THE north's only dedicated awards aimed at the small business sector will take place for the third year running, culminating in June.
Monthly glossy magazine Business Eye has joined forces with lead sponsors First Trust Bank to stage the Business Eye First Trust Bank Small Business Awards - affectionately nicknamed the 'Beftas'.
The awards move to a new venue this year, taking place for the first time at Belfast's Crowne Plaza Hotel on Thursday June 15.
For 2017, an expanded total of 13 different categories will be open to businesses based in Northern Ireland with 50 employees or less.
As well as crowning a headline Small Business of the Year, other categories include awards for the top performers in key sectors such as agri food, technology, tourism & hospitality and manufacturing.
And a brand new award this year will recognise the north's leading Independent Retailer of the Year.
Hundreds of entries are anticipated across the 13 categories and the winners will be chosen by a panel of judges led by the head of First Trust Bank, Des Moore and Business Eye publisher/editor Richard Buckley.
Closing date for entries is Friday May 5 and local small businesses can enter via the dedicated awards website at www.businesseyeawards.co.uk
Des Moore said: “Small businesses account for the vast majority of the private sector here in Northern Ireland and are therefore critically important to the future growth and rebalancing of the local economy.
"These awards have already firmly established themselves as part of the business fabric here - awards that small businesses across every sector are striving to win. Most importantly, though, they celebrate success and showcase the achievements of our small businesses.
“First Trust Bank works with a wide range of small and medium sized enterprises. We are excited about joining with Business Eye for a third year to shine a spotlight on our top performers and we're very much looking forward to another memorable awards night in June.”
Richard Buckley added: “Our small businesses used to have to compete with the big names in the business world in most of the awards which exist on the local stage, including our very own UTV Business Eye Awards.
“But these awards give smaller firms the chance to go head to head with those of a similar size and scale, and over the past two years, they've produced some worthy winners.”
