Gallery: Food festival chief had recipe for success
A woman who helped organise the most successful food festival in the area has been honoured in The News Business Excellence Awards.
The efforts of Lulu Bowerman in organising the Emsworth Food Festival and galvanising ag roup of volunteers to create an event that celebrates local produce have won her the title of Business Personality of the Year.
She was cheered as she walked up to the stage to accept her award from Robin Dickens, of award sponsor Lambert Smith Hampton.
A clearly stunned Mrs Bowerman said: 'I didn't think I would get this.
'It's great getting this award, but the festival wouldn't have happened without my team of volunteers.
'It's for all the volunteers that I'm accepting this award - I'm accepting this on behalf of the committee.
'We were up against a few obstacles this year but we came through it.'
These obstacles mean the festival will be smaller in future years.
Ms Bowerman was one of many happy trophy winners whose successful companies and enterprises were celebrated within the area's business community.
The event, which was held at Portsmouth Guildhall, is the highlight of the year for the business community.
It involved nearly 550 guests - made up of mayors, company leaders and representatives of leading business organisations who were there to network and more importantly to find out who had won awards in one of the eight categories.
They heard from guest speaker and England Football legend Sir Geoff Hurst - still the only person to have scored a hattrick in a World Cup final - while BBC presenter Sally Taylor compered the evening.
The event, which is sponsored by Business Link, is now into its sixth year.
Chairman of the board of Business Link in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Phil Wilding, said: 'I think these awards are very important - good people in business strive to be the best and I believe we should recognise that.'
Full list of winners
Business of the Year
Winner: Apollo Fire Detectors
Runner-up: Serenity Holidays
Highly-commended: Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
Small Business of the Year
Winner: Triton Scuba
Runner-up: Gardner Security
Highly-commended: Handover HR
Business Personality
Winner: Lulu Bowerman of the Emsworth Food Festival
Runner-up: Mike Keating of Key2 Group
Highly-commended: Caroline Collings of Stafford Rhodes and Alastair Bell of Bell Microsystems
Achiever of the Year
Winner: Iain Morgan of Bladez Toyz
Runner-up: Kirsty Murray of Market Makers
Highly-commended: Bob Evans of Test IT and Chris Adams of RKdia
Team of the Year
Winner: Segensworth Automobiles
Runner-up: Love Albert Road
Highly-commended: LD Lines Portsmouth
Innovation of the Year
Winner: Medaro Medical
Runner-up: LD Lines
Highly-commended: Lewmar Marine
Community Contribution
Winner: Holiday Inn Portsmouth
Runners-up: TJ Waste and Recycling and Hampshire Flag
Exporter of the Year
Winner: Apollo Fire Detectors
Runner-up: VT Group and Hi-Technology Group
Lifetime Achievement
John Butler – former chief executive of Portsmouth Housing Association
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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