Some months ago Martin, our Production Manager, entered us for the Somerset Business Awards 2009.  There are various categories and he entered us for Exporter of the Year and Best Business with 5-50 Employees.  As reported earlier on the Blog we were judged by no less than Patricia Marks, Chair of the Federation of Small Businesess, and a week or so back a group of students from Bridgwater College came and did lots of filming.  Then we got our invite to the posh Awards Dinner - only short-listed companies were invited - and the tension started to mount!

Bosses, Hilary and Tony, and a group of us decided to make a party of it - win or lose we were going to have a good time!  We all spent some time and money in the preparation as most of us hadn't worn seriously smart gear for ages.  Easy for the boys, just a trip to Marion Baker's shop in Yeovil to hire their DJs, less easy for us girls.  What constitutes evening dress in this day and age?  Long dresses or skirts?  Personally I don't do long frocks, they make me look like Florence from the Magic Roundabout, so I consulted the internet and discovered that a cocktail dress (on the knee if you please!) or mid-length was acceptable.  Thank heavens for the Debretts website and Per Una!

The fateful day arrived and we closed the office at 1pm (sorry folks!) and departed to primp and preen for our evening out.  The taxi collected Hilary & Tony, myself, and Jane (who runs the Helpline) at the end of the afternoon from Downclose Farm and the rest of the folk who were still working came to see us off on our journey to collect Martin from Yeovil, Nick (our Warehouse Manager), and Janice (our Accountant).

The Awards Dinner was held at the Junction 24 Business Centre and the evening was outstanding, made all the better by Hilton Herbs becoming Somerset Exporter of the Year 2009, beating off competition from Avalon Science and Cuddledry.  We were so thrilled and were easily the noisiest in our celebrations, everyone else was very discreet.  After watching the lovely video that the boys from Bridgwater had made, Hilary, Tony, and Martin (well, it was his idea!) went up to the collect the trophy and Hilary made her hastily prepared acceptance speech!  We also came third in the category for Business of the Year 5-50 Employees, which was great!

A very proud H & T with the Exporter of the Year award

It was a fabulous evening with an outstanding buffet dinner with ingredients entirely sourced in Somerset, together with entertainment from students at Somerset Arts & Technology College who treated us to a great song and dance programme.

So now we are back home, DJs and dresses packed away for the next occasion, life goes back to normal and we plan our campaign for next year - Ecommerce Business of the Year trophy we think!!!