The final shortlist for this year’s Lancashire Business View Red Rose Awards has been announced, confirming the business hopefuls in with a chance of collecting a prestigious trophy in front of a 1,100-strong audience.
Organisations of all sizes from every corner of the county across a wide variety of industries are represented on the final list of 150, who will now vie for success in 25 categories.
The winners will be revealed at a glittering, fun-packed, black tie event taking place on March 8 at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.
The shortlist was finalised following a full day of pre-scoring by 80 Red Rose Awards judges, who combed through and debated hundreds of nominations at a special event with judging partners UCLan, and hosted by Northcote at the Rovers.
Now, each business will be given a final chance to impress the panel over two days of pitches and presentations in February.
Richard Slater, publisher of Lancashire Business View and founder of the Red Rose Awards, explained that the Big Bang theme of this year’s event reflected Lancashire’s ability to make an impact on a national and international stage.
“The Red Rose Awards tell the world about Lancashire,” Richard said.
“We have seen some phenomenal entries for this year’s awards and the final shortlist is incredibly strong, loaded with talent, creativity, hard-work and drive to succeed.
“It’s going to be an incredibly difficult task for our panel of judges to pick just one winner per category, but that says fantastic things about Lancashire and whoever does take home a trophy will have done great work putting the red rose county on the map.”
Dr John Lonsdale, director of innovation and enterprise at UCLan, judging partner for Red Rose Awards 2018, said: “This year’s Red Rose entries have been exceptionally strong. The judges have yet again been impressed and delighted by the innovation, entrepreneurship and business excellence we have seen. Choosing the finalists has not been easy.
“The Red Rose awards evening will undoubtedly be a great success, showcasing a diverse selection of businesses from across the county.”
Oliver Burton, CEO at Forbes Solicitors, headline sponsors of the awards for the eighth year, said:
“We always enjoy the judging element of the awards and this year has been no different.
“After the hard task of deciding on the finalists, we’re looking forward to meeting them on the interview days to hear more about their success in Lancashire and beyond.”
John Stanworth, head of corporate banking at Barclays in Lancashire, a headline sponsor for five years, added: “As always the entries this year have been of a very high standard making judging a very difficult job indeed! The finalists should be very proud to have made it to this stage.
“We are looking forward to meeting them, and celebrating their success on the night of the Awards.”