FOLLOWING a launch event attended by more than 70 people at The Craiglands Hotel, entries are now open for the Ilkley Business Awards 2022.

This year’s categories are - Best Boss, Business to Business Award, Covid - The Extra Mile Award, Established Business of the Year, Food, Drink and Leisure Business of the Year, Hair, Beauty and Wellness Business of the Year, Independent Retailer of the Year, New Business of the Year, Outstanding Tradesperson of the Year, Professional Services of the Year, Rising Star Award, Social Conscience Award.

Helen Rhodes is a regular committee member and director of engineering firm Ideal Extraction which is sponsoring the Food, Drink and Leisure category.

Helen said:"We’ve changed some of the categories this year and have added in some new ones. We now have a Best Boss category which business or team leaders can enter themselves, or people can be nominated by someone who works for them. We are recognising the immense achievements of many businesses during the Covid pandemic with the Covid – The Extra Mile Award and have four other new categories. The Social Conscience Award will celebrate businesses who demonstrate a great contribution to the community or show fantastic work in the area of environmental sustainability and the Rising Star Award replaces the Trainee / Apprentice of the Year to appreciate a fabulous staff member, irrespective of how long they have worked for the business. Additionally this year we have added an award for Outstanding Tradesperson and B2B Business of The Year."

Kelly Edmundson, who has also helped to organise the awards for a number of years and is a solicitor with award sponsors LCF Law added: "Entries are open until midnight on Friday, December 3, and the criteria for each category is detailed on the website. Another change for this year is that people can complete the written entry form as usual or they can send a voice recording or video entry – details of how to do that are on the website but as always, the committee are happy to help. People can email us at hello@ilkleybusinessawards.co.uk. "

The headline sponsor for the Awards is Ilkley BID Ltd and other sponsors secured so far are the Ilkley Business Forum, BNI Ilkley, Harvest Associates, Home Instead, Ideal Extraction, JCM Website Design, LCF Law, Olicana Stationery, Piper House VA, RDC Solicitors, Stowe Family Law, Tennant & Darragh Jewellery Workshop, The Craiglands Hotel, The Ilkley Shoe Company and Whitetop Productions. Only four category sponsorships are still available at £450 each which includes two free tickets to the awards night and inclusion in online and offline publicity. There are a small number of opportunities for event sponsorship at £395.