The man who co-founded Hull’s MKM Building Supplies after being made redundant at the age of 50 and turned it into a firm generating annual revenues of over £800m a year won the Outstanding Contribution to Business accolade at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business awards.
David Kilburn founded MKM with friend Peter Murray in 1995 with just five staff and the help of his wife. It now has thousands of workers and more than 100 branches nationally.
Mr Kilburn said he was delighted with the accolade as he picked it up at the black-tie event at Headingley Stadium in Leeds attended by more than 300 people and hosted by BBC Look North’s Amy Garcia.
He said: “We’re very proud to be Yorkshire folk but also extremely proud it is a Hull-based business too.
“It is embarrassing in many ways [to win] because we have been very lucky. We have a few of my people here, including my wife who wrote the business plan back in 1995.”
He paid tribute to other long-standing members of MKM staff who had also attended the event with him.
“We are a group of people who have stuck together for the last 28 years, we have been very lucky. We have got some great people.”
Announcing Mr Kilburn as the winner, Yorkshire Post business editor Chris Burn said: “Judges described his story as outstanding and inspirational and his achievements are backed up by the figures.
“But business is as much about people as much as the bottom line and after he was profiled by The Yorkshire Post earlier this year, it was really striking how many glowing comments online there were from people who have worked with this person and had nothing but praise for him.”
Earlier in the evening, Mr Burn paid tribute to all the finalists and thanked the four judges who had assessed more than 260 entries to select shortlists and winners. This year’s judges were David Kerfoot, Sharon Watson, Peter Kavanagh and Sophie Dale-Black.