Ten years of the World Demolition Awards: 2009

Amsterdam in the Netherlands was the venue for the first World Demolition Summit, as it would be for the next six events, and the awards dinner quickly established itself as a key diary dates for contractors and other industry professionals.

With innovation and best practice at the centre and 12 categories up for grabs, the 2009 awards set the pattern for what was to follow.

But some of the categories had still to evolve into the ones we recognise today.

The Innovation Award for manufacturers was split into Custom and Series Product categories, with Rusch Special Products and Volvo emerging ahead of their respective fields.

Contract of the Year was a single award for the first event, and was won by Keltbray, which doubled up by winning the Urban Demolition Awards as well.

Keltbray was one of only two companies to win in more than category. The other was Safedem, which took both the Demolition Company of the Year and the Explosive Demolition prizes.

The diversity of the winning companies was something else that would become a regular feature of the awards.

Other first-time winners were Liebherr (for Service & Support); Dorton Group (Demolition Training); DH Griffin (Demolition Safety); Costello (Environmental & Recycling) and General Smontaggi (Industrial Demolition).

There was one individual honour, the Special Demolition Personality Award, which went to Dr Dieter Korth.