Search on to find North stars of business world

Aug 13 2008 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE search is on to find the stars of the North East business world in our prestigious North East Business Executive of the Year Awards 2008.

The winner of the Tees Valley award last year was James Dickson, chief executive of Stockton-based Brulines, which makes and sells specialist pub performance monitoring equip- ment.

Brulines increased pre-tax profits by 75.7% to £4.17m in the year to March 31, 2008, and analysts of the publicly quoted firm forecast £5.2m profits on £20m turnover next year. The company has invested £3m in new offices and completed a £3.8m acquisition of North Yorkshire-based Nucleus Data Holdings. It expects to have recruited 80 staff to its 200-strong workforce by the end of this year.

The company’s monitoring products not only help pub operators improve the quality of beer but importantly in a tough time for the industry, it allows them to thoroughly check how well their beer sales business is operating.

The awards, which are organised by The Journal and its Teesside sister paper the Evening Gazette, will recognise three winners from each of the sub-regions, Tees Valley, Durham and Wearside and Tyneside and Northumberland and the overall North East winner will be picked from these.

It is 25 years since the awards were launched and to mark a quarter century of success we are launching a new category. The inaugural North East Non-executive Director of the Year Award aims to recognise the key contribution that non-executive directors play in businesses across the North East. There is a lifetime achievement award and a trophy for the North East Young Business Person of the Year.

The accolades have attracted the backing of major sponsors, including Dickinson Dees, CBI, Miller, Baker Tilly, North Star, Newcastle University, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, University of Teesside Business School, University of Newcastle Business School, Knight Frank and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Nominations will be considered by a judging panel which this year includes One NorthEast director of business and industry Ian Williams, Brewin Dolphin, North East Chamber of Commerce chief executive James Ramsbotham, CBI North East regional chairman Bob Davies, Storeys SSP director John Irwin, Brewin Dolphin divisional director Vinay Bedi, Bank of England regional agent David Buffham, Trinity Mirror North East managing director Steve Brown, Journal assistant editor (business) Andrew Hebden, North East business journalist Brian Nicholls, Evening Gazette business editor Sue Scott and Journal business editor Iain Laing. The winners will be announced at the Newcastle Marriott Hotel, Gosforth Park, on Thursday, October 30. To book a table, or for further information, log on to www.nebusiness.co.uk/businessexec or contact Kirsty Tam on (0191) 201-6072 or email kirsty.tam@ncjmedia.co.uk