Two Western Bay of Plenty organisations are being recognised for their strength in business efficiency and customer service with awards that meet international benchmarks.

Western BOP District Council and the Bay of Plenty DHB will both receive honours at today's NZ Business Excellence Awards.

WBOPDC's Peter Hennessey, Sue Laurence, Barbara Whitton, Olive McVicker and Gill Payne.

The awards, administered by NZ Business Excellence Foundation, are the only awards in NZ fully aligned to the internationally respected US Baldrige criteria.

WBOPDC is being awarded ‘Gold' and becomes only the second local territorial authority in NZ to win at a Gold level since the awards began in 1993.

'Being awarded Gold puts the winner in very elite company. These awards are unique in that they are based on an international benchmark criteria, scoring system and a rigorous four-stage assessment process,” says Foundation CEO Mike Watson.

Council chief executive Glenn Snelgrove says a lot of work has gone into moving WBOPDC from the Silver it received in 2009 to Gold award status.

'Our mission is all about implementing sound planning and cost effective core local government services to take the Western Bay forward.

'Every member of the council team has put in a huge effort over the last four years and we've achieved some really solid results along the way, particularly in the area of integrated planning and customer service.

'Our mayor, councillors, and staff are absolutely thrilled to be recognised as leaders in the Local Authority sector.”

BOP District Health Board is the first DHB in NZ to enter and win an award in the internationally calibrated awards and will today receive a ‘Bronze' award.

BOPDHB Chief Executive Officer, Phil Cammish, says it is a significant step in an ongoing journey.

'This award has been the culmination of a journey which started some years ago, when we took the decision that the organisation would follow a continuous quality improvement path.

'The efforts of the staff over the years have led us to this success. And, whilst a great achievement in itself, it is but another step in our quality improvement journey.”

Phil says the work undertaken meant the DHB was delivering safer and higher quality healthcare for Bay residents.

Also presented at today's gala luncheon at Coopers Function Centre at Mystery Creek in Hamilton, were the New Zealand Business Achievement Awards.

An abridged version of the Business Excellence Awards, they are evaluated on the same rigorous basis.

The BOPDHB Clinical School's Trials Unit - which was established in 2009 by Associate Professor Dr Peter Gilling and Research Manager Rana Reuther - received an Achievement Award.

'The application for an Achievement Award was submitted so we could benchmark ourselves against reputable and internationally-recognised criteria,” says head of BOPDHB Clinical School Professor Gilling.

'This will help us to continually develop, by acknowledging our strengths and areas for improvement.”

The unit conducts clinical trials and health-related research projects and is largely funded by trial revenue. Funds raised support clinical research initiatives throughout the region.

'The significant increase in growth the BOPDHB Clinical School has experienced over the past four years can be attributed to the reputation of the unit's staff and the quality of research being undertaken here,” says Professor Gilling.