Vote for your Harrogate district business hero in our Excellence in Business awards 2020

These annual awards are now in their 15th year and since their inception some of our winners have gone on to much greater things.

But this year, the awards themselves have gone on to greater things. They are now part of JPI Media’s national awards scheme, which means our winners will go on to compete at a higher level against rivals from other parts of the region, and then the country.

All of which means your entry could be the start of something both personally gratifying and commercially transformative.

To harmonise our awards with the pattern adopted nationally, some of the categories this year are different – so it’s goodbye Best Company Website, but hello Entrepreneur of the Year. See page 52 of this special supplement for details.

The awards’ main sponsor is once again Harrogate estate agents Verity Frearson, and they are joined by other familiar names from previous years, such as the YAS, Berwins Solicitors, Si Recruitment, Harrogate Borough Council and Cicada Communications.

This year, our black-tie awards ceremony in April will be held where last year’s event was so successfully staged – at the Pavilions of Harrogate, the venue owned and operated by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) at the Great Yorkshire Showground.

We call today for entries, which may come from any business operating from within our circulation area – from lower Wensleydale to north Leeds, and from Pateley Bridge to within a stone’s throw of York, encompassing Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon, Wetherby, Pateley Bridge, Masham, Boroughbridge, Boston Spa and Tadcaster and all points in between.

Hopeful businesses are advised to make a start on their entries as soon as possible - with Christmas intervening, the February 28 deadline is likely to come round quickly.

Judges are not looking for lengthy submissions – bullet points are sufficient. Enter online at www.harrogatebusinessawards.co.uk and click on ‘Nominate’. Good luck!

AWARD CATEGORIES

The award categories that are open for entries are:

- Best SME (under 50 employees)

- Best Large Business (more than 50 employees)

- Best Rural Business

- Best Employer

- Best Tourism Business

- Best Family-Run Business

- Best Newcomer

- Apprentice of the Year Award

- Community Initiative of the Year

- Sustainable Business Award

- Digital and Technological Development

- Entrepreneur of the Year

The winner of the prestigious Business of the Year award will be chosen from among the winners of the other awards.

Entries must be received by noon on Friday, February 28.