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Winners of uStartup awards unveiled at glittering ceremony

The grand final of the first uStartup awards took place last night to celebrate the achievements of new local enterprises in their first year of trading.

The four category winners were named as Jackie Sewell of Tomlinson’s Café & Bunkhouse, Michelle Matthews of TestCal, Susan Callcutt of Sunday Best Vintage and Victoria Dunn of Victoria Dunn Marketing Communications.

The awards organiser Richard Laverick hailed the evening as a great success.

Hailing the winners as ambassadors for entrepreneurialism in the region he said: “ When I had the concept to establish the business awards exclusively for companies in their first 12-months of trading, I had high expectations that I would encounter some very passionate an determined start-ups.

“As the application and judging stage progressed it became apparent the calibre of entries coupled with the growth potential of each winner was staggering.”

These four winners were chosen from a shortlist of three others within their category, and were asked to give a pitch about their products to the judges, who are key business and enterprise professionals from the region.

Each of the four winners run very different businesses, but all are successful in their own right.

Jackie Sewell runs a community café and activity centre in Rothbury. She commented: “I am delighted to receive this wonderful accolade for mine and the community’s hard work.

“I have worked in partnership with a number of fantastic people and companies in Rothbury to create a hub activity.”

Testcal, which won the technology award produces a product which verifies the correct readings on an insulation and continuity ohm meter. After receiving the award, Michelle Matthews said: “It is overwhelming to receive recognition for the company’s achievements to date and also an honour that people can see our potential.”

Susan Calcutt and her mother were awarded for their unique business Sunday Best, which provides vintage China hire, catering and hospitality for bespoke events. She hopes this award will help the business go from strength to strength.

“As a small business we feel we demonstrate a lot of passion for what we are selling, we have drive and determination that we can exceed our customers’ expectations and deliver a quality service where they will want to tell others and come back for more.” She said.

Finally Victoria Dunn was awarded for her company, Victoria Dunn Marketing Communications, which specialises in charitable marketing. She said: I hope the charitable community takes advantage of my marketing services and experience as my business continues to flourish.“

All four winners were awarded with £500 of business products and services plus a hand crafted award.

Richard added: “Everyone who takes those early steps to establish their own enterprise should be very proud of themselves.

“Those who’ve made it to the final and indeed the people chosen from the pitch event as winners in their categories are in my view the ones to watch.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .