Stamford Mercury Business Awards

Guest blog by recruitment partner Karen Dykes

I was delighted to represent Anne Corder Recruitment at this week’s Stamford Mercury Business Awards.

Anne judged the Business of the Year category along with Robert Hinch from Greetham Valley Hotel, Golf and Conference Centre.

As usual the entries demonstrated perfectly the diversity of the business community in and around Stamford. They came from long established and family run firms to relatively new niche businesses making their mark both locally and nationally.

Anne and Robert spent a day visiting the short listed companies and were, as they have been every year they’ve judged the awards, incredibly impressed with the people they met. These are the entrepreneurial faces of our region who are working hard day in day out. They may be providing a service or manufacturing a product, all are creating employment and all are contributing to the economy. For all those reasons – and many more – they are to be applauded.

This year Anne and Robert just couldn’t separate two of the businesses they visited and so announced joint winners… MMT Digital and Simmons Optometrists.

While MMT Digital is at the cutting edge of web design, Simmons is a very traditional business serving the community.

MMT Digital’s success is easily seen in terms of levels of business, new clients and expanding workforce. Anne called it: “A little gem of a business now based in Rutland successfully working with very high profile clients.”

Anne and Robert were equally complimentary about Simmons. They said the couple who own and manage the business are not only technical experts in their field but commercially knowledgeable. They took over the business six years ago and since then have invested time and money in consolidating and expanding their client base.

Along with recruitment partner Nel Woolcott, I presented the awards to MMT Digital and Simmons Optometrists and it was a real honour to do so.

As usual Greetham Valley proved a wonderful venue for a very special evening of celebration marking some impressive achievements by the business community.

Stamford Mercury Business Awards success

It was an absolute pleasure to attend last night’s Stamford Mercury Business Awards at Greetham Valley Hotel, Golf and Conference Centre.

I jointly sponsored and judged the Business of the Year category which proved to be an incredibly difficult job this year.

It was a struggle to cut the entry list down to the final four and picking a winner involved an awful lot of discussion following our visits to each entrant.

It was Human Touch which finally took the honours. They’re a local ambulance provider also offering first aid training with an impressive business plan to take them into the future.

I was incredibly impressed with the business’ offer and the team in place.
A large number of them were at the ceremony and were obviously thrilled to have won the award.

The whole evening was a wonderful celebration of local businesses. People talk about recessions and difficult times but seeing the number of small businesses not just starting up but flourishing was testament to the entrepreneurial people and spirit that exist in the Stamford area.

The Greetham Valley venue deserves a well done too for the delicious food and delightful setting that helped create such a lovely atmosphere at the ceremony.
It was an honour to be part of something so special.

Stamford Mercury Business Awards

Businesses have had to work extra hard over the last year so those which have headed onwards and upwards as others have stumbled deserve recognition.

That’s what the Stamford Mercury Business Awards ceremony last night was all about – shouting about those people, companies and teams which have put their heads down, got on with it and carved out success despite the market conditions.

I was proud to be at last night’s ceremony at Greetham Valley Hotel, Golf and Conference Centre as a co-sponsor of the Business of the Year category.

We’ve been involved with the awards for three years now and it certainly feels like they are gathering pace in Stamford and the surrounding areas.

There was obvious delight from many winners – and why not, surviving a recession is worthy of mention, coming out the other side as an award winner is a fantastic achievement.

My co-judge Robert Hinch from Greetham Valley and I struggled to whittle the entrants in the Business of the Year category down to a short list and choosing a winner was even harder.

We finally settled on Precision Sports and Leisure Ltd in Stamford.

They demonstrated both a high level of professionalism and real passion for their business – a vitally important ingredient. The shop’s success over the last 12 months has been impressive and the team has some really exciting plans for the future. I actually visited the shop as a customer and was very impressed with the service I received. They’re not short of creativity either and have channelled that into identifying new markets.

So a big well done to Precision Sports and Leisure Ltd, thank you to Greetham Valley Hotel, Golf and Conference Centre for providing a beautiful setting and fantastic meal and congratulations to the Stamford Mercury for another successful awards.