THE winners of the 25th Wiltshire Business Awards were announced at a glitzy ceremony at Centre Parcs on Friday night.

Judges narrowed down hundreds of entries into a set of finalists which they then visited before making the difficult decision of who should win and

The winners made emotional acceptance speeches after the runners-up in third and second place enjoyed a moment in the spotlight and had their photos taken.

The entire team of Bechtle Direct Ltd came up on stage to celebrate their win of the Outstanding Excellence Award after NCAB Group came third and Appsbroker Ltd came second. Award sponsors Thrings also praised the Royal Wootton Bassett Rugby and Football Club and Niche Recruitment.

H M Hairdressing won the Start Up Business of the Year award, which was sponsored by the Enterprise Network at Swindon Borough Council. Truck School Swindon came third and Rays Manufacturing Ltd came second.

Gooding Accounts won gold in the BBC Wiltshire Services to the Community Award, while Royal Wootton Bassett Rugby got the silver medal and Football Club infiLED Ltd bagged the bronze.

The Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Award sponsored by MAN Trucks went to Green Machine Computers Ltd, with Boxes and Packaging Swindon Ltd and NCAB Group as runners-up.

Juice Recruitment awarded the Customer and Staff Care Award to Appsbroker Ltd and picked Gooding Accounts to be the runners-up and Bluebird Care for third place.

Bespoke Training sponsored the Learning and Development Employer of the Year, which went to Apple A Day Supply, narrowly beating Greenmachine Computing and Stimulus Consulting.

Appsbroker Ltd won the Natwest Medium-Sized Business of the Year award, while NCAB Group came second and Walter Rose and Sons came third.

The new Micro Business of the Year award, sponsored by the Enterprise Network, went to Miles Window Systems, with Emerald Florence Ltd in second place and Purpol Marketing in third.

Bechtle Direct Ltd is officially the Best Business to Work For according to judges from award sponsors Imagine Cruising, who were also impressed by NCAB Group and Priority IT.

C3 Marketing hailed Niche Recruitment as the winners of the Small Business of the Year award, closely followed by runners-up Gooding Accounts Ltd and Stimulus Consulting Ltd.

The competitive Business Person of the Year award. sponsored by RSM, had three winners: Emerald Crawford of Emerald Florence Ltd won the small business category, Nick Evans of Safewell Ltd won the medium business category, and Howard Goff of NCAB Group won the large business category.

Congratulations, everyone!

A full gallery of photos will be online soon and interviews with the winners will be in Monday's Advertiser.