Portsmouth Guildhall buzzed with anticipation on Friday, February 23 as businesses, big and small, came out to celebrate and hoped to bag a prize in one of the award categories. This is the 24th year that The News has held the Business Excellence Awards but its importance in shining a light on local businesses has only grown stronger.
It has been another tumultuous year for businesses across the country, let alone Portsmouth. To have a room filled with local businesses and entrepreneurs that through ingenuity, ambition, and resilience, have excelled in 2024 made the evening one to behold. Each one of them suited, booted and ready to celebrate each others achievements and showcase Portsmouth’s thriving business market.
Publishing Editor Mark Waldron began the evenings proceedings. He said: “Tonight is an opportunity for all of us to come together and enjoy what a fantastic place Portsmouth and the region is to do business. Our awards bring the curtain down on what has been another incredible Portsmouth and South Coast Business Week. For me, I’ve had the pleasure of starting each day with the breakfast briefing filmed live each day from the Queen’s Hotel in Southsea.
“We have had an incredible panel of guests each day to talk about their involvement in the week and why it is so important to them. My clear take out form these panels was: What an incredible network we have across our region to support businesses, help them grow and thrive and to just be there to support one another.
“No system is ever perfect but I see that everyone is just working together for the same cause of making our region as good as it can be to do business in. It’s a real joy to see. And all of you here tonight are living proof of what successful businesses we have across the region. You are all winners tonight. Yes, someone will take home the top prize in each category but to have got this far shows you are doing some amazing things.”
