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Hurts Donut Co. co-owner Tim Clegg accepts the top honor in the one to five years in business category.
Hurts Donut Co. co-owner Tim Clegg accepts the top honor in the one to five years in business category.

See who won SBJ’s Economic Impact Awards

Posted online
Last edited 12:35 p.m., July 27, 2018

Springfield Business Journal last night dished out top Economic Impact Awards honors to four companies recognized for financial performance, growth, community involvement and impact on the Ozarks.

The four winners — in their respective categories for years in business — announced among 12 competing companies were Hurts Donut Co. LLC, Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri Inc., Little Sunshine’s Enterprises Inc. and CoxHealth.

In all, 18 organizations and individuals were honored during a ceremony held at Oasis Hotel & Convention Center.

Below are the company winners, based on years in business.

1-5 Years in Business
Hurts Donut Co. took home the top honor in the startup category. The runners-up were a hip joint Springfield LLC and TheraCare Outpatient Services LLC.

The Hurts Donut chain reported $20.6 million in 2017 revenue, $2.4 million of which was generated locally. The company employs 402, including at 13 franchise stores, with 54 local workers at two stores and the corporate office.

Accepting the top award, co-owner Tim Clegg recalled years ago, he was reading SBJ in a hotel lobby and said, “One day, I’m going to be in this paper.”

Hurts Donut began in 2013 after Clegg was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and the family needed some extra income.

“My doctor told me to take it slow, but I opened a 24-hour doughnut shop,” he said. “Hurts Donut is an enigma.”

6-15 Years in Business
Taking home top honors in the six- to 15-years category was Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri over finalists Phoenix Home Care Inc. and Sun Solar LLC.

The nonprofit reported a 2017 operating budget of $6.3 million and 92 total employees.

Catholic Charities Executive Director Maura Taylor spoke about the nonprofit’s work in homeless prevention, disaster recovery, healthy mother and baby programs, and credit counseling. In the past year, Catholic Charities has absorbed the work of Consumer Credit Counseling Service.

16-29 Years in Business
Little Sunshine’s Enterprises won the top honor in the 16-29 years in business category. Integrity Home Care Inc. and Oasis Hotel & Convention Center also were honored in the category.

The operator of 20 early childhood education centers in multiple states recorded 2017 revenue of $28.6 million, which is up 72 percent from $16.6 million in 2016, according to past SBJ reporting.

Chief Financial Officer Amber Riddle accepted the award on behalf of the company.

30+ Years in Business
CoxHealth took the top spot over runners-up Mercy Springfield Communities and Penmac Staffing Services Inc.

CoxHealth reported $4.3 billion in 2017 revenue with 11,371 employees.

Charity Elmer, the health system’s senior vice president and general counsel, accepted the award.

Individual honors
The night’s top honor, Lifetime Achievement in Business, was awarded posthumously to Harry Cooper.

Cooper, who died April 22 at age 91, owned The Harry Cooper Supply Co. and was a noted philanthropist, giving funding to the Springfield-Greene County Park Board and other organizations.

Jan Stahle, a longtime friend and sales manager at Harry Cooper Supply Co., joined Cooper’s nephew John Cooper, who owns Harry Cooper Supply, on the stage.

“I’ll never meet another man like Harry Cooper,” Stahle said. “The man was generous. He was so supportive of many projects.”

John Cooper added: “The word that really comes to mine when I think of Harry: disciplined. He’s passed that on to us.”

Hightide Communications LLC, Springfield Business Journal’s sister company, produced a video (see below) for the event highlighting Cooper’s life.



SBJ also honored:
    •    KPM CPAs PC as the Philanthropic Business of the Year;
    •    Ozarks Technical Community College Center for Workforce Development as Business Advocate of the Year;
    •    Jamie Dopp of City Utilities of Springfield as Community Involvement Champion;
    •    Jennifer Baker of Good Dads Inc. as Entrepreneur of the Year; and
    •    Community Partnership of the Ozarks as Charitable Nonprofit of the Year.

Read full profiles of all honorees in SBJ’s July 30 print edition and the Early Friday Digital Edition delivered at 3 p.m. today.

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