Navitas Named South Wales Business Awards Champion 2026
From Start-Up of the Year to South Wales Business Champion
Navitas Solutions Group has been named Technological & Innovative Business of the Year and the overall South Wales Business Awards Champion for 2026. One year after winning Start-Up of the Year, the result marks another major step in our journey from a garage-born idea to a national circuit protection business built in South Wales.
A night that belonged to South Wales business
On Friday 18 September, more than 250 people gathered at the Hilton Hotel in Cardiff for the 18th annual South Wales Business Awards. Hosted by broadcaster Sara Edwards, the black-tie evening recognised businesses across 21 categories, from ambitious micro-businesses and growing SMEs to established organisations making an impact across Wales and beyond.
The South Wales Business Awards were launched in 2008 to recognise the success of the Welsh business community. This year was the biggest event in the awards’ history, bringing together founders, teams and business leaders whose work is creating jobs, challenging established markets and strengthening the Welsh economy.
We arrived proud simply to be among them. By the end of the evening, Navitas had won Technological & Innovative Business of the Year and had then been announced as the overall South Wales Business Awards Champion 2026. It was one of those moments that takes a little while to sink in.
Recognised for innovation that installers can actually use
Innovation is one of those words that gets used far too easily. For us, it has never meant adding a feature for the sake of a press release. It means listening to the people who fit and sell circuit protection every day, questioning what has become accepted and then doing the difficult work required to make the product better.
That thinking runs through the Navitas range: consumer units designed around real installation challenges, devices developed with safety and consistency at the centre, and a growing single-phase and three-phase offer that gives the electrical industry a genuine alternative. We obsess over the details most people will never see because those details matter when a product reaches a wholesaler’s shelf or an electrician’s job.
Winning Technological & Innovative Business of the Year is therefore more than a trophy. It recognises the years of product development, testing, refinement and problem-solving behind the range. It also belongs to the installers, electrical wholesalers and industry partners who have challenged us, backed us and helped us keep improving.
One year on from Start-Up of the Year
The result carries even more weight because of where we were just 12 months ago. At the 2025 South Wales Business Awards, Navitas won Start-Up of the Year. That award recognised the early belief, energy and momentum behind the business. It told us that people could see the potential in what we were building.
The year since has not been about standing still or enjoying the applause. It has been about earning the next step. We have continued to develop the product range, grow our national distribution, support more contractors and wholesalers, strengthen the team and push our standards higher. The business may have grown, but the mentality has stayed the same: work harder, care more and refuse to settle for average.
Moving from Start-Up of the Year in 2025 to the overall South Wales Business Awards Champion in 2026 does not mean the journey is complete. It shows how far a focused team can travel in a year when everyone believes in the same direction.
Built in South Wales with national ambition
Navitas started with an idea in a garage. Today, we are building a national name in UK circuit protection from the heart of South Wales. We are proud of where the business comes from, but we have never allowed geography or company size to limit the ambition.
Our aim has always been bigger than launching another electrical brand. We want to raise expectations around product design, quality, technical support and the relationship between manufacturer, wholesaler and installer. We want to prove that a challenger from South Wales can take on an established industry and win by doing the work properly.
That is what Intelligent Rebellion means to us. It is not noise for the sake of it. It is having the confidence to challenge the standard, backed by the knowledge, testing and commitment needed to deliver something better.
A win shared by everyone behind Navitas
No business makes this kind of progress because of one person. This award belongs to our entire team, who have put an extraordinary amount of energy into building Navitas and looking after the people who put their trust in us. It belongs to our customers and partners, who gave a young brand the opportunity to prove itself. And it belongs to our families, who have supported Jay and me through the long days, late nights and sacrifices that come with turning an idea into a real business.
“To take an idea that started in a garage and build it into a national business from the heart of South Wales has taken an incredible amount of hard work, grit, passion and sacrifice. We have an incredible team around us, amazing customers and partners who have believed in what we are building, and families who have supported Jay and me through everything it has taken to get here.Nothing worthwhile comes without sacrifice and hard work, which is why winning Technological & Innovative Business of the Year and then being named South Wales Business of the Year means so much to us. We are genuinely grateful for the recognition and incredibly proud of everyone who has been part of the journey.”
William Winter, Managing Director, Navitas Solutions Group
The next chapter starts here
Awards matter because they create a moment to stop and recognise the distance travelled. Then the work starts again.
We are proud to be the 2026 Technological & Innovative Business of the Year and the overall South Wales Business Awards Champion. We are even prouder of what those awards represent: a team that backs itself, products created with purpose and a business that is only getting started.
To everyone who has been part of the Navitas journey so far, thank you. The next chapter will be bigger.
Brilliant news, well done! It was well earned and deserved.