TICKETS are selling fast for Newton Aycliffe’s business awards ceremony which will be held next week.

More than 200 people have already booked their places for Aycliffe Business Park’s Make Your Mark event at the Xcel Centre on Wednesday February.

Sales have already equalled the turn-out for the 2014 event.

And now the judging panel is busy deliberating on who will be crowned 2015 Company of the Year, along with nine other awards which will be handed out on the night.

The judges – which include The Northern Echo’s business editor Andy Richardson, UTC South Durham principal Tom Dower, South Durham Enterprise Agency business support manager Ian Coull, Business Durham’s business development director Sarah Slaven and Kerina Clark, on behalf of the Aycliffe Business Park steering group – have to shortlist from dozens of entries.

Each category will then be shortlisted down to three or four, with the winners being revealed on the night.

The Make Your Mark 2014 winners included Tekmar (Company of the Year), Ebac (Engineering and Manufacturing), Meditek (Export), Emerald Biogas (Innovation), Gregg Little Testing Centre (Service Business), Xcel Centre (Employer), Gestamp Tallent (Apprenticeships), Tom Wise, D&S Services (Apprentice), Aycliffe Today Business (Newcomer), Beanies (Small Business) and Thrive Marketing (Heart of the Community).

• Tickets for the evening itself have been subsidised to make them more affordable. They’re priced £29.95 each and are available from www.aycliffeawards.co.uk