West Berkshire Business Awards 2014

The recipients of the 2^nd Annual West Berkshire Business Awards were announced on Friday 17^th October at The Race Course Newbury.  Hosted by Thomas Plant from Special Auction Services, over 200 guests attended the gala dinner event, which recognises business excellence and honours local West Berkshire Companies which promote the spirit of success and innovation.

Following on from the fabulous feedback from the 2013 inaugural gala dinner, Emma Lawrence kicked off the evening and provided the musical accompaniment to the drinks reception provided by lead sponsor Bayer. This was followed by the introductory speeches by Simon Greenstreet Head of Communications at Bayer and Richard Benyon MP.  The dinner and award ceremony closed with live music from Berkshire’s leading Cover’s Band, The Extra Covers.

The top award for the evening, the Bayer West Berkshire Business of the Year was presented to ROC Technologies, by Simon Greenstreet who chose the overall champion from all of the business category winners.

Simon commented; “Bayer is delighted to be the main sponsor of this, the second year, of the West Berkshire Business Awards. This event is a celebration of the success of local organisations and their employees, who do great work for their customers supplying fantastic products and services to people who need them. Bayer is proud to salute their achievements through these prestigious awards’.

Meanwhile, the recipients of the West Berkshire Business Awards, per category, were announced as follows:

Appleprint and Creative New Business Award: Roc Technologies

The PBA Small Business Award: Create IT Group

The Santander Independent Restaurant or Pub Award: The Newbury

The Race Course Newbury Tourism, Events & Culture Award: The Boxford Masques

The Newbury BID Independent Retail Award: Philip Brown Violins

The Business Executive Advantage Charity & Community Award: Time to Talk

The Vineyard Social Media Award: Kremer Signs

Each winner received a beautiful hand carved award supplied by local craftsman Jocelyn Nankoo of Stone Art Memorials. The winners also received a complementary commercial photography shoot, generously donated by AHP Photography, who was also there on the night as the official West Berkshire Business Award photographers.

The evening also raised a sum of £1460.00, thanks to the generous contributions of the attendees as they entered the raffle. This sum was donated to the winner of the charity category Time to Talk.

The committee also thanked all of the sponsors of the event and everyone who gave up their time and expertise to help deliver the 2014 event.

Awards Chairperson Deborah Lester George said, “The quality of the entries was once again very high, and all the finalists and winners should feel extremely proud of their success. We’re looking forward to the 2015 awards already!”