For the fourth year, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce honored 11 dynamic businesses and industries that make up the Charleston region’s economy and best reflect the vision, mission and core values of the Chamber through the 1773 Chamber Awards. The winners were announced at the Chamber’s Annual Meeting May 25.
The 1773 Awards is named for the year of the Chamber’s establishment. Awards were given to organizations that best reflect the core values of the Chamber; Leadership, Relevance, Integrity, Diversity and Innovation. Winners of each category will be vying for the 1773 Chamber of the Year Award being presented at the Chamber’s Annual Gala June 24, 2011.
Winners from the 11 categories include:
Communications: Call Experts, a 60+ employee call center that has a diverse staff performing very diverse functions. They focus on developing the skills of their employees as a part of building active, responsible citizens in and outside of the office.
Public / Non-Profit: The Citadel's Corps of Cadets represents a rich and diverse group of young men and women from across America and many different foreign countries, intent on preparing themselves to be principled leaders in their chosen fields of endeavor. The Citadel has established itself as one of the leading undergraduate liberal arts colleges in the Southeast.
Manufacturing / Transportation: Formed in 1997, Force Protection, Inc. is now the nation’s leader in blast technology. Force Protection designs, tests, manufactures, delivers, and supports blast- and ballistic-protected vehicles, now in service throughout the world. With the mission to create products that bring out troops home safely, Force Protection was the first American company to introduce the V-shaped hull to its vehicles and soldiers began surviving enormous blasts.
Retail / Wholesale: In the face of global economic downturn, Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina expanded retail operations in an effort to generate mission revenues and provide further employment opportunities and increase services to the Lowountry and remains committed more than ever to expanding training programs and creating job opportunities for more individuals. In 2010, Goodwill created 218 new jobs in SC. Goodwill provides employment to diverse individuals from all walks of life without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities or religion.
Educational Services: For 45 years, Trident Technical College has been about serving the educational needs of this community. Second only to USC in the number of undergraduates it serves, TTC students have access to over 150 associate degree and credit certificate programs.
Transportation / Warehousing: TBC Corporation is the nation's largest vertically integrated marketer of tires for the automotive replacement market. In March, 2011, TBC officially opened its new 1.1 million square foot distribution facility in the Jedburg area. The new state of the art facility moves 30,000 to 40,000 tires per day. It is also the largest LEED Gold certified distribution facility in the nation. TBC is expected to become one of the Port of Charleston’s most frequent users, with thousands of containers brought in through the port every year.
Scientific / Technical Services: Kestrel Horizons is a small-but-powerful team of engineers, scientists, and managers with the ability to bring resources to bear swiftly and efficiently to accomplish extraordinary results. They provide clients with a higher value through enhanced performance, quality, costs, and their ability to effectively communicate with a project's stakeholders. Their objective is to serve their clients with integrity while meeting the needs of their company and their employees.
Finance / Insurance: Wachovia – A Wells Fargo Company, is a national bank, with diversified community based financial services. Insurance is a relationship-oriented company that focuses on what is best for their customers and their local communities. Since they are ‘local’ and ‘national’ at the same time, they say that they want to “Out-local the nationals and out-national the locals”.
Healthcare: East Cooper Medical Center was the first hospital in South Carolina to achieve five gold seals. Their mission is to deliver safe, cost-effective care to the Charleston community while they strive to provide the best and safest medical care possible.
Hospitality / Tourism: The Embassy Suites North Charleston – Airport/Hotel & Convention Center is a central and integral feature of the area economy with 255 all-suite rooms (a concept they pioneered), a 25,000 square foot ballroom and 14 meeting rooms. With a 3 Diamond rating, the facility provides our business community the diverse facilities needed to highlight their local events as well as, a premier location for those companies located outside the area to utilize.
Construction / Real Estate: Started as a one man operation in 1991, Citadel Enterprises, Inc. has grown steadily to become one of the highest rated full service remodeling companies in the Lowcountry for customer service.
