Hive awards has business buzzing

The best and brightest in the Blackburn with Darwen area came together to celebrate the area’s success.

The annual business awards ceremony, held at King George’s Hall, was hosted this year by Good Morning Britain presenter Ranvir Singh.

Ian Brown, who chairs event organiser the Hive Ambassadors Network, said: “Everyone who was both a finalist and a winner should be rightly proud of what they’ve achieved for both their company but also the positive impact they’d had on the Blackburn with Darwen area.”

“We’ve had some great entries this year and some categories, in particular, were incredibly hard to judge. Our judges certainly had a tough job and the scoring has been really close.”

The winners in this year’s awards were:

The Health, Wellbeing and Social Care Award
In Di Go Dedicated Care & Support CIC

The Retail Business Award
Tom Wood Artisan Butchers

The Environmental Business Award
The Bee Centre

The Creative and Digital Award
21Digital

The Manufacturing Excellence Award
Tensar

The Family Business Award
Ewood Foods

The Buzz Award
Blackburn Festival of Light

The Commitment to Blackburn and Darwen Award
Blackburn Rovers Community Trust

The Investing in Future Skills Award
WEC Group

The Growth Business Award
Sales Geek

The New Business Award (less than 3 years old)
Piemezzanae

The HIVE Business School Award
Blackburn Youth Zone
Highly commended: The Acme Facilities Group

The HIVE Entrepreneur of the Year
Lisa Edge - Lancashare

The HIVE Rising Star Award (under 30 years old)
Jonathan Finch - Sales Geek

HIVE Micro Business of the Year (10 or less full-time employees)
Stevenson Memorials

HIVE Small Business of the Year (11 - 25 full time employees)
Greenview Nursery

HIVE Medium Business of the Year (26 - 50 full time employees)
H&T Industrial

HIVE Large Business of the Year (51+ full time employees)
Rosslee Construction

There were also two special awards on the night:

The Arte Et Labore Award

This award recognises a long-term commitment by an individual to making Blackburn and Darwen a more prosperous borough and a better place to live, learn, work, visit and invest. The winner this year was Harry Catherall, in honour of his many years as chief executive of the Blackburn with Darwen Council.

The Hive Chairman’s Award

This year the winner was Peter Street, founder of the Cardboard Box Company, in acknowledgement of his unerring support towards good local causes such as the Youth Zone, The National Festival of Making and The East Lancashire Hospice.