Bangor Business awards launched

THE SIXTH annual Bangor Business Awards were launched this week heralding another search for the top companies in the town.

The highlight of the local business year, the awards create an opportunity for local firms to celebrate the economic success of the borough and the people who live and work within it.
Repeating the successful formula of last year, the awards will take place in the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel on May 18 compered by funnyman and creator of the Our Jimmy tribute show William Caulfield.

With 16 categories to choose from, local businesses will find at least one that matches their strengths, with new awards for this year including Best Guest House and Bangor's Key Person of the Year.

The brochure detailing the awards is being distributed around the town this week, providing practical and easy advice on how to enter - now made even easier with inclusion of a simple expression of interest form.

With this new streamlined form, which involves merely ticking boxes, the award organisers are expecting an even greater response this year and advise anyone interested in attending the ceremony to book tickets early.

At the awards launch, Bangor Chamber of Commerce President Evan Ward said: "We have seen these awards go from strength to strength over the past few years, but we need people to hand in the forms for their most deserving shops in as many different categories as possible.

"I would like to think that the prestige of being nominated for an award is impressive enough, let alone winning one, but having said that I have seen the reactions of people going into a business that displays one of our plaques on the wall.

"Their customers recognise what that award means and that it conveys the good reputation of the firm."

Returning as principal sponsor - a role they adopted for the inaugural awards - is Northern Bank, whose Bangor branch senior manager David Croft stated: "These awards highlight the strength of the business community in North Down and provide the opportunity for this success to be celebrated.

"Indeed, the challenge we face is to ensure the vibrancy of the business environment in Bangor is shared well beyond the boundaries of the borough. It is all our responsibilities to share this success story.

"Credit for this primarily goes to those people with the foresight, entrepreneurial skills and endeavour to spot ideas and make them reality, but it is also due to those who encourage, support and promote business endeavours in Bangor."

He referred to Monday's launch of the North Down Business Village as an example of the virtues of the local economy, stating that, with the support of the academic sector, the success that will be celebrated in May will merely be the vanguard of those to come.

"At the end of the day," he concluded, "it is the entrepreneurs, the business people, who should receive the glory and I wish them all the luck in the awards and in all of their future developments."

Bangor and Holywood Town Centres Ltd. Bangor Chamber of Commerce

'Working in Partnership'

To download this years brochure click here (PDF document)

To download the expression of interest form click here (PDF document)

Click here for pervious Business Awards Stories