A BUMPER year was the best yet as Slough celebrated its business success.

The Slough Business Awards was held on Thursday last week and more than 250 people attended the gala dinner to commend the achievements of businesses in the region.

There were 18 winners at the awards evening held at the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 5 Hotel in Colnbrook, and the organisers were delighted with how it went.

Rafiq Chohan, Slough Business Awards chairman, said: “The turnout was great and we were really pleased that we had so many more finalists and winners than ever.

“There is no doubt it was the best one yet.”

A silent auction raised more than £1,000 for Slough Refugee Support, the awards’ charity partner, and guests were entertained by Tim Oliver and Brett Sirells – impersonators of David Brent and Gareth Keenan from the Slough-based comedy series The Office.

Councillor Rob Anderson, leader of Slough Borough Council, and Clare Harbord, corporate affairs director at Heathrow Airport, were the keynote speakers.

Winners on the night included The Flatman Partnership, which won the Entrepreneur of the Year and SME Business of the Year awards, Learning to Work, which won Community Based Business of the Year, and Mars Chocolate, which won Corporate Business of the Year.

The Business of the Year crown went to wnDirect, while Blackthorn International Transport was highly commended.

Mr Chohan is already looking to next year’s awards and how to continue to increase its success and appeal.

He said: “Each year we try and tweak it here and there and we managed to get all of the finalists to have their photo taken.

“We would like to do something so we can say more about each finalist but that is about managing the timings.

“We raised a good amount of money for Slough Refugee Support, but some of the auction prizes were maybe out of reach for some of the guests, there were some great things there.

“We could probably introduce a raffle as well as the auction, and we have learned from that this year.”

BPO Connect UK and AKD Facilities Management won the two Start Up Business of the Year categories, while AKD Facilities also scooped the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The Micro Business of the Year was Cross Fit Slough, Excellence in Export was Baldwin UV and the Skills Award was given to Resource Productions.

Aston Bond won the Employer of the Year and High Growth Business of the Year awards, with wnDirect winning the Innovation Award and Kim van Dongen from eDivert winning Female Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Food Hygiene Excellence Awards for large business and independents went to McDonalds and Chicken Delite respectively.