Women from across the county were recognised for their success in the business world at the Angels Bring Business Awards, held at Doubletree by Hilton in Lincoln on Friday March 13.
The women only business club was co-founded by Wendy Spalding-Siracusa and Josephine Peacock. Wendy said: “The evening aimed to celebrate successful women in business, and to inspire others into starting their own enterprises.”
Recruitment specialist Amanda Watson was “over the moon” to be named Business Woman of the Year. The Managing Director of Ambitions Personnel, who is more used to giving jobseekers good news, received applause as she collected the Angel on Fire accolade.
Amanda, who started the business in Lincoln, was presented with her award by Sills & Betteridge LLP Managing Partner John Mitchell.
Amanda said: “This year marks the 25th anniversary of the company, which has a turnover of more than £40 million, 12 branches and 70 employees. I am proud to receive this honour, but the award is as much for my colleagues as myself.”
She pipped Belinda Darley of ABC Accounting Services to the top award and she joined five other overall prizewinners.
Kirsty Gale of Branston-based Red Carpet Ready found herself under the spotlight after beating Rachel De Caux and Paula Short of Beauty Boulevard in Lincoln to clinch the Angels Wings Unfurled award – for start-up business of the year.
Kirsty, who dazzled in a gold sequinned gown, received her award from the University of Lincoln’s Head of Business Incubation & Growth, Vicky Addison.
Kirsty said: “In the last 15 months, we have become one of the UK’s biggest dress stockists. We won Prom Queen on Channel 5. Our customers visit us from all over the UK, but we also sell worldwide and we are the nominated dress suppliers for Miss Great Britain and Face of The Globe.”
Sally Baker of Perfect Day Training & Development was equally thrilled when Lincolnshire Police Chief Superintendent Paula Wood presented her with the Angel Outreach Award, sponsored by Lincolnshire Business, which recognises excellence in commitment to the community.
HR Consultant and mum-of-four, Sally set up her business in 2006. In 2009 she got involved with her local Pre-School, Busy Bees in Sutton-on-Trent, putting in place processes and structures which allowed it to operate more efficiently.
“I am enormously proud to win this award. It is also for the staff of Busy Bees and I would also like to dedicate it to my mum Lorna Dyson,” said Sally.
Naomi Watkins of NW Consultancy Solutions was runner-up in this prize category.
The Active Angel Award was split between two winners: Running Imp International Managing Director Faye Yarwood presented the “key contributor to sport” accolade to Michelle Mortimer, who founded Witham St Hughes-based Witham Runners. Kim Baker of Skegness Amateur Swimming Club was runner-up.
Faye then congratulated delighted champion, off-road motorcyclist Emma Bristow, from Alford, as she presented her with the award for “top sportswoman.”
2014 was an amazing year for Emma, whose achievements included becoming World SuperEnduro Champion, World Trials Champion, World Team Trials Champion and Women’s British Trials Champion.
“It is difficult for girls to succeed in motorsport as a whole and the boys get paid so much more than me. It hasn’t always been easy but mum and dad have been there for me the whole time, now they can step back a bit,” she said.
Runner-up in this awards category was Lincoln’s Jade Etherington, the most decorated British female Paralympian in history.
Claire Hall, from Kirton Holme, near Boston, had every excuse to toast herself with a glass of her very own vodka iced tea, when she walked away with the Angel Manna Award – presented by Lincolnshire Chef Rachel Green.
Claire, who has successfully devised a range of award-winning drinks, recently celebrated starting to sell them online via Not On The High Street! Rachel Linstead of Firecracker was runner-up in the Angel Manna award category.
The evening also included a performance by Jan Jack of the Laughter Comedy Club, and the dinner menu featured recipes from the Women for Women International (WfWI) cookbook.
Guest speaker, WfWI Director of Fundraising & Marketing Shivonne Graham showed a short film about the charity – which helps women survivors of war to access the organisation’s life-skills and vocational training programme.
Its aim is to help these women to rebuild their lives and gain the skills and confidence to launch small enterprises which will support their families.
As an ongoing supporter of the charity, the Angels Bring Business Awards, ran a bumper raffle, which raised £625 for WfWI.
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A man has been seen selling eggs next to the recently-erected Margaret Thatcher statue in Grantham, just two days after the monument was pelted by a passer-by at the unveiling over the weekend.
The £300,000 statue of Thatcher has been the talk of the town since it was erected in Grantham, the birthplace of Britain’s first female Prime Minister.
In light of this, a stall has been set up by a national journalist in a spoof stunt, selling eggs for £10 next to the statue.
Oli Dugmore, the head of news and politics at JOE.co.uk, set up his stall on Thursday afternoon, inviting the people of Grantham to “come say hi” by the controversial Margaret Thatcher statue.
It didn’t take long for the authorities to get involved, as a community support officer quickly came to speak to Oli about the stunt, as he amusingly described in a Twitter thread.
The stunt has been received some famous attention online, with Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker saying: “She always said she was a supporter of small businesses.”
The topic of egg throwing and this statue has been well documented for a significant period of time now, as many have argued the controversy and divisiveness surrounding the Iron Lady put the legitimacy of having a statue of her into question.
Greater Lincolnshire’s export market decreased by nearly a fifth in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic, a report before Lincolnshire County Council will say next week.
The report also reveals that Greater Lincolnshire received £467 million of imports from Russia in 2020.
The authority’s Economy and Environment Committee on Tuesday will examine new plans to support greater “internationalisation” and improve the county’s import and export market.
The report has been put together the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, the Department for International Trade and other partners.
“The Greater Lincolnshire economy has an international presence driven by the manufacturing and service sectors of the economy, with businesses exporting and importing goods and services across the globe,” it said.
The aim is to create a Greater Lincolnshire Internationalisation Strategy and Action Plan for 2022-2024 which helps business in the region access and improve their own import and export markets.
Statistics included in the report show that in 2020 the region exported around £4.19billion of commodities, down from £5.18billion pre-pandemic – a drop of 19.11%.
It imported £7.49billion of product, down from £8.55billion – down 14.15%.
Documents supplied to the council, noted that 2020 was seen as an “anomoly year” due to the Covid-19 pandemic and so looked at previous years data as well.
However, it also noted that Leaving the EU was also a factor “impacting upon confidence levels of all exporters”.
“The EU is a key market for GLLEP, many business owners have confirmed that they have temporarily stopped exporting due to actual, and in some case perceived, issues related to new regulation,” said the reports.
A breakdown of Greater Lincolnshire’s exports in 2020. | Image: GLLEP
Across the strategy there are five references to Brexit and three to the pandemic.
Data examined by the authors, shows that the county exports more goods to EU countries compared to the rest of the world, with a 63:37% split in 2015.
In 2017, 43.9% of Lincolnshire’s products and services were exported to the EU.
In 2020 our biggest export trade partners were the Netherlands (£548m) , Germany £353m), USA (£331m), Belgium (£299m)and Ireland (£295m).
Our greatest imports were from Norway (£949m), Netherlands (£732m), China (£711m), Germany (£617m) and Russia (£467m).
Council bosses will more than likely welcome the Chinese imports as they have looked to court the country to invest in the county in recent years.
However, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine business leaders will likely be keeping a wary eye on the figures around the Vladimir Putin’s state.
Measures in the report before councillors next week lay out how the GLLEP and the DIT will arrange advisors for local businesses, take advantage of freeports such as those in the Humber, create Peer to Peer networks and utilise technology to share market information easier.
“The enclosed draft is considered a robust, forward thinking and effective plan to support Greater Lincolnshire’s exporters and importers (both existing and aspiring) over the next two financial years,” said officers.
“It brings together both the best of existing support, and in addition strategically coordinates the extensive range of internal and external resources and partners to provide and effective, efficient, and well promoted support to Greater Lincolnshire’s importers and exporters.”
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