We were lucky (I suppose you make your own luck) to be shortlisted for the 2010 Pendle Business Awards, although this time it was for "Business person of the Year". We had enetered for "Small Business of the Year" but (even with extremely strong trading results) for some reason the shortlisting never occurred. Hey Ho - to be recognised at this level is damn good anyway so there !

The awards ceremony and dinner was held at the ACE centre in Nelson (which is superb by the way) and it was a real "Red Carpet" do - yes.......there was a red carpet in the reception area !! This was a first - very special !

The reception was very nice - champagne, canapes and everyone dressed up to the nines.

So - onto the dinner - the room was beuatifully dressed, the food and wine excellent and the service superb.

Speeches were made by the leader of Pendle council - Councillor John David, the New High Sherrif of Lancashire Dennis Mendoros and Stephen Barnes - the Chief Executive of Pendle Council. Zilpah Hartley (a daughter of Pendle herself and a national TV presenter) hosted the whole evening.

So - did we win ? Did we continue with our trail of success ? Were we drinking champagne long into the night revelling in the adulation of Pendle's Business Community ?

Well the answer im afraid was NO !!!! "Oh no !"  I hear you gasp !!! Harvey Environmental not winning ??? Unheard of !!

No - we didn't win - we were "Highly Commended" - I think that's in the same bracket as "Close, but no cigar"

Lee Collins from Hillendale Land Rover won the award with Martin Harvey and Karen Shaw (from Loop Publishing) being "Highly Commended"

So - what do we do now ? Sulk (well maybe a little), Take our Bat and Ball home and not play again ? Tell the world where to stick it ? Send threatening letters to the judges (tempting that one) - of course we dont ! We have 2 years to put together performances that will put us in with a chance of winning a raft of "Pendles" - the plan is to bounce back with not just outstanding business performance that will take people's breath away but to perfom brillinatly in all of the criterea we possibly can do. We're not just going to go for one award, we're going to target 4 or 5 of the little blighters !!!!

Alan Brown and Debbie Kovacs accompanied Martin and Sue Harvey to the award ceremony - I think it's safe to say that Alan especially had a memorable night (actually that's not true, I don't think he can remember much of it at all !) - Alan looked very smart (in a Mothercare sort of way) and Debbie provided the 1940's look - mixed with some modern "Wow" factor.

So - onwards and upwards to the Pendle Business Awards 2012 !!!!

Oh no - we've got an audit next week !.......................

Nowadays it seems that everyone is being audited - the customer is looking for the perfect product at the right price and an audit is there to make sure that the agreed systems of manufacture and quality are being adhered to.

We deal with a large number of clients that are subject to audits and we have moulded our management of our Special Reporting System to fit our clients operating style and needs. it works well and we have recieved many plaudits from our customers and our customer's auditors for the way that we deliver and manage our services.

We decided to add to this last month and so we sent Technical Inspector Jane King and Service Supervisor Phil Sidorewic on a specialised Client Auditing course - the idea being to be bang up to date with what auditors look for so we can further help our customers.

The course was excellent and we have already been able to use our newly updated knowledge to good effect.