The Glasgow Business Awards In the past you’ve voted for clothes shops, a snooker club, a distillery, a brewery and a theatre. Who will you make Glasgow’s favourite business this year?
The ever-popular category returns as part of the Glasgow Business Awards 2010, which are bigger and better than ever, with four new categories and – despite the tough economic climate – six new sponsors.
The 13th annual awards, the flagship event of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, will this year be held at an awards ceremony and dinner at the city’s Thistle Hotel on Thursday, October 7.
The lead sponsor is the Bank of Scotland, while the Evening Times is media partner.
Of the 15 awards this year, the Favourite Business Award is the only one that is not decided by a Chamber judging panel.
Instead, we ask you, readers of the Evening Times, to nominate businesses – and, later on in the process, to vote for the companies on a shortlist.
Last year’s winner was the Q snooker club. Previous winners have included Slater Menswear (2008); Auchentoshan Distillery (2007); Bradfords Bakers (2006); Internacionale and Au Naturale (2005); 5pm.co.uk (2004); Tennent Caledonian Breweries (2003) and The Pavilion Theatre (2002).
To get things underway, we’d like you to nominate a Glasgow business that deserves its share of the plaudits.
It could be a local radio station, a department store, a music venue, a music shop, a hair or beauty salon, a travel agents, a cafe, a car showroom, a shopping mall. It could be one of the city’s many tourist attractions.
It could be a business that, in your opinion, has given something back to Glasgow, or has helped reinforce the city’s reputation as a major player.
The new categories for this year are Happiest Healthiest Workplace, Tourism Event of the Year, Young Business Person of the Year and Best Use of Social Media.
New sponsors for 2010 include Glasgow Airport, GTG Training, Scottish Power, Radio Clyde, Health at Work and Thistle Glasgow Hotel.
Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said: “The Glasgow Business Awards is already an established and hugely popular event for city businesses, as last year’s record turnout testifies. However, our aim is to continue to grow its appeal.
“This is why, from the moment the closing speeches were made at last year’s event, we were already thinking ahead to 2010.
“The fruit of months of labour is the six new sponsors and four new categories – which is a terrific achievement in its own right.
“We are rightly very proud of the efforts and success of Glasgow’s dynamic business community and we trust the Glasgow Business Awards 2010 will once again provide a fitting stage for us all to celebrate and toast those who are performing at the top of their game.”
He added: “We are delighted to again enjoy the support of the Evening Times and all of our other valued sponsors.”
His colleague Richard Muir, commercial director, added: “These will be my first Glasgow Business Awards in my current role although I have been a regular attendee in previous years and was very much aware of what a successful, popular and respected event it is.
“That high opinion in which the awards are held made our job of securing new sponsors a little bit easier and I’d like to thank all our sponsors for their invaluable backing which enables us to stage an event befitting of Glasgow’s best businesses.”
* For more information, log onto www.glasgowbusinessawards.org. Application forms can be downloaded from www.glasgowbusinessawards.org/applications.asp
The Q Club
You might have thought that a snooker and pool club that has welcomed John Higgins, Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins and Steve Davis through its doors would be pretty happy with its profile.
But the Q Club, in Glasgow’s Charing Cross, found that the Glasgow’s Favourite Business award has done even more to spread the word.
The distinctive award is displayed behind the bar, where everyone can see it.
“It’s been really good for us, and we’ve had a great response to it from established members and new members alike,” says Sanjay Sharma, who runs the club with his uncle Lake, and his younger brother, Vikas.
“We were all delighted to have won - it really meant a lot to us, knowing that so many people took the time and trouble to vote for us.”
The club was opened 20 years ago, in 1980, by Lake’s father, Sagli. He had originally bought the premises for use as a centre for the Asian community, but when that plan didn’t materialise, a family friend who lived in Leeds, and played snooker, suggested using it as a snooker club.
Sagli knew nothing about the sport, but he went down to snooker star Willie Thorne’s club in Leeds to examine the set-up there. Thorne himself came up to Glasgow to help Sagli establish the new venture.
At the time, the family recalls, Glasgow only had dingy public snooker halls. The Q Club was the city’s first licensed club and, despite an original membership fee of £28, it managed to attract no fewer than 600 members in its first week.
The club currently has some 4,000 members - but the fee is only £10. Earlier this year, a second Q Club was opened, in Victoria Road, on the South side.
The Q Club has been chosen to host one of the pre-qualifying competitions for the new World Open, on Sunday, July 25. Both the Charing Cross and Victoria Road clubs will be used.
The tournament is the idea of snooker lynchpin, Barry Hearn, and the inaugural World Open will take place at the SECC in Glasgow in September.
Hearn recently told our sister paper, The Herald: “It will be like the FA Cup and will feature plenty of youngsters who have never been in front of the television cameras before.”
The pre-qualifiers will give amateur players the chance to mix with professional names. The winner of the Q Club event will join 19 other winners at the professional qualifying rounds in Sheffield in August.
At the SECC, the players will compete for the trophy and a prize fund of £500,000.
Said Sanjay: “We’re delighted to have been chosen to host one of the pre-qualifiers. There was a lot of hard work involved in getting it, as there were only 20 venues across all of the UK. It has made us really proud.”
Forty players have signed up so far. “We’re hoping to get up to 60, which would be excellent,” added Sanjay. “We’ll have all the best players in Scotland, and we understand there will be players coming up from down south as well.”
HOW TO NOMINATE
Write to Glasgow’s Favourite Business, Features Desk, Evening Times, 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow, G2 3QB. Or email news@eveningtimes.co.uk, marking it ‘Glasgow’s Favourite Business’.
Just tell us the name of the firm and why you think they deserve to be put forward as Glasgow’s Favourite Business. The deadline for all nominations is July 19.
Categories in the 2010 Glasgow Business Awards are:
- Bank of Scotland Award for Most Outstanding Business
- Best Performing Business (25 employees or less) Sponsored by Radio Clyde
- Best Performing Business (over 25 employees) Sponsored by Glasgow City Council
- Best Use of Social Media. Sponsored by Dunning
- Sustainable Development. Sponsored by Scottish Water
- Creative Marketing. Sponsorship opportunity available
- Equality and Diversity. Sponsored by Glasgow Works
- Apprentice Employer of the Year - sponsored by GTG Training
- Excellence in Skills and Learning - sponsorship opportunity available
- Excellence in Customer Service - sponsored by Thistle Glasgow
- Young Business Person of the Year - sponsored by ScottishPower
- Tourism Event of the Year - sponsored by Glasgow Airport
- Happiest Healthiest Workplace - sponsored by Health At Work
- Evening Times Award for Glasgow’s Favourite Business - sponsored by Evening Times
- Glasgow Chamber of Commerce Award for Lifetime Achievement - sponsored by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
