Help make Ilkley Brewery the People’s Choice

The Mary Jane brewer is shortlisted in the final of the Local Business Accelerators (LBA) competition and with enough votes it could emerge as the People’s Choice. The business is one of 12 in the grand final of the LBA. The overall winner, who will get mentoring from Deborah Meaden of BBC show Dragons’ Den, will be announced later this month.

But in the meantime, members of the public can go online to vote for their favourite finalist before midnight on June 24, with the People’s Choice being announced alongside the LBA’s overall winner. LBA is a Newspaper Society initiative to boost Britain’s most promising new businesses, which has been supported by 500 newspapers, including the Yorkshire Post. Overall, more than 3,100 young businesses across the UK applied for a place on the LBA scheme, and panels of business people judged the entries.

Our panel picked the Ilkley Brewery, telecoms specialist Liquid Voice Systems and cake maker ProperMaid out of 52 entries received by the Yorkshire Post. They won free advertising with the newspaper and mentoring, while the Ilkley Brewery was selected to compete in the national final.

The brewery has gone from strength to strength since it was founded in 2009. Today, it produces the equivalent of 45,000 pints per week, using six fermentation vessels. It is on track to hit £1.2m turnover this year, and as well as its main market, which is local pubs, the business supplies the likes of Asda, Morrisons and Booths. It also recently won a contract with Harvey Nichols, which includes the supply of its iconic OXO Tower Restaurant in London.

Visit this site to help decide who is named the People’s Choice.