The brightest and best in the Blackburn with Darwen area were honoured at a glittering awards ceremony at King George’s Hall last night.

Hosted by GMB Star Ranvir Singh, it was the annual Blackburn with Darwen Business Awards, which saw some the region’s leading companies gather to find out who would pick up a coveted Hive award.

Ian Brown, chair of the Hive Ambassadors Network, the business group for Blackburn with Darwen, which organises the awards every year, said: “It was an incredible night, with some fantastic organisations in the running for an award.Everyone who was both a finalist and a winner should be rightly proud of the what they’ve achieved for both their company but also the positive impact they’d had on the Blackburn with Darwen area.”

All organisations entering the awards had to go through a rigorous judging process, including written submissions which were scored by an independent panel, followed by group interviews for some of the award categories.

Entries were narrowed down to just a few finalists in each of the 20 categories.

Ian Brown, added: “We’ve had some great entries this year and some categories, in particular, were incredibly hard to judge. Our judges certainly had a tough job and the scoring has been really close.”

The winners in this year’s awards are as follows:

The Health, Wellbeing and Social Care Award

In Di Go Dedicated Care & Support CIC

The Retail Business Award

Tom Wood Artisan Butchers

The Environmental Business Award

The Bee Centre

The Creative and Digital Award

21Digital

The Manufacturing Excellence Award

Tensar

The Family Business Award

Ewood Foods

The Buzz Award

Blackburn Festival of Light

The Commitment to Blackburn and Darwen Award

Blackburn Rovers Community Trust

The Investing in Future Skills Award

WEC Group

The Growth Business Award

Sales Geek

The New Business Award (less than 3 years old)

Piemezzanae

The Hive Business School Award

Blackburn Youth Zone

Highly commended: The Acme Facilities Group

The HIVE Entrepreneur of the Year

Lisa Edge - Lancashare

The HIVE Rising Star Award (under 30 years old)

Jonathan Finch - Sales Geek

HIVE Micro Business of the Year (10 or less full-time employees)

Stevenson Memorials

HIVE Small Business of the Year (11 - 25 full time employees)

Greenview Nursery

HIVE Medium Business of the Year (26 - 50 full time employees)

H&T Industrial

HIVE Large Business of the Year (51+ full time employees)

Rosslee Construction

There were also two special awards on the night:

The Arte Et Labore Award

This award recognises a long-term commitment by an individual to making Blackburn and Darwen a more prosperous borough and a better place to live, learn, work, visit and invest. The winner this year is Harry Catherall, in honour of his many years as chief executive of the Blackburn with Darwen Council, working for the good of the borough.

The Hive Chairman’s Award

This year the winner was Peter Street past owner of the Cardboard Box company, in acknowledgement of his unerring support towards good local causes such as the Youth Zone, The National Festival of Making and The East Lancashire Hospice.

Ian said: “The winners really showcase the best of Blackburn with Darwen and how organisations can prosper but also use that success to benefit the region, which is what both the awards and our ethos as the Hive Business Network is all about.”

He added: “I’d also like to give special thanks to our sponsors this year including Blackburn with Darwen Council, Blackburn College, Barnfield Construction, Star Tissue, Eric Wright Group and East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce.It’s the support of these sponsors which helps us really make these awards a success.”

For more details on joining the Hive Business Network one of the region’s leading business clubs, or for more details on the Hive awards visit https://business-hive.co.uk/