Our most popular of categories to enter each year for the Ely Standard Business Awards is that of family business.

This year’s sponsor is Deanta, a company founded in1993 that has become the leading manufacturer and supplier of interior doors to the UK market.

The product range includes a selection of oak, walnut, white primed, abachi and ash doors along with a selection of FD30 fire doors, all crafted to the highest standard with only the finest of materials.

Unlike most door suppliers in the UK, Deanta manufacture all their own doors in their own manufacturing facility.

In order to ensure that all doors are of the highest quality, the company uses only hand-picked veneers from North America. All prefinished products are FSC certified and feature solid cores.

This award is open to family-owned businesses where the family’s involvement has spanned at least two generations.

Criteria for each of the categories can be found on the awards website.

In 2019 the judges awarded family business of the year to AAA Motorcycle Training Ltd.

And AAA will be the first to agree that winning gave recognition and had a direct impact on its business and customer bases.

“We looked at our plans for the company & brought some of them forward,” says the winners.

It also gave them the impetus to support the community, something they believe to be very important. As our readers will know they have played their role in bringing together community support during the coronavirus pandemic.

They are also proud of developing and launching S.A.M.S,. an initiative they are passionate about. With no remit for road safety to be provided in the National Curriculum they felt there was a huge chasm with regards to young riders’ knowledge base.

They began by providing free days at their training centre during which parents and their teens could come along & learn in a fun session.

This developed and grew and working with schools they have covered pedestrian, cycle and moped safety.

AAA also created links with The Skill Service to provide free, fun road safety training to schools throughout not just Cambridgeshire but Norfolk & Lincolnshire.

This in turn grew and became a nationwide appeal which we launched to collect unwanted bike gear from generous bikers to redistribute to young riders who would otherwise be riding in unsuitable clothing.

As a new company they are still developing their customer base and reputation but with hard work and dedication their reputation continues to spread.

“Winning Family Business of the Year 2019 was an amazing recognition of the hard work we put into the company as a family,” says the firm.

“Winning made us spread our wings and look further afield but, it also gave us the drive to believe in what we could achieve.”

Their motto, good for all entrants maybe, is quite simple.

“Dream big,” they advise.

The Judges’ Award & The Business of the Year Award - These awards are not directly entered but chosen by the judges & will be announced on the night.

Entry deadline for the 2020 awards is July 3 2020 at 5pm. All entries can be made through the awards website www.elybusinessawards.co.uk/