You can view the many opportunities to support Pendle Business Awards at this link. Sponsoring the awards gives excellent brand awareness and other benefits and inclusions.

When entry opens you can click on the Enter Now tab from the navigation bar and the Enter Now graphic on the homepage. This will take you to our online entry system AwardX where you can register and enter for any categories you are eligible for (see below). Before entries open, and after they close, the tab and graphic will not be available.

The awards are open to all Pendle based businesses and not for profit organisations. One of the three criteria below must apply to a business for it to be eligible for entry to the awards

1. They have business premises for which they pay business rates to Pendle Borough Council

2. They do not have business premises, their business address is their home address and they pay council tax to Pendle Borough Council

3. They do not pay business rates or council tax to Pendle Borough Council, they own / operate a purchased business franchise for the Pendle area and deliver services in physical locations in Pendle

NB! All business rates must be up to date. We use a Local Authority checker on the .gov.uk website to ascertain which council the business is under, this can be accessed here to check a given business’s location.

All eligible Pendle based businesses / organisations can enter up to four categories. The online form has the details of each category and you tick the ones you’d like to enter. View all Categories on our categories page.

As the awards effectively recognise the ‘best’ business in a given category, it’s important that businesses have been running for a period of time. 

This will allow the independent judging panel to assess business performance (and improvements in it), and progress towards business objectives. Most require businesses to have been running for a minimum period of two years, find more information on the category page.

Our core panel of judges will read through all entry forms and decide, collectively, on who should be shortlisted. For each award, the judging panel will also include the sponsor.

The shortlisted businesses / finalists for 2026 for each category will be announced live at our Pendle Connects event on Wednesday 3 June and across social media that day too. You can secure a free ticket for Connects when they are released, early March 2026.

A designated Judgement Day will see the core judging team meet with each sponsor throughout the day to discuss and debate the winner of each category. This information will remain under wraps until winners are revealed at the awards ceremony.

The 2026 Pendle Business Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday 2 July at The Fence Gate from 6pm, dinner will be served at 7.15pm with the awards presentations commencing at 9pm. Presentations will finish around 10.30pm, carriages will be at 12 midnight.

Ticket booking will open once the finalists are announced. Ticket priority will be given to finalists and sponsors so it is unlikely that general admission tickets will be available. Tickets can be purchased online, via a unique link, which will be sent to finalists once announced.