No wins at the Northern Lincolnshire Business Awards but a night to be proud of!

When we were nominated for three awards at the Northern Lincolnshire Business Awards we were obviously delighted and full of anticipation ahead of the awards night which took place on Friday May 20^th. Unfortunately a night of celebration was not on the cards for us, as we were runners up in each of the awards we were nominated for.

Of course we were disappointed not to have won but the achievement of being nominated for three awards, which recognised success in different areas of our business, was seen by us all and many of the businesses who attended the night who were incredibly complimentary about our nominations. We were the only business to be nominated for three awards this year and although we did not win we were delighted and proud of this fact.

The evening itself was wonderfully organised by the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce and was greatly enjoyed by everyone who attended. A fantastic three course meal, followed up by entertainment on the stage from the local Grimsby College and the West End Cast of Chicago, all of which were warmly received by the audience.

The evening was all about the awards though and first on stage was our Managing Director Joanne Hill to present the HBP Systems Small Business Award. This is the first time we’ve sponsored an award at the Northern Lincolnshire Business Awards and we believe the Small Business category is a great award to support as our IT support, finance systems and EPOS solutions have all helped many local businesses over the past 20 years.

The winner of this award was San Pietro Restaurant in Scunthorpe. San Pietro had shown an amazing level of dedication over the past year, growing their business in terms of turnover and profit during a tough time in their industry as well as recovering from a fire in November 2010.

Our own chance of success began with the ABP Business Growth Award which was won on the night by Nisa Today – one of Scunthorpe’s largest businesses who are heading for a turnover of £1.5 billion in the next year. We faced Nisa Today again later in the evening where they won the North Lincolnshire Economic Investment Award - partly for the creation of over 170 jobs in the local area in the past year.

Finally we were nominated for the Grimsby Institute Training Excellent Award – something I knew about very well as I was one of the two case studies in our testimonials! We were however beaten to the prize by our friends at BJB Lift Trucks Ltd who also have a fantastic training ethos and were deserving winners.

We left the awards feeling disappointed but proud of our achievements. But most of all we felt more motivated than ever before to keep growing, improving and developing as a business and, hopefully, if we keep doing that then we’ll be back next year to actually win something!

By Phil Denham, Marketing Manager, HBP Group