On Friday 8th February, Verastar was named Business of the Year (Organisations of over 50 Employees) at the Greater Manchester Business Awards 2019. The awards ceremony took place at the impressive Imperial War Museum North with a backdrop of over 2,000 objects dating back as far as the First World War.
The Greater Manchester Business Awards, now in their third year, pride themselves on their fair and transparent process with an independent judging panel of business leaders, directors and experts from a range of industries, size and scope.
The category of Business of the Year featured three awards – Organisations under 10 Employees, 10-50 Employees, and over 50 Employees – and looked for companies who met a range of criteria including growth, overachieving against competitors, innovation in industry, training and development and a fantastic business strategy.
This year was the first time Verastar entered the Greater Manchester Business Awards and we were honoured to be named a finalist against worthy competition from around the region across various industries including BJSS, Benchmark International, cartime, Equilibrium Asset Management and Purple WiFi Ltd.
The black-tie awards ceremony started off with a drinks reception, a warm welcome from Greatest Hits Radio DJ host Darren Proctor followed by a three-course dinner with entertainment from String Infusion. The 12 awards were then given out by members of the judging panel culminating in the Business of the Year (Organisations of Over 50 Employees) and Verastar was delighted to be named the winner.
Since we started out in 1998, Verastar has gone from strength to strength providing essential services to the SME market. Through our brands kinex, Clear Business, Unicom, Woav and our sister company The Insurance Octopus, we now provide telecoms, broadband, mobile, gas, electricity, water and insurance services to over 160,000 small businesses nationwide. We service customers nationwide, though we are proud of our Manchester roots. We currently employ more than 1000 colleagues, with over 600 based at our three Manchester offices so to be recognised by this prestigious award is a real company milestone.
On winning Business of the Year, CEO Chris Earle comments:
‘Verastar through our brands has consistently had a strong performance record, thanks to our unique offering which consolidates multiple business services on a one-bill solution. We are proud to be born and bred in Manchester and that we have been able to take our solutions nationwide through our sales-oriented approach and acquisitions. To be celebrated for our progress and named Business of the Year is a brilliant achievement and testament to the hard work from all the team, not only in the last year but since we started 20 years ago.’
Thank you to innov8 Conference Services for having us at such a well organised and fun evening. And well done to all the finalists and winners in this year’s Greater Manchester Business Awards!
Would you like to work for Greater Manchester’s Business of the Year? Visit our Careers page to see the range of opportunities available.
