The winners of the Norfolk Business Awards 2020 have been announced in an online ceremony.

Hundreds of entries from the county’s business community were painstakingly whittled down to shortlists by our judges – a mammoth task with each category taking hours of deliberation.

Then the winners were announced in our online ceremony which was sponsored by Barclays.

Richard Porritt, business editor for the Eastern Daily Press said: “Never before in peacetime has Norfolk’s businesses faced such a challenge. So, congratulations – you are the very best of the very best.

“I was flabbergasted by the quality of entries this year. In what has been a unremittingly bleak year these awards proved a very bright point.

“Your stories, your endeavours your sheer hard graft is truly inspiring.

“After 30 years of the Norrfolk Business Awards, we are more grateful then ever to all our category sponsors and the headline sponsor Barclays for their continued support in this strangest of year. Without their support we would not have been able to honour so many incredible achievements.

“In January we will be releasing a series of videos featuring all of our winners. So please do keep an eye out for that across our social media channels and on our website.

“Things will improve. Life and business will get back to normal. And we will all be even stronger for this struggle. Congratulations to all our nominees and winners.”

The winners were as follows:

• Business of the Year sponsored by Barclays: The TaxAssist Group.

• Outstanding Acievement award sponsored by Barclays: Midwich.

• Changing Lives Special Recognition award sponsored by Norwich Research Park: Iceni Diagnostics, Jark Norfolk, Panel Graphic, Norwich City FC and Norwich City Community Sports Foundation.

• Large Business award sponsored by City College Norwich: Black Swan Care Group.

• Small and Medium Business award sponsored by Archant: e-Surgery.

• Employer of Year award sponsored by Pure and Birketts: East Anglian Air Ambulance.

• Customer Care award sponsored by Greater Anglia: Indigo Swan.

• Skills of Tomorrow award sponsored by Norwich Research Park: Netmatters.

• Breaking Boundaries award sponsored by Lovewell Blake: PlantGrow.

• Knowledge Pioneer award sponsored by University of East Anglia: Broads Authority.

• Tech Innovator award sponsored by Computer Service Centre: Beattie Passive.

• Investing in Future Growth award sponsored by Lovell: Netmatters.