2009 Annual Business for Breakfast Awards Winners

Business For Breakfast (BforB), one of the UK's leading networking organisations, celebrated the very best of the region's most ambitious businesses with its coveted Annual Awards evening for members.

The awards, now in its 4th year, recognise its members and the cream of the business industry for their achievements within the BforB network.  Hosted by TV presenter and celebrity guest, Zilpah Hartley, the awards were held at Lancashire County Cricket Club in Manchester with over 200 representatives from the UK's elite SME sector in attendance.

With nine categories, it is a platform for successful organisations and their people within, to be commended for their input to the 148 strong BforB networking groups and over 1700 members across the UK - groups which provide a structured and supportive forum for developing referred business of all types and sizes which increase sales, attract new clients and add value to the bottom line for members.

The 2009 winners within each category are:

Best New Member of the Year (Sponsored by RTR Productions Ltd) - Russ Hirst of the Montpelier Group Limited.

Venue of the Year (Sponsored by Daxic) - Scott Brown and the Marirott Worsely Park Hotel & Country Club

Executive Host of the Year (Sponsored by Stratstone Aston Martin) - Derrick Cameron of Eximium Limited.

Coordinator of the Year (Sponsored by Budget-Rent-a-Skip) - Sharon Nash of Simpson, Burgess & Nash

Moderator of the Year (Sponsored by Innovation Forum) - Rory Alkin of Ratio Search and Selection

Executive Team of the Year (Sponsored by Auto Trader Bids)- Stuart Ramsay, Kate William and Barbara Dinsdale from the Business for Breakfast Leeds Executive team.

Referral Master of the Year (Sponsored by Demolition Direct) - Christine Thorpe of Digital Telecom Airtime

Franchisee of the Year (Sponsored by PB Sydall & Co)- Ryan Tobias, Franchisee for Luton

Member of the Year (Sponsored by Cuckoo Design Digital) - Kara Rose of Kara Rose PR

John Fisher, founder of Business for Breakfast, said: "Each of our members work incredibly hard throughout the year to make BforB what it is and these awards allow us to reward and recognise the impact and ongoing contribution that these local business people make to the BforB network to keep it at the forefront of the UK business arena.

"We all know that 2008 proved to be more of a challenging year on the business front, but we believe that this is even more reason to gain credibility and build stronger relationships with business peers in order for businesses to thrive through quality networking and referrals."