Companies get their chance in leading excellence awards

Entries will be judged by a panel of leading business figures, including Sir Ken Morrison, the man who transformed a small family grocery into supermarket chain Morrisons, one of Britain's biggest businesses.

Sir Ken won the individual award for excellence in 2008.

The awards are open to all companies headquartered in Yorkshire.

The main categories are Young business of the year, sponsored by Yorkshire Forward; Companies with a turnover under 10m, sponsored by Yorkshire Bank; Companies with a turnover between 10m and 50m, sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Companies with a turnover of more than 50m, sponsored by DLA Piper.

The Best Company to Work For Category is sponsored by Bradford University School of Management. The YP Young Entrepreneur of the Year category, for all promising owner-managers and directors aged 35 and under, is sponsored by O2.

The SME Manufacturer of the Year category, for manufacturing companies with a turnover of under 10m, is sponsored by the Manufacturing Advisory Service, the Government-funded organisation.

The Yorkshire Post welcomes two new sponsors this year, Drax and thebigwordGroup. Drax is sponsoring the Innovation of the Year category, which is open to companies that can demonstrate innovation in their approach to growth and development.

thebigwordGroup, the leading language services provider, is sponsoring the Exporter of the Year category, which is open to all businesses, big or small, that have made progress in overseas markets.

The deadline for all entries is June 22. The judging panel will include senior figures from the main sponsors, DLA Piper, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Yorkshire Bank and Yorkshire Forward, along with Bradford University School of Management.

Paul Fullerton, the Bank of England agent for Yorkshire and Humber, will also sit on the panel, with the Yorkshire Post's Editor Peter Charlton and Business Editor, Bernard Ginns.

For more details, visit www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/excellence