The region's brightest business sparks were dressed to the nines and took a rare evening off from the daily grind on Thursday as they gathered at the Hampshire Court Hotel to celebrate the successes of the past year.

Despite the challenging circumstances of the past 18 months, businesses from across North Hampshire turned out in force to share their success stories.

Winners were crowned in 13 categories, including RazorSecure, named Winner of Winners as the most inspirational of the victors in the ceremony.

RazorSecure is a young tech company based in Basingstoke working on cyber security for the rail network, having won the Excellence in Digital Technology Award earlier in the evening.

"RazorSecure are a company that provides vital security to much of the country’s rail network, their solution uses artificial intelligence," said Bill Browne from LocaliQ, the marketing firm behind the Basingstoke Gazette and Andover Advertiser, sponsors of the Digital Excellence Award.

"They have grown significantly in recent years and the prospect of them scaling even further is mouth-watering as they have few competitors."

“The judges all agreed that RazorSecure would be exceptional ambassadors for Inspire and an example of how Hampshire can be held up as a seedbed and pioneer of innovation in sectors and technologies, and deserving recipients of this overall winner award”, agreed John Biffen, Partner at Menzies and sponsor of the Winner of Winners Award.

The full winners on the night were:

  • Large Business of the Year - Reassured
  • Medium Business of the Year - Wildflower Turf
  • Small Business of the Year - Safe Hands Bookkeeping
  • New Business of the Year - Swagpack
  • Business and the Community - The Designlab
  • Employer of the Year - Basingstoke Citizens Advice Bureau
  • Innovation for Growth Award - Centerprise International
  • Service Excellence award - Dignity Pet Crematorium
  • Young Business Person of the Year - Laura Fisher
  • Environmental Responsibility Award - Disastercare
  • Wellbeing at Work Award - GDS Instruments
  • Excellence Digital Technology Award - RazorSecure
  • Winner of Winners - RazorSecure