Two weeks left to enter Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards
SMEs in Northern Ireland have just two weeks to submit their entries for the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards.
The scheme celebrates the achievements of local companies across a range of sectors, and is run in association with Invest NI, IntertradeIreland and SmallBusinessCan.com. Entries can be made at BusinessAchieversAward.com by Friday September 25.
Judges will shortlist companies for the Ulster provincial stage, and winners will then compete in their respective categories at an all-island awards ceremony in December. One all-island category winner will also be crowned overall Ulster Bank Business Achiever 2015.
The overall winner will receive a £35,000 publishing bursary, business mentoring from Enterprise Ireland and a full-service communications workshop.
Previous Northern Ireland winners in the all-island scheme include Almac Group, CDE Global and Avondale Foods.
Andy Mills, Regional Director, Business Banking, Ulster Bank, said: “For those companies thinking about entering, there are some compelling reasons to do so.
“Winning a Business Achievers Award is a signal of quality, an opportunity to market your business to new customers and provides significant profile on a local and national level.
“This can be a very strong support for a business, especially if used to access new markets or spark new ideas for product development.
“However, more than just celebrating our individual winners, at Ulster Bank we believe it is the right thing to do to contribute to a positive, entrepreneur-friendly culture that talks up the positives of business success, is welcoming of new ideas, and is positive about local enterprise.”
Commenting on the company winning the title of Overall Ulster Bank Business Achiever of the Year at the all-island final of the awards in Dublin last year Alan Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of Almac Group, said:
“Winning such a big award has enabled us to be recognised for and promote our unique selling points.
“The judges recognised the significant international footprint established by the Almac Group, clearly demonstrated by our international growth strategy achieving outstanding levels of sales, profit and market share improvement.
“We believe winning awards of this standard help to motivate our global team to meet business objectives.
“At a time of rapid expansion it has also been excellent for us in terms of recruitment at all levels to attract the very best people to work with us, which is ultimately the key to ensuring our future success.”
Dawn Cann, Marketing Manager of Avondale Foods, last year’s all-island Ulster Bank Business Achiever winner of the Food and Drink category, said:
“To be named as the 2014 winner just before we celebrated 50 years in business was a remarkable achievement. Over the years, we have focussed the business on value-added products and innovation, so we were delighted to be recognised for this by the judges. We are very proud and passionate about the food that we produce and awards like this affirm this commitment.”
Throughout each stage of the awards, companies will be judged on a variety of merits including financial performance, company milestones and achievements, future strategy for business people and the business and the development of innovative products and services.
Entries will be welcomed from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across all sectors. Companies can enter in any two of the following categories:
1. Business Start Up Award
2. Small Business Award
3. Established SME Award
4. International Business Award
5. Women Led Business Award
6. Food & Drink Award
7. Social Enterprise Award
8. Agri-Business Award
Follow @ulsterbank and #BusinessAchievers to keep up to date with all of the action throughout the 2015 awards.
