On Saturday evening, the Clarence Valley Business Excellence Awards celebrated small business within the Clarence Valley Local Government area.

Every year, the Awards Committee invites entries into multiple categories to showcase business excellence within the Clarence Valley, and this year, more winners than ever were able to progress straight through to the Northern Rivers Regional Awards.

These entries are assessed by a panel of volunteer Judges who are experts in business and leaders in their field. All entries are visited by two of these Judges, then the complete panel determines the category winners and the prestigious Business of the Year.

This year, the committee were pleased to announce Maclean Podiatry Centre is the 2019 Clarence Valley Business of the Year.

The committee also have a new entrant into the Hall of Fame. This award is given to the successful business or individual who has won the same category over three years. Once admitted, the inductee will be unable to enter that same category next year. The Hall of Fame inductee for 2019, is Outstanding Young Employee winner Chloe Clark from Addictive Hair and Beauty.

Our Daily Examiner People’s Choice awards, are determined by the residents of the Valley who nominate, then vote for their favourite business and employee. This year’s People’s Choice Business is Hotel Motel 5 of South Grafton and the Valley’s favourite employee is Jenny Marsh of the Grafton Medical Centre.

Two years ago, the committee introduced the perpetual Spiro Notaras Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is presented to the individual in business for their achievements not only within their business, but also within their communities. This year,

the Committee were pleased to be able to present this award to Bob and Judith Little of SPAR Maclean.

Like other programs of this calibre, our Awards would not happen without the support of our sponsors Service NSW, Clarence Valley Council, ETC, Family Dental Yamba, Findex, Grafton Chamber of Commerce, Grafton TAFE, Maclean District Business Chamber, Mareeba Aged Care, Safe Work NSW, Yamba Chamber of Commerce and media sponsors radio 2GF/104.7 and The Daily Examiner.