National awards delight for Westgate Labs

Those that have made a significant contribution to the equestrian industry were celebrated at the 2020 BETA Business Awards.

The TSM Marketing Effectiveness category winner was Westgate Labs, of Middle Stobswood.

A day earlier, the company won the Judges’ Choice accolade in the Innovation Awards at BETA International.

Husband and wife David and Gillian Booth set-up the business 17 years ago.

As horse owners themselves, they know how important it is to keep their animals healthy through targeted worm control and they are passionate about helping their customers to do the same.

Their daughter, Claire Shand, is director of marketing and communications at Westgate Labs, supporting the education of horse owners in the best worm control for their animals.

She said: “Westgate is small family business and it means a lot to have our hard work recognised this way.”

At the BETA Business Awards, the company was praised for having clear objectives, effectively rolling out a desirable subscription model across different mediums and keeping print and digital advertising, direct emails, website graphics and social media all within budget.

Its All Seasons Subscription Service was built in response to customer feedback, which described the difficulties owners felt about making the right choices for their horses and keeping track of when the next tests were due.

The option to spread payment into a small monthly fee was also desirable.

The service was designed to take the guess work out of managing this important aspect of horse’s health.

At BETA International, judges picked Westgate’s Faecal Sand Test Kit as their innovation winner from the 64 products put forward for consideration.

To help horse owners to identify whether their equine is at risk from sand colic, the business has added a faecal sand test to its range of easy-to-use, evidence- based test kits.