West Berkshire Council sponsors Best New Business award at this year's Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards
West Berkshire Council is helping to celebrate new businesses, as a category sponsor of the Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards 2023.
The council is sponsoring the Best New Business award at this year’s ceremony, which takes place at Newbury Racecourse tomorrow (Friday) evening.
Chief executive of the district council, Nigel Lynn, said: “The Best in Business Awards is a celebration of the local business environment, as well as our local people and we as West Berkshire Council would like to be a part of that celebration.
“We have seen many outstanding businesses in our district that have shown resilience and innovation throughout the past few years and we have supported them with various grants including the Welcome Back Funds and the ARG Challenge Funds. Now it feels like the right time to come together and celebrate as we look at the achievements of the past and the exciting adventures of the future.
“We have sponsored the Best New Business category with the idea of promoting our start-ups in the district. As a council, it’s a part of our priority to create a business environment where start-ups can grow and thrive.
“Over the past two years, we’ve sponsored training for people who want to start their own business and also growth programmes for existing businesses to expand. By looking at the businesses in this category, we hope to build a strong relationship with our new exciting businesses and support them on their journey. We also hope this will be a reflection of the varied and innovative sectors that exist in our district.
“Finally, this awards evening gives businesses the exposure and promotion that they deserve. We have always looked at promoting our local businesses for the great products and services they offer and passed the message to our residents to ‘shop local’.
“We hope that this award will bring a closer working relationship between businesses but also with ourselves in the coming years.”
Mr Lynn said it was important to recognise successful local businesses because they “represent a sense of community in the areas they are based”.
“Local businesses offers employment to local people which is very important for us,” he added. “For West Berkshire, they are also essential to the individuality and distinctiveness of our towns and villages; making West Berkshire an attractive place for people to visit, live and work in.
“Successful local businesses can also offer valuable training skills that can be passed onto our local educational facilities. We hope that successful local businesses will work with educational providers such as Newbury College to train our young people in the district.”