At the annual Business & Industry Awards Luncheon hosted by The Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce and the Macon Economic Development Commission, awards were presented to the Business of the Year, Industry of the Year and Small Business of the Year. Over 200 attended the event at which the keynote speaker, Dr. Norman L. Firchau, President & CEO of Porsche Consulting, Inc. discussed “Operational Excellence” within an organization.

The Business of the Year Award was presented to All Care, a Macon-based private home care provider serving adults with development disabilities and seniors. Since opening in 2010, All Care has grown to an administrative staff of 11 and a team of 100 direct care employees and prides itself on the high standard of care they provide to their clients. Allen Freeman, President and CEO accepted the award.

The Industry of the Year Award was presented to TRANE, a world leader in commercial heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and a manufacturer of fan coil blower products. With 158 employees at its Macon facility, the company instills the core values of integrity, respect, courage and innovation in all its activities and promotes employee engagement in work-life balance. Trane is a subsidiary of Ingersoll-Rand. Jason Myers, General Manager of the Trane – Macon Manufacturing Facility accepted the award.

The Small Business of the Year Award was presented to Kens’ Audio-Video-Car Stereo. Since its beginning in 1978, this family-owned business has focused on providing excellent customer service to their clients and has grown to be one of the largest independent, consumer electronics stores in the Southeast. Michael Jones, Vice President and son of the late founder, Ken Jones, accepted the award.

All nominees submitted information that was evaluated by a panel of judges. The nominees were evaluated and ranked based on their economic impact in the community, corporate citizenship including charitable giving, employee volunteers working with charitable organizations, the overall workplace environment, and their demonstrated efforts to be environmentally conscientious.

Other finalists for the 2015 awards were: Cicero’s Moving & Storage, LBA Ware – Lending & Banking Automation Software and Sierra Development.