Prizes for companies that are doing well one way or another sometimes seem a little unfair, like bestselling authors getting another few gra...

Prizes for companies that are doing well one way or another sometimes seem a little unfair, like bestselling authors getting another few grand from the public lending rights.

Perhaps it’s OK to reward non-paying propositions like social responsibility, but it must have been a bit of a sickener for the rest when, at the recent JPMorgan Private Bank Family Business Honours, the same company won both Family Governance and Overall Excellence (nothing to do with dungarees, I’m told).

Twelve family-owned businesses from across the UK were fêted at a gala dinner – very nice, I’m sure, although “gala” dinners always make GoldFinger think of a pork pie with an egg in it.

Although we’re sure it’s true that family businesses account for one-half to two-thirds of all firms, half the GDP, and employ half of the UK’s private sector workforce, we’re not talking small fry here: the turnovers of nominated companies were of all sizes from £6 million ($11.6 million) to £3 billion with an average of over £300 million.

Still, at this festive time of year we mustn’t carp, so well done to the winners:

Business Success – Musgraves Group, Ireland’s largest grocery distributor by volume
Family Governance – Wates Group, South London builder
Social Responsibility – Newhall Publications
Public private partnership - Caledonia Investments
Overall excellence – Wates Group

More than 100 financial services organisations, consultants, advisors and representative bodies had been asked to nominate family businesses they felt embodied best practices in any or all of the three categories. Under the supervision of Professor Nigel Nicholson, of the London Business School, postgraduate students researched the nominations.

The awards were also supported by the Institute for Family Business (UK), an independent, not-for-profit organisation supporting a dynamic family-owned business sector in the UK through education, research and advocacy.

The association is the UK chapter of the Family Business Network linking members with an international network of over 1,300 family firms.