Celebrating our business achievements

After a long two years of hanging in the wardrobe, it was wonderful to dust off our glamorous gowns and dinner jackets to celebrate all the great Lancashire businesses at various awards nights.

To be in the company of other organisations and their staff and to be able to showcase everyone’s achievements was a joy. It was fantastic to see how businesses in our region had flourished and helped to put the north west on the map for enterprise!

We attended Burnley Business awards, where we were named among finalists in two categories – the best small business and manufacturing excellence. Sadly, we didn’t win on this occasion, but we had a fabulous time celebrating all things wonderful about our town.

We had more luck at the Red Rose Awards – held at Blackpool Winter Gardens – where we were crowned winners of the Green Award. We are very proud of this achievement and were really pleased that we could celebrate with our team, who are instrumental to our success.

The accolade was for businesses, who championed eco-incentives in their own organisation or helped others implement the practices into their companies. The judges were impressed with how we conduct and continuously strive to use greener methods throughout our business. They said: “This is a fantastic business, leading the industry in adopting environmental practices, and taking Lancashire thinking to the world!”

Green initiatives have for some time now been at forefront of our development plans and we have made significant investment into incorporating practices which will boost our sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint. Equestrian Surfaces has always been an environmentally-conscious manufacturing company, and we recognise that our work in helping the environment, reducing our carbon output, and adopting greener practices is ever-evolving.

Managing director, James Harper, and head of finance, Luke Wilkinson, were later invited to the Red Rose Winners’ reception – held at Bartle Hall, Preston – to celebrate their achievements along with other award winners, judges and event sponsors.

And to top off a very enjoyable and successful couple of months, James and Luke joined a various panels of experts to discuss topics affecting businesses. Luke and other prominent business leaders were invited to join Lancashire Business View’s topical round the table discussion held at PM+M’s headquarters. Among the topics discussed were the difficulties caused by rising costs, and what measures were being introduced to help ease the burden.

James also took part in a debate at energy and utility management experts BiU’s offices, in St Annes, to discuss the rising importance of Environmental Social Governance (ESG). Their thoughts are to be published in the summer’s Hot 100 edition.

Finally, it was off to Mytton Fold Hotel for LBV105 magazine launch, where James and other Red Rose Awards winners spoke at the event.

A couple of jam-packed months have enabled us to show off our incredible business to the north west and beyond, but it’s also made us appreciate much more how we took award nights for granted before the pandemic hit!