BHCC - Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce

Chamber members made a big impact at the Brighton & Hove Business Awards, with a plethora of accolades.

Members had great successes at the 2009 Brighton & Hove Business Awards with the following awards:

Sussex County Cricket Club: Winner: "Business in the Community" Runner-up:"Best Place to Entertain your Clients"
Makemedia: Winner: "Business Growth"
Crunch.co.uk: Winner: "Innovation in Business"

In Brighton and Hove alone Sussex County Cricket Club’s Street20 project has over 250 young people in areas of social deprivation playing competitive cricket on a weekly basis. Street20 is fast, furious, fun and accessible.  It has proved a huge engagement tool for young people with no previous experience of cricket or indeed sport. The SCCC community initiative makes a genuine difference to anti-social behaviour figures, young people’s health and creates training and employment opportunities.

Tim Marks, Community Manager, said: “I’m so happy that the coaches, youth workers and indeed the kids have been recognised for their hard work and enthusiasm. This is only the start of something that can make a difference for years to come.”

Makemedia invested heavily in infrastructure earlier in the year, not only in technology but in management and employee skillsets, to enable them to deliver future projects effectively. In presenting the awards, judges commented on how impressed they were with their “clarity of planning and track record of growth”.

The central Brighton based web design, simulation and 3D visualisation specialist, increased turnover in its first 18 months of operation by 100 percent and a further 200 percent in the last year. George Longfoot, General Manager said “At Makemedia our passion for the business, strong vision for the future and our highly valued partner agencies and customers have given us the platform for growth. In the coming year we hope to build on our strategy and relationships to continue the success of the business”

Crunch.co.uk is aimed specifically at freelancers and contractors, and is the UK’s first combined online accounting system and practice – a fully automated online service backed up by an integrated chartered accountancy practice - for which customers pay a fixed monthly fee.

“We are a business that relies on innovation – we’ve taken a traditional industry and turned it on its head; empowering freelancers with a user-friendly and simple system to do their accounts,” said Darren Fell, MD of Crunch.co.uk. “To be been recognised for our unique contribution to the accounting industry at the Brighton and Hove Business Awards is a great way to demonstrate our points of difference to customers.”