Philly chamber honors suburban companies
Nielsen-Kellerman, Turn5, Partner’s Consulting and Green Lawn Fertilizing /Green Pest Solutions were chosen for awards
PHILADELPHIA » The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia will recognize several suburban companies next month when it holds its 35th Annual Excellence Awards.
“Our Excellence Award recipients exemplify the spirit of innovation — although they start small, they make big impacts on our community,” said chamber President and CEO Rob Wonderling in a release announcing this year’s winners. “We applaud the example they set and the enormous contribution they make to our region’s economy.”
The 35th Annual Excellence Awards, to be handed out at the chamber’s dinner on Nov. 9 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Sugar House Casino in Philadelphia, celebrate companies that are making a positive impact in the 11-county region, which includes parts of southern New Jersey and northern Delaware.
Among the winners are:
Manufacturer of the Year:
Nielsen-Kellerman Co. in Boothwyn
Strategic Growth Excellence of the Year:
Turn5 in Malvern
Professional Services Excellence of the Year
Partner’s Consulting in Broomall
Customer Service Excellence of the Year
Green Lawn Fertilizing / Green Pest Solutions in West Chester
••• Nielsen-Kellerman Co. in Boothwyn designs, manufactures and distributes rugged, waterproof environmental and sports performance instruments for active lifestyles and technical applications, including Kestrel Weather & Environmental Meters, NK Electronics for Rowing and Paddling and Blue Ocean Rugged Megaphones and PA Systems.
The company focuses on meeting the specialized measurement needs of outdoor customers. Olympic athletes, firefighters and military professionals are some of the NK customers.
Now with 90 employees, NK was established in a basement in upstate New York in 1978. It started as a family owned business and is now privately owned. It donates over 2 percent of it pretax profits to charitable organizations. In rowing, NK has partnered with USRowing to ensure that the National Team coaches, boats and athletes are outfitted with the latest NK electronics. NK also supports the rowing community at all levels by awarding annual development grants to both rowing programs and individual athletes who are striving towards a goal.
“We are extremely honored to receive this award and be recognized as a Philadelphia area manufacturing leader,” said NielsenKellerman CEO Alix James. “NK has been building products sold worldwide in Delaware County for 30 years — creating jobs that become careers and putting money back into the local economy as only manufacturing can. We look forward to being a growing part of this economy for 30 more years, sharing Lean Manufacturing best practices with our peers, helping to educate jobseekers on the opportunities in manufacturing, and helping our customers with innovative American made products.”
••• Founded in 2004, Turn5 Inc. is an e-commerce business that sells after-market parts for Ford Mustangs, pickup trucks and Jeeps. It leverages technology through three e-retail stores: www.AmericanMuscle.com, www.ExtremeTerrain.com and www.AmericanTrucks.com. It employs 430 people from its Lee Boulevard headquarters in East Whiteland.
The company said the honor is especially timely as it prepares to open its new headquarters in Tredyffrin in January 2018, creating 183 new jobs.
In 2017, Turn5 received over $600,000 in grant funding from the Department of Community and Economic Development of Pennsylvania to create the new jobs. It also recently opened a West Coast fulfillment facility to better support customers all over the country.
“The Strategic Growth Excellence Award from the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia means a great deal to Turn5,” said co-founder Andrew Voudouris. “This honor tells us that our peers think we’re making a real contribution to the region’s business community and that we’re doing it in a focused and thoughtful way.”
Turn5 continued to build relationships with the greater Philadelphia community with social impact initiatives, the chamber noted in announcing the award. It elevated its ongoing relationship with Make-A-Wish in 2017 by raising $133,919 for the charity in addition to donating 2 vehicles makeovers for local wish recipients. The e-commerce company also formed a partnership with Coded by Kids to help train students in technology careers.
Steve Voudouris, the other cofounding brother of Turn5, credits the company’s emphasis on building customer loyalty with its success. Turn5 has had 12 years of double-digit growth, he noted.
“That outlook has earned us major loyalty from our customers,” he said. “It ensures a customer experience that wows firsttime buyers and generates second, third and fourth purchases.”
••• Partner’s Consulting in Broomall is an Information Technology consulting company with over 11 years of experience of providing professional services primarily in Technology Project and Product Delivery.
Founded in 2006 by Peggy Gionta, Partner’s has been recognized for its growth by multiple publications, including the Inc. 5000, Philadelphia 100, Philadelphia Business Journal and Philadelphia SmartCEO, and was named the 2016 Medium Business of the Year by the Main Line Chamber of Commerce.
“We became more involved with the chamber after our client, Comcast, nominated us for the CEO Access Network that was
started by David Cohen,” recalled Gionta, president of the company. “I feel that program and the GPCC has helped us springboard into the next level of growth with our large clients in Philadelphia. The networking and business development opportunities provided by the GPCC have been truly beneficial. Winning the Professional Services Excellence of the Year is an incredible honor, and we are very excited for this recognition. We have a great team and love working in this awesome city.”
As a certified woman-owned business, Partner’s Consulting recognizes the enormous value that a diverse work team brings, said Katherine Kelly, marketing coordinator.
“It’s in this spirit that our team has proudly taken the lead to support and encourage women and minorities in gaining the confidence to break into the IT space, further their careers and ultimately increase their presence in the IT industry,” Kelly said. “Our key focus is on delivering technology resources with values, relationships and trust. We apply an executive search style to our recruiting method, making us stand above our competition and creating a unique and lasting culture.”
••• Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions in West Goshen was started as the Green Lawn Fertilizing lawn care company by owner Matt Jesson in 2004.
Because of the synergies in the two operations – dealing with chemicals, pests and the need for work in the winter — Jesson expanded into Green Pest Solutions in 2012.
In addition to its Saunders Lane headquarters and branch, the company has operations in North Wales and Pennington, N.J.
The business caters to mostly residential customers.
“It’s really a testament to the effort we put into customer service,” said Marketing Manager Ben Schloss of the company’s award from the chamber. “We really have a great reputation online with 5-star reviews from Google and Yelp and high ratings from Angie’s List and others. Overall, customers are really happy with
us and it shows in our feedback.”
Green Pest Solutions bills itself as the largest local pest control professional servicing the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware tri-state region.
The company’s website offers visitors advice articles on how to deal with pest and lawn problems.
“We’re really excited about being named” for the chamber’s customer service award, Schloss said of the company that now has 105 employees. ••• Other award winners that will be recognized Nov. 9 are:
Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Mike Maher, Houwzer in Philadelphia
Family-Owned Business of the Year:
Robertson’s Flowers and Events in Chestnut Hill
ImpactPHL Award
Solar States LLC in Philadelphia
Non-Profit Organization of the Year
Legacy Youth Tennis & Education in Philadelphia
Technological Excellence of the Year
Asset-Map LLC in Philadelphia
Small Business Person of the Year:
Frank Iannucci
••• The awards are sponsored by Fulton Bank, Goldman Sachs, JLL, PIDC, PNC Bank, Stradley Ronon, TD Bank, Univest Bank and Trust Co., CRW Graphics, Sugarhouse Casino, and WeWork.
For more information, visit: chamberphl.com/ea