The team behind Burnham-On-Sea’s food and drink festival are celebrating after hearing the news that they have been shortlisted for a top regional award.
eat:Burnham is one of nine Somerset rural businesses to have made it through to the regional finals of an awards event celebrating enterprise in the countryside.
Now in their fourth year, the Rural Business Awards, sponsored by Amazon, recognise the contribution of firms to the regional and national economy and are the only UK-wide business awards specifically for the rural sector.
They reward excellence across a range of categories, including start-ups, manufacturing, food and drink, retail, education and training, and rural professional services, with 13 awards up for grabs.
The south west regional final, which covers the counties of Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Wilshire takes place at Bath Racecourse, on October 18th and the national finals are in February, 2019.
Festival organiser Sarah Milner Simonds told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “Recognition for the effort we put in year round to make the festivals welcoming, safe and meeting our community goals is really welcome.”
“We are a really small team and this finalist status is evidence that we are punching above our weight in terms of economic impact regionally.”
“The other finalists in the ‘Rural Social Enterprise, Charity or Community Project of the Year’ category are all fantastic projects and we are flattered to be competing alongside them. We would like to offer our congratulations to sponsor Old Mill Accounting who are also shortlisted in their category.”
Food and Drink specialist Phil Mills added: “Old Mill is thrilled to have been shortlisted for the Rural Business Awards and it’s a credit to our team that we are able to provide such a tailored service to our clients. And it’s not just us who have made the shortlist, congratulations to Bev and Sarah at Eat:Festivals for being nominated for the awards too.”
“Our food and drink team have developed a fantastic partnership with them over the past few years and it has been great to see how we are able to combine our approaches to help support the rural and food & drink industries.”
Doug Gurr, Amazon UK country manager, congratulated those firms in the south west to have won through. “The Rural Business Awards recognise and reward rural businesses and we pay tribute to the real positive impact they have in contributing to the local and national economy. We look forward to welcoming all the finalists to the event at Bath Racecourse.”
