Yeovil Chamber delivered a successful, inaugural Business Awards ceremony, under very challenging circumstances on Friday, October 9, at Yeovil Town Football Club.
The awards were the first of what is hoped to be a big and regular fixture on the Yeovil business calendar. Sadly, the social distancing rules restricted the awards to a tightly-managed online affair, but this did not dampen the day, nor did it deter the organisers or sponsors.
Despite some of the toughest trading conditions imaginable, 64 businesses put themselves forward across twelve categories, with the winners and sponsors attending the socially-distanced studio set-up at Yeovil Town Football Club.
Those unable to attend streamed in via live video links, with guest presenter Rick Simmonds (Radio 1, Classic FM) holding everything together in the studio. Credit must go to the organisers Jo Reynolds (Vice-President Yeovil Chamber), Nigel Reeve (Marketing West), and Mark Robinson (Commercial Manager, Yeovil Town FC), who battled through daily-changing social distancing rules, which resulted in three date changes and a last-minute loss of a guest speaker.
They refused to throw in the towel and delivered a successful event under extremely challenging conditions, with over 500 business people tuning in to watch via a live YouTube link.
Opening the event, Yeovil Chamber President David Woan delivered a keynote speech, in which he paid tribute to the Yeovil business community during the pandemic: “Resilience, creativity, can-do and co-operation. . .their resolve to talk and manage themselves individually and collectively through these tough times. . . every one of the sixty four businesses who put themselves forward is a winner.”
View the event on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtOsEnRLW_0&feature=youtu.be
The award winners were: Young Business of the Year, Ten Three Cleaning; Small Business of the Year, Holloway Gauntlet Insurance Services; Family Business, Clement White Jewellers; Great Place to Work, Boundary Engineering; Employee of the Year, Jamie Hopkins of Boundary Engineering; Outstanding Contribution by an Individual, Mark Bolton, Principal Yeovil College; Community Champion, Judith Parsons of Yeovil Charity Recycling; Hospitality & Leisure Business of the Year, Tamburino Restaurant; Customer Service, Cake Box; Manufacturing & Engineering Business of the Year, Garador; Environmental/Green Business, M &J Bower; Retail Business of the Year, The Emporium; Business of the Year, M & J Bower.
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