The award was presented to managing director Sharon Richens and operations manager Jenny Jubb by Young’s mayor Stuart Freudenstein at the business awards dinner held at the Young Services Club on Friday night.

In front of the audience of 235 people Sharon thanked her team, congratulated the other finalists in this year’s awards and also credited her mentors, local business people Rob and Justine Back, for their support.

“If it hadn’t been for them I wouldn’t be here,” she said.

The awards night, which also saw seven other winners step onto the stage to receive the prestigious gongs, has been hailed a huge success, highlighted also by the presence of special guest speaker television presenter Catriona Rowntree.

Ms Rowntree spoke about her family connections to the district and the passion she personally had for the area describing the Young district and people as inspiring.

She said as she returns to the shire from time-to-time she is always seeing some sort of progress, “whether that be the streetscape, new signage, cultural event or businesses moving.”

Awards spokesman Dean Kinlyside said the response he had from guests to the awards night was overwhelmingly positive.

“There was such a diverse mix of finalists which reflected the depth of the business community and the whole night was what we wanted it to be – a celebration of their achievements,” he said.

“You’d be hard pressed not to feel inspired, impressed and excited about the future of business in this town as you walked away from that,” he said.