Article Date: 17-11-2009

After a year of significant growth that has followed our victory in the Innovation category of the Lancashire Telegraph Business Awards in 2008, Merc has once again been short listed for the 2009 edition of the prestigious awards in 2 different categories: "We're backing business", and "Training & Development".

The panel of judges composed of members of key companies in Lancashire including Business Links, NWDA, BAE Systems and Cobham to name but a few, has recognized the efforts that were made at Merc since last November not only to survive the current recession, but to grow out of it. Merc ended their last financial year with an outstanding 32% growth in Turnover thanks to massive investments in capital equipment and new personnel as well as a strong Sales and Marketing Campaign which has enabled us to win 25 new customers in a wide range of industries such as Defence, Motorsport, Aerospace and Medical.

One of the other key factors of our success was our commitment to continuous improvement and staff training as we have been working closely with Training Provider such as the Manufacturing Institute, Training 2000, Lancaster and Leeds Universities and NWAA to offer a wide range of trainings to around 80% of our employees.

We were very pleased to see our efforts in these fields pay off by being short listed as one of the final 3 contestants in these very competitive awards.

As every year, the competition will be tough as Merc is opposed to large companies such as Moorhouse Brewery and Obas UK for the "we're backing Business Category". Calico Housing and Aircelle (Merc's mentor company in the ASCE programme) will be opposing us in the Training & Development category.

The results will be announced on the 20/11/09 at Ewood Park, Blackburn, during a much anticipated black tie dinner ceremony, which is considered as Lancashire's very own Oscar night.

The Telegraph's press releases about the awards can be downloaded below.

Document Downloads	File Type	File Size
Lancashire Telegraph Training Awards Press release		281 KB
Lancashire Telegraph Press release - We're backing business		280 KB