Do you have a favourite Te Puke business and reckon they deserve some kudos for the great service or product they provide? Well here's your chance.

The Te Puke Economic Development Group is calling for nominations for the 2016 Te Puke Business Excellence Awards which will be taking place in October.

Bennetts Proactive director Lance Ewens with 2015 Te Puke Business Excellence Awards Supreme Category winners Mark Cox and Tracy Waller from Bridgestone Tyres Te Puke. Photo: TPEDG

Now into their 10th year, the annual awards identifies and celebrates Te Puke businesses that are doing a great job of serving the community.

Businesses can be nominated in five categories: Food & Beverage, Retail, Service, Agriculture/Horticulture/Industrial, Emerging Business and the overall Supreme Award. Individuals who show brilliant customer service can also be nominated for the Exceptional Employee Award.

At the 2015 awards Bridgestone Tyres Te Puke won the Service and Supreme Award. Co-owner Mark Cox described their wins as a 'very cool surprise”.

'The best aspect was the recognition for our staff. As much as we tell them they're doing a good job, it's great for them to receive that kind of acknowledgement from the public,” says Mark.

'Overall it's definitely brought us a few new customers that we didn't have before, it's great advertising for us and shows people that we offer the kind of service that wins awards.”

Awards organiser Lydia Wilkinson says the nomination period opened on Thursday morning and by lunchtime they'd already received half a dozen nominations.

She believes the public buys into the awards because they're all about looking for the positives in the Te Puke community and giving people an opportunity to celebrate their favourite business.

'We're now into our 10th year of running the awards and it's been a great to watch them evolve from a small event into something much bigger and grander,” says Lydia.

'One of my favourite aspects over the years has been watching businesses that don't view themselves as ‘spectacular' winning an award and receiving that recognition, seeing the absolute delight on their faces is quite exceptional.”

Lydia is encouraging everyone in the Te Puke community to nominate those businesses they believe deserves kudos for the fantastic services or products they provide. It's also a sentiment Mark agrees with.

'There's a lot of businesses in Te Puke that do a hell of a good job, so I think it's really important people nominate them.

"If they're getting good work done and receiving great service it's important that it's recognised,” says Mark.

The 2016 awards evening will be held at the Te Puke War Memorial Hall on Friday, October 28.

All nominations must be submitted by 5pm on Friday, July 29. To nominate a business visit the Te Puke Business Excellence Awards website at: www.tepukebusinessawards.nz