E&S awards 'fantastic' sponsors are praised

Express & Star Editor-in-Chief Martin Wright said that the annual sponsors' lunch, held in the board room at the newspaper's Queen Street headquarters in Wolverhampton, marked the beginning of the countdown to the Express & Star Business Awards 2023.

"I am delighted to welcome back so many familiar faces today as we celebrate the very best in business across the Black Country and Staffordshire.

"The Express & Star is proud to showcase the success of businesses around the region and shine a light on the huge contribution that they make to life in our communities across the region.

"As ever, we are also extremely grateful for your support, our fantastic sponsors – without it, these awards wouldn’t be possible."

Mr Wright said that the last 12 months had been tough for many businesses – and indeed families – across the region.

"At the beginning of last year, when we relaunched the business awards following Covid, I wrote in our launch article that I hoped we could look forward to a brighter future after the disruption caused by the pandemic.

"The invasion of Ukraine, the hike in energy prices and the cost-of-living crisis quickly put an end to any notion that things would get easier.

"And yet in spite of these challenges, our business community continues to thrive. The innovation, resilience and creativity shown by firms across the region in such challenging circumstances is remarkable.

"This was absolutely clear in the standard of entries we received this year. Not only did numbers exceed expectations – yet again – but the quality of the entries was among the best I have seen."

He added that shortlisting the finalists in each category was a huge challenge and some absolutely exceptional businesses had made it through.

The category sponsors are: apprentice of the year, Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology; best marketing campaign, MNA Digital; business person of the year, Richardson; family business of the year, Crowe; growth and innovation, Homeserve Furniture Repairs; manufacturing champion, Collins Aerospace; small to medium-sized business, Higgs LLP;and young business, Carvers.

The Express & Star itself sponsors the overall business of the year award.

Henry Carver, managing director of Wolverhampton-based Carvers, said he was delighted to once again be sponsoring and judging the young business category.

"I love to see what innovation is coming from new businesses. The most important thing is to try and encourage young businesses to invest here in the Black Country. I really enjoy seeing the cycle of what they are trying to achieve."

Michael Brooks, head of central function at Collins Aerospace in Wolverhampton, said that sponsoring the manufacturing champion category was a fantastic opportunity to see what good things some of the smaller businesses in the region were doing in the field of manufacturing.

Johnathan Dudley, managing partner of the Midlands office of Crowe at Oldbury, said he was looking forward to the judging and meeting in person the great family businesses in the area and discovering how they were meeting challenges and growing.

Neil Thomas, chief executive and principal of Dudley College, which is lead partner for the Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology, said it was hugely important to be encouraging apprenticeships.

"Apprenticeships are still one of the main routes for training in the region particularly for the traditional industries and the range of apprenticeships offered is ever growing," he added.

A new associate sponsor for 2023 is Wombourne Windows with Silvaman Group continuing as associate sponsor.

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre will sponsor the drinks reception at the awards which will be produced by Yarrington at Wolverhampton Racecourse where the award winners will be announced on June 8.

Tickets for the awards dinner are on sale online now at businessawards.expressandstar.co.uk