Today saw the official launch of Inspire 08 at The Anvil in Basingstoke, with speeches from Councillor George Hood, Mayor of Basingstoke; Phil Wilding of Business Link; James Hague of last years Business of the Year - Daisy’s Dairy (pictured) - and Andrew Finney, leader of Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council.

Inspire 08 promises to be bigger and better than last years event event for Basingstoke & Deane, with seminars and network opportunities with the highlight being the Inspire 08 Business Awards, with four added categories for 2008 to cover:

• Business of the Year
• Exporter of the Year
• Rural Business of the Year
• Sustainable Business of the Year
• E-Business of Year
• Basingstoke Business Personality of the Year
• New Business of the Year
• Business Woman of the Year
• Employer of the Year

Basingstoke-based businesses are being encouraged to enter the Inspire 08 Business Awards with some encouraging words from James Hague, who spoke about the opportunities his business had derived from winning last years award.

As ever, the event will be covered heavily in The Gazette and there is also the Inspire website, with contact details for your business entry, or for sponsor opportunities and table reservations for the event.

Picture below, Councillor Andrew Finney.

Via The Basingstoke Gazette (Monday 3rd December) the winners from last weeks Inspire 07 Business Awards are:

• Business of the year - Daisy’s Dairy
• E-Business of The Year - What’s On 4 Little Ones
• Young Entrepreneur of the year - Peter Sherwood and Steve Malone of Infosec Technologies
• Exporter of The Year - Vectair
• Rural Business of the year - Hampshire Cheeses
• Sustainable Business of the year - Greenhouse Graphics

You can see a video about the event on the Gazette website.

Winterthur has won three top awards at the Financial Adviser Service Awards 2007, a glittering ceremony hosted by Clive Anderson at The Natural History Museum in London.

Winterthur won the most highly prized title of the ceremony - that of Company of the Year - for its consistently high service standards and award-winning performance in all categories - an unprecedented second-time win for the company.

The awards ceremony celebrates the best in financial providers’ service provision as voted for by more than 5000 Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs).

The highest main awards bestowed on the night were the respected and recognised five star ratings - an accolade which has become recognised as a benchmark within the retail financial services marketplace, including life and pensions companies, mortgage providers and investment providers.

In these awards Winterthur scooped:

• Five Star award for ‘Life and Pensions Providers’ for the sixth consecutive year
• Five Star award for ‘Investment Providers’ for the third year running.

David Thompson, Managing Director Winterthur Wealth Management said

Service excellence is a key differentiator for Winterthur and this success I believe is a reflection of our commitment to provide outstanding customer service. It is also clear that Winterthur’s overall market proposition – aligned to quality IFAs and their high net worth clients, backed with a simple, transparent and exceptional product range - has also helped us achieve such success as these prestigious awards.

Mike Kellard, CEO, AXA & Winterthur Wealth Management, said:

Winning these awards is excellent news. I am proud that the company has won this top industry award, which was achieved with the support of the entire team at Winterthur.