For the fourth time, Uckfield Chamber of Commerce organised the Biennial Uckfield Business Awards at a record-breaking event, professionally co-hosted by two members of the organising committee, Jan Edwards of The Marketing Eye and Gary King of Uckfield FM.
Record-breaking, as it was the first occasion all 41 finalists had attended the evening and no fewer than 335 people sat down at the Gala occasion for the ‘sold out’ event.
Made possible by a generous array of Uckfield business sponsors, including overall lead sponsor, CJ Thorne Group. Each sponsor had the privilege and sometimes dubious task of selecting their category winner and presenting the award on stage on the night.
The 15 category awards were interspersed between three courses served with military precision by the army of serving staff at the East Sussex National resort. In the presence of Wealden MP, Nus Ghani, who was also one of the award sponsors, and both Uckfield’s Mayor and Deputy Mayor, it was a glittering night of celebration.
Leading the celebrations was Uckfield’s iconic Picture House cinema and owner, Kevin Markwick. The cinema was awarded overall ‘Business of the Year’ and Kevin personally picked up the special ‘Outstanding achievement’ award, sponsored by Garrison Roofing plus ‘Business person of the Year (male)’ sponsored by Anytime Fitness. Many congratulations!
Thank you to Chamber president, Chris Lawson and his team, who organised a Prize Draw on the night with £1,600 being raised for the Friends of Sussex Hospices; it was lovely to hear from the first prize draw winner that his £300 prize was being donated back to his chosen good cause, Chailey Heritage Enterprise Centre!
We think it’s fair to say that the Uckfield Business Awards 2018 can be deemed a huge success! Many thanks to Jan and her team from The Marketing Eye for their months of hard work leading on the event organisation.
We will do it all again in 2020!