TWO more sponsors have stepped forward for this year’s Winchester Business Excellence Awards.

Local consultancy firm 1-1 Recruitment sponsors the Large Business of the Year award while local radio station the Breeze will sponsor the Service Excellence award.

Helen Floor, chief executive of 1-1 Recruitment, said: “1-1 Recruitment is delighted to be sponsoring the Large Business of the Year award. We are looking forward to learning how large companies operate to make them a true success.”

This award will be presented to an outstanding business or organisation, with more than 15 full time employees, which has demonstrated excellence in developing its business plan and has met company objectives.

Judges will look for a sound business plan and sales and marketing strategy as well as evidence that the current strategy is delivering sustainable growth and increasing job creation. They will also look for signs of innovation in products, services or processes.

The Breeze’s Service Excellence award has been launched as a nomination-only category for the first time. With the aid of a high profile on-air campaign The Breeze hopes to encourage the general public, as well as the business community, to nominate an organisation for their exceptional customer service.

Stewart Dennis, sales manager, said: “The Breeze is delighted to be supporting the Winchester Business Excellence Awards again this year.

“It became very clear in last year’s awards the wide range of high quality businesses and entrepreneurship in the Winchester region. The Breeze is particularly excited to be sponsoring the Service Excellence award as this is such an important element to get right for businesses.

“This award provides an ideal platform to celebrate those businesses that get it right and continually deliver outstanding customer service.”

It will be presented to the organisation which makes effective use of customer service initiatives to deliver business plan objectives and demonstrates improved business performance as a result.

Judges will want a company which can demonstrate success in achieving service excellence through the delivery of customer service initiatives and actively improves customer service orientation of staff through training and development. They will also want to see evidence of a clear relationship between customer service activities and improved business performance.

Businesses have until 5pm on Friday February 27 to enter.

To find out more click here or winchesterbusinessawards.co.uk.