Allendale Forge Studios won the Women Into the Network (WIN) Best Rural Business Award
In harsh economic times we were absolutely over the moon to receive the recognition this award gives us for all the hard work Amanda Galbraith and her team have put in to make this centre a reality.
ABOUT THE AWARD
Working within a remote rural area businesses face physical and social isolation and a lack of rural business support. Small businesses are fighting off stiff competition as they attempt to develop a thriving rural enterprise. The winner of the WIN Best Rural Business Award needs to show great determination and strength in creating and/or developing a successful rural enterprise, overcoming significant barriers and creating sustainable local employment – a key player in rural re-generation in the North East.
WHY WE WON
Managing director, Amanda Galbraith and her team, clearly demonstrated all of these things with Amanda as the driving force behind the scenes. We won this award for setting up and raising funds to make the Art & Media Centre a reality, creating an accessible retail outlet for over 20 small rural businesses that are based within The Forge and a further 60-70 satellite micro-businesses in the area from Penrith in the West to Weardale further south and to the east of the Tyne Valley and to the north of Northumberland.
Amanda says ” Winning The Best Rural Business Award is an honour for myself, my team and our customers who do so much to support us. To be counted amongst the other nominees and outstanding business women in our region is a real privilege and truly humbling in itself. I still can’t quite believe we won.
The award evening itself was inspirational and a fantastic opportunity to network so I invited our two Forge Studios Entrepreneur Scholarship winners, Laura Waugh of Firefly Forest and Danielle Fox of Card Couture to this glitzy red carpet evening, to inspire them to go on to greater things and be one of the winners in years to come.