Best of Burnley honoured at awards

The country’s largest window systems manufacturer, The Veka UK Group, was the toast of the Burnley Business Awards as the company collected the Business of the Year award at a ceremony in which manufacturers dominated.

Burnley’s dominance in the sector was reflected, accounting for nine of the 11 award winners.

Dave Jones, managing director of The VEKA UK Group, said: “Our win for Business of the Year is a fantastic accolade, and we are elated to have been recognised for our hard work by our home town, of which we are unequivocally proud.”

Other award winners included:

• New Start Business of the Year - Insignis IT Solutions
• The Family Business of the Year - Crow Wood Leisure Centre
• The Export Achievement Award - Process Instruments
• The Innovation Award - Velocity Composites Ltd
• Deal of the Year - BCW Engineering
• The Young Business Person of the year - John Lord (Connect Technology) and Zayanah Manzoor (Hycrome)
• The Apprenticeship Scheme of the Year Award - Hycrome
• The Manufacturing Excellence Award - Futaba Tenneco
• The Small Business of the Year - DP Structures
• The Medium Business of the Year - Sweet Dreams

Steve Rumbelow, chief executive of Burnley Council, said: “The number of winners from the manufacturing sector highlights this area’s existing expertise at making things and the youthfulness of those winners suggests this will continue to be the case for many years to come.

"There is an energy and vibrancy about business in Burnley now. The town is resurgent, and alongside all those individual awards, the Burnley’s economic future was clearly a winner too.” A full report and pictures will be included in the July/August edition of Lancashire Business view.