At the Supplier Excellence Awards, three suppliers were named in each of the categories – service, value and innovation. Within the Service category, the winners were Storetext, Admin Business Solutions and Aston Barclay while the winners of the Value category were Select Office Services, BCA and Kwik-Fit Fleet. Finally, within the Innovation category were named Lorica, SMH Fleet Solutions and the AA.

Graham Rixon, operations director at LeasePlan, said: 'These inaugural LeasePlan Supplier Excellence Awards recognise those companies that truly lived the LeasePlan ethos in 2009, and helped the company to a successful year in the midst of wider market turbulence. The company maintained its market share, won a number of notable new contracts, achieved record customer service figures and continues to develop the services it offers – all achievements made possible through strong supplier partnerships.'

The awards were part of a supplier conference hosted by LeasePlan which saw 100 key staff from 75 of its main suppliers come together over three days at LeasePlan UK's head office in Slough. At the event, the suppliers were also set the challenge of "raising the bar" even further in 2010 to continue supporting LeasePlan as the market recovers from an eventful 2009.

David Brennan, managing director at LeasePlan, said: 'The service our customers experience so often depends on the standard of our suppliers, so it's particularly important in our industry to make sure we all pull in the same direction and with the same clarity of mission. What the conference has shown is that we have some outstanding suppliers that understand what we're trying to achieve as a business.'