RETAILERS could be walking away with an honour next year as the Oxfordshire Business Awards expand.

Awards chairman Paul Lowe, operations director of Darbys Solicitors LLP, said a retail award had been discussed for some years but there had been a lack of sponsors.

But for 2015, the awards’ 21st year, Inchcape Mercedes Benz will sponsor the inaugural retail prize.

It is one of three new sponsors for the 2015 awards: the others being Owen Mumford, which won the Oxfordshire Business of the Year Award in 2013, and Chiltern Railways.

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The competition has 14 sponsors, including the Oxford Mail’s sister paper, The Oxford Times, and a total of 14 categories.

Entries close on February 27, 2015.

Mr Lowe said: “The real key to success is the support of the sponsors both financially and the time they give up to attend committee meetings and of course visit entrants to decide on finalists and winners.”

The awards attracted about 320 entries this year, which was down about 10 per cent on 2013’s numbers, and organisers are hoping for an increase next year.

Neil O’Regan, managing director of Shawcity, a past winner of the Small Business of the Year Award, said: “Receiving third-party recognition of our achievements gives the perfect platform to develop and strengthen our business into 2015.

“The awards evening is now a pivotal part of our year and we have enjoyed many fantastic evenings and made a lot of new friends along the way.”

The 2015 awards were launched on Thursday at the Inchcape Mercedes-Benz Oxford dealership in Kidlington.

Sponsors will decide on the three finalists for each of the prize categories on May 6, 2015.

The gala awards dinner, which attracts about 500 people, will be held at the Oxford Thames Four Pillars Hotel at Sandford-on- Thames on June 19, 2015.

The largest single source for new entries is the awards’ Twitter handle @OxBizAwards (the #tag is #oxbizawards), which now has about 3,000 followers, said organisers.

The individual award categories are for: innovation; charity and community; digital innovation; export; small business; young business person of the year; business person of the year; new business; apprenticeship of the year; large business; marketing excellence; cultural events and tourism; employer of the year; retail.

The biggest award is the Oxfordshire Business of the Year.

Entry forms are available at oxfordshirebusinessawards.co.uk

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