The winners of the 2013 Flame Awards have been announced during an event at the annual Flame Conference in Telford.

Celebrating excellence and best practice in the fitness industry, the awards are based on an independent business assessment to help benchmark facilities and the staff who work within them.

This year, winners were announced in 11 different categories. The full list of winners is:

• Leisure centre operator of the year: DC Leisure
• Health club operator of the year: Spirit Health Clubs
• Spark of innovation, programme winner: NK Outreach Team, Leisure Connection
• Spark of innovation, product: Gymetrix
• Future of Flame winner: Matt Briggs, Slimming World
• Centre of the Year: Fareham Leisure Centre
• Club of the Year (3,000+ members): Ribby Hall Sport and Leisure
• Club of the Year (1,000-3,000 members): Chatham Park Golf and Leisure
• Club of the year (under 1,000 members): Spirit Health Club Gloucester
• Educational club of the year - universities: Aberdeen Sports Village
• Educational club of the year - schools: Featherstone Sports Centre
• Corporate club of the year: Woodland Health and Wellbeing Centre (Jaguar Land Rover)

Steve Philpott, CEO of the one of the winners, DC Leisure, said: "The team in attendance at the ceremony collected the award on behalf of the entire DC Leisure workforce.

"Each and every DC Leisure employee works hard to achieve outstanding Quest scores, providing quality facilities and services to all our customers. In addition, our Sports Development Team has been recognised for its ongoing commitment to forging successful relationships with National Governing Bodies in an attempt to drive community engagement and develop innovative projects, such as Swim4Health."

Dave Stalker, CEO of ukactive, said the awards continue to grow in popularity.

"The entry numbers for the 2013 awards were up on the year before - which means that people recognise that these are the pinnacle awards," Stalker said.

"In all the years that Flame has been going, entry numbers have increased and it has become hugely competitive."