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Northwest firms up for Entrepreneur of the Year

Ernst & Young have unveiled the 28 North West entrepreneurs from 23 businesses who have been shortlisted for the law firm’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2013.

The awards, which will be held in Manchester this June, will see the 23 businesses compete with 19 others from across the North for the regional title.

Winners from the different regions will then get the opportunity to go for the overall Entrepreneur of the Year title, who will represent their country at the global awards ceremony in Monte Carlo next year.

North West winners from last year included Fred Done, founder and chief executive of Betfred, Peter Schofield of Tetrosyl Group, Ian Kelly from Matrix (Green Sky Energy), Matthew Sanders of de Poel, Iqbal Ahmed OBE of Seamark and Lawrence Jones from UKFast.

This year’s judging panel will welcome Pets at Home founder, Anthony Preston, who commented: “I’m delighted to chair the North judging panel and play my part in recognising the great talent entrepreneurial businesses in our region.

“These business leaders represent job and wealth creation, which are important factors in tough markets. My fellow judges and I look forward to meeting them and hearing their entrepreneurial stories and diverse approaches to growth.”

Robert Crooks, North West Entrepreneur of the Year at Ernst & Young, said: “Our finalists are growing their businesses in the face of a flat economy.

“These entrepreneurial business leaders are identifying opportunities for growth and grabbing them. Innovative thinking gives them the edge over others; it’s in their very nature.

“In fact they are using current economic conditions to their advantage, to get ahead of the competition. Be it by investing in international markets – exports to China and India are growing strongly – or delving deeper into understanding their customers.

“Finalists in this year’s programme show deep understanding of their customer’s needs and are developing new products or services to match them exactly.

“Entrepreneurs aren’t waiting for traditional markets to recover, they are ramping up activities and capitalising on pockets of potential.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .