This year’s awards take place at Kesgrave Hall on Thursday, September 29 and feature on the theme of “growth” as firms look to the future, and will recognise businesses and individuals across 12 categories.

Four finalists in each category were announced at the end of August, covering a wide range of businesses from solicitors and hair salons, to electric vehicle charging and logistics.

Comedian Mark Watson will bring the fun to the celebration event, as he performs a comedy set ahead of hosting the awards.

Victoria Blake, director of commercial events and projects at Archant, the organisers of the awards, said: “We are really looking forward to this year’s Suffolk Business Awards. After another difficult year we are excited to bring together and celebrate the success of the Suffolk business community.

“It is always a fantastic night and we are delighted to welcome Mark as our host this year, who I have no doubt will bring a lot of humour and fun to the proceedings.”

Mark’s recent TV credits include QI (BBC2), Taskmaster (Dave) and Bear Grylls’ Celebrity Island (Channel 4).

The Edinburgh Festival award winner and Time Out critic’s choice, Mark has been the face of shows such as BBC Four’s We Need Answers and BBC Radio 4’s Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better. He has also appeared on Mock The Week, Celebrity Pointless, Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You?, Live At The Apollo and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala.

Not only a stand-up, Mark has written seven novels: Bullet Points (2004), A Light-Hearted Look At Murder (2007), Eleven (2010), The Knot (2012), Hotel Alpha (2014), The Place That Didn’t Exist (2016) and Contacts (2020). In 2017, his graphic novel Dan and Sam was purchased by Amblin, Steven Spielberg’s studio, for a possible film adaptation.

In 2020 he arranged and hosted The Watsonathon, a 24-hour online show which raised over £44,000 in aide of FareShare, Hospice Income Generation Network, and the Nextup Comedy Heckle The Virus fund. He will also be on tour with his latest show, How You Can Almost Win, which was inspired by his time on Bear Gryll’s Celebrity Island.

For more information about the Suffolk Business Awards visit www.suffolkbusinessawards.co.uk

Suffolk Business Awards 2022 finalists

Customer Excellence Award - sponsored by Greater Anglia

• Kingsfleet Wealth
• The Lion Brasserie
• MAD-HR
• Red7Marine

Director of the Year - sponsored by Churchmanor Estates Compaby plc

• Brian Keane – Cameron Ventures Group
• Jake Nicholls – Tru7
• Olly Magnus – Magnus Group
• Tom West – RentMy

Education in Business Award - sponsored by Suffolk New College

• Ellisons Solicitors
• Morgan Sindall Construction
• Offshore NRG
• Scrutton Bland

Employer of the Year - sponsored by Birketts and Pure Executive

• Access Community Trust
• Chestnut
• Gressingham Foods
• Orwell Housing Association

Environmental & Sustainability Award - sponsored by Lovell

• Beckett Investment Management Group
• Denny Bros
• KOcycle
• Precision Marketing Group

Growth Business of the Year - sponsored by Ashtons

• Geosense
• Halo Service Solutions
• Magnus Group
• Unity Online

Innovation Award - sponsored by University of Suffolk

• Aquagrain
• DanceEast
• RentMy
• Roadfill

Small Business of the Year - sponsored by JM Finn

• 6 Alpha Associates
• MAD-HR
• Ocala Healthcare
• WeHost

Medium Business of the Year - sponsored by Pound Gates

• Bridge Classic Cars
• Hair Ministry
• Paddy & Scott’s
• Unity Online

Large Business of the Year - sponsored by Larking Gowen

• CamdenBoss
• EO Charging
• Precision Marketing Group
• Tru7 Group

Young Entrepreneur of the Year - sponsored by Cory Brothers

• Ellis Heighes – Queue Technology
• Ricardo Markin – Greyhound Creative
• Millie Homewood – Millie Rose Salon
• Jake Slinn – JS Global Group

Suffolk Business of the Year - sponsored by Suffolk Chamber of Commerce and Sizewell C

The winner of Suffolk Business of the Year will be selected from the other category winners.