THE best of Burnley's companies have been honoured at the town's annual business awards.

Several giants of the industry were recognised at a ceremony held at Towneley Hall for the 10th anniversary of the Burnley Business Awards, which was organised by the council.

Staff, business leaders, and delegates from across the area watched on as awards for excellence were handed out.

Major East Lancashire employers and the UK's largest maker of uPVC windows and doors, VEKA, scooped the top award for the second time running.

Managing director Dave Jones was on hand to collect the Business of the Year award and celebrated with a number of colleagues from the Farrington Road firm.

He said: "It is a great feeling to be recognised by our home town for the hard work of our team, not just once but twice.

"We are extremely proud of Burnley and the fantastic businesses here and the awards ceremony was a showcase of the very best of Burnley.

"VEKA has been a huge part of Burnley’s manufacturing heritage for almost 30 years and since the very beginning, our ethos has been to constantly strive to see the business develop and evolve even further."

And a first class university graduate and the surveyor behind East Lancashire's first drive-thru chippy was named Young Employee of the Year.

Matthew Guirdham, Barnfield Construction’s quantity surveying graduate, has worked with various clients on industrial units in Liverpool, social housing schemes in Bradford, heritage town centre regeneration in Bacup together with private housing schemes and Banny’s drive-thru restaurant in Trafalgar Street, Burnley.

Matthew said: "Burnley is undergoing large scale change and I would like to think that my involvement in delivering local schemes is at the forefront of this evolution.

"I hope to give back to the industry ensuring my personal development through Barnfield has a much broader impact allowing others to ‘get into construction and hopefully gleam the same positive impacts I have received."

Barnfield Construction’s chairman and managing director, Tim Webber MBE, said: “I’m delighted with the progress Matthew has made since his arrival at Barnfield Construction. He has a real ‘can-do’ attitude, coupled with lots of enthusiasm which is applied to all aspects of his work."

Other winners included: Small Business (5-19 employees) - Low Carbon Energy Company; Small Business (20 – 49employees) - John Spencer (Textiles) Ltd; Medium Business - Birchall Foodservice; Overall Business - The VEKA UK Group; New Start Business - Focus on Testing Ltd; The Export Achievement - AMS Neve Ltd; Young Employee (Joint Winners) - Joshua Entwistle, Cherrytree Bakery / Matthew Guirdham, Barnfield Construction; Deal of the Year - BCW Engineering Ltd; Manufacturing Excellence - Futaba-Tenneco UK Ltd; Apprenticeship Scheme - Speakman Contractors; Innovation Award - Process Instruments; Long Standing Contribution to Burnley - Moorhouse’s Brewery (Burnley) Ltd and Chief Executive’s Choice - Boohoo.com.