloo in 2011, and helped the company find local vendors and guide it through unfamiliar Canadian business practices. Since then, two more locations have opened in Waterloo Region.

•Lesley Warren of Lesley Warren Design Group won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The marketing and graphic design firm started in the basement of a house in 2007 and now consists of a team of seven people working out of a custom-built studio. Its client base more than tripled last year while sales increased 26 per cent.

•Economical Insurance received the Employee Engagement Award. Last year, the Waterloo-based insurance company completed the largest training program in its history, training more than 600 employees for 18 revised roles in a seven-week period.

•Wilfrid Laurier University was honoured with the Environment and Sustainability Award. The university co-ordinates sustainable practices within construction, waste and water, and has a Green Team, consisting of students, staff and faculty, that aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent over 10 years.

•Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro received the Health and Wellness in the Workplace Award. The electricity distribution company has a wellness team of nine employees that works on five targeted items over the course of the year.

•Drayton Entertainment won the Hospitality/Tourism Award. The Cambridge-based company operates seven live theatres and entertains 225,000 theatre-goers a year. The chamber noted that it receives no government or arts council funding. The key to its success is the partnerships it has cultivated with the hospitality and tourism industry.

•St. Mary's General Hospital received the Innovation Award for implementing technology that gives patients access to real-time emergency department wait times on its website. It was the first hospital in Ontario to adopt the technology.

•Maureen Cowan, co-chief executive officer of Princeton Holdings Ltd., owner of a group of businesses, including Cowan Insurance Group, received the Michael R. Follett Community Leader Award. She has served on various boards and committees, including at Conestoga College, the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation and the chamber, and chairs a foundation that has donated more than $19 million to charities across Canada.

•Chicopee Ski & Summer Resort received the Non-profit/Charitable Award. The chamber noted that the not-for-profit organization has expanded the year-round use of the facilities, and through various cost control measures was able to save an estimated $1 million last year.

•Al Hayes of design services firm WalterFedy was honoured as the Volunteer of the Year. He has played a key role on the chamber's family physician recruitment team for many years.