The Licensed Trade International Awards

Licensed Trade international was set up in 2012 by its founder Anthony Molloy. It's objective was to connect people in the North East's Licensed trade sector, such that it could facilitate sustainable growth and jobs. In the early Twentieth Century the North Eastern region was the engine room powering Britain and its Empire, through its railways, mining, ship building, turbines, steel works, civil engineering and production of armaments. Unfortunately, little is left of this industry today, but the hospitality sector is now at the heart of the North East economy, sustaining a large proportion of local employment. With some 19,000 people employed in its licensed venues, netting a combined turnover of over £250M and with Newcastle city centre alone boasting some 255 licensed premises. The region has long provided one of the most populated and celebrated areas in the UK for dining, drinking, partying and relaxing. Fundamental to the mission of Licensed Trade international was to put the North east back on the map, with the promotion of local businesses on a national and international scale and to provide an opportunity for networking, growth and employment in its benevolent awards. The awards is a non for profit event, designed to support/sustain the industry, create competition and stimulate new ideas and investment in the region’s largest employment sector. The awards nominations for each category, were based on an initial public voting process to select the top 6 candidates. The award voting was then opened to the general public between January and September 2015 through an online multiple choice vote on the LTi website. This was promoted through email, voting cards in the nominated venues and through social media. The concept is simple, the voter selects who they think is the best by selecting one of the six options. This data is then counted to determine what the public thought process is, to determine who is the very best, on the basis of thousands of votes or data points from everyone’s general mind set. This year’s awards is set to be the best ever, with Britain’s got talent finalists ‘The Bar Wizards’ as the headline act, musicians a stand-up comic compare and the 8 award announcements on who is the very best!! The Licensed Trade International Awards will take place on the 24th of November at The Assembly Rooms.