Charitable social enterprise and worker-owned co-op GLL has scooped the Social Business Pioneer award at the Pioneers Post NatWest SE100 Social Business Awards 2025.
The national awards celebrate the best of the UK's social businesses - a movement that contributes £78bn to the national economy annually and employs 2.3m people.
GLL prevailed in a hotly-fought category which included Caring Connections, Green Estate, Groundwork North Wales, Hey Girls and HILS.
GLL were awarded 'Joint Winners' with HILS - an older people's charity working in the south east of England.
GLL's win acknowledges the breadth and scale of impact on local communities across the UK for over 32 years - from health and wellbeing gains to economic opportunity and literacy promotion - operating 'profit with purpose'.
The judges said GLL remained one of the best established social businesses in the country, having overcome the challenges of the pandemic and once again thriving as a business in a low-margin sector.
GLL is also confirmed as one of the top 100 social enterprises in the country as part of the NatWestSE100 awards process.
It's the second time GLL has won at the NatWestSE100 Awards. In 2020 it was presented with the 'Storyteller' award for its successful 'I Choose' Marketing campaign attracting millennials away from private and budget gyms and towards the 'people over profit' provider.
GLL's Deputy Chief Executive Phil Donnay joined colleagues from GLL's Manchester Partnership Team to collect the award at a ceremony in Manchester on 15 July.
He commented: "Winning the Social Business Pioneer award is a great acknowledgement not only of GLL's socially purposed business and organisational culture but of the power of the social enterprise sector to change lives for the better.
"Social enterprises have communities at their heart, are resilient, strong, innovative and cannot be bought out. We are the ideal partners to deliver public services sustainably and ethically."
The news follows hard on the heels of GLL's successful appearance at the Co-Op Congress in Rochdale, 4-5 July - where over 350 delegates gathered to celebrate the role of co-ops in public service delivery and community resilience as part of Co-op Fortnight.
GLL's worker-owned co-op has returned over £100m of investment in local communities since 1993 - including the GLL Sport Foundation and GLL Literary Foundation.
To find out more, go to: UK's best social enterprise pioneers revealed at SE100 Awards 2025 | The Social Enterprise Magazine - Pioneers Postopen_in_new
