France Celebrates Its European Business Champions

Online, June 29, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The European Business Awards, sponsored by HSBC, recognised the success of those companies selected as Country Representatives at a prestigious event held in France.

A host of leading figures from commerce, media and the political sphere gathered to celebrate Serious Factory selection to represent France in the European Business Awards 2010.

The successful businesses now go on to represent their countries in the next stage of the competition, where they will battle it out against other companies from across Europe to scoop a Ruban d'Honneur. Final category Award winners will be unveiled at The Westin, Paris, on 16th November.

William Perès of Serious Factory accepted the certificate at the prestigious event held at Paris and said: "We're absolutely thrilled to be selected to represent France and it's an honour to be recognised as one of the leading organisations in our country and in our field. Now we're looking forward to the next round of the competition where we'll be competing across Europe to receive a Ruban d'Honneur.*"

The European Business Awards is dedicated to raising the visibility and progress of companies who excel in delivering innovation twinned with successful commercial results whilst acting responsibly and positively affecting the social environment they operate in. In 2009, the 99 Ruban d'Honneur recipients had a combined turnover greater than €570 billion and recorded an average annual profit growth of 56%.

Adrian Tripp, CEO of the European Business Awards says, "The Award event was a great success and we are delighted to have shared in the sense of pride held by the Country Representatives for France. The esteemed panel of judges were looking for organisations who exhibited innovation, business excellence and sustainability and the Country Representatives have shown great flair to get this far. Now the competition really heats up as the best of the best battle it out in the next stage."

Jacques-Emmanuel Blanchet, HSBC Head of Commercial Banking, said: "We are pleased to have taken part in the European Business Awards event and celebrated the success of all the County Representatives. The event brought together like minded business leaders and showed that despite the economic uncertainty of recent years companies can not merely survive but thrive"

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For further information please contact:
Melanie Reuzeau
+33 1 46 08 30 01
[email protected]

Useful information:

• Over 3500 companies from 8 countries have been engaged with the Awards during the first stage of the European Business Awards and of these, 175 have been selected as Country Representatives.
• Those selected as Country Representatives scored highly in a two stage judging process. The traits and strengths that led to your selection will be further scrutinised and the award categories allocated if you are successful in stage two of the competition.

Images from the event can be found at:

http://www.businessawardseurope.com/image-centre/country-representatives-france

Password: France2010

For media enquiries relating to European Business Awards contact:

Angela Lovell, Press Manager, European Business Awards
Landline: +44 (0) 207 234 3535
Email: [email protected]
Visit: www.businessawardseurope.com

For enquiries relating to HSBC contact:
Melissa Jobson, Media Relations Manager, HSBC CMB Europe
Landline: +44(0) 20 7992 1558
Email: [email protected]

OR

Sian Smith, Hilda Burke, Consolidated PR
Landline: +44(0)20 7781 2300
Email: [email protected]

About the European Business Awards 2010:

The European Business Awards recognises and rewards excellence, best practice and innovation in companies across the European Union. The competition is free to enter and open to organisations of all sizes and from any industry sector.

The European Business Awards programme serves three purposes for the European business community:
• It provides examples for the business community to aspire to
• It celebrates and endorses individual's and organisation's success
• It provides case studies and content for learning from these exceptional organizations

An innovative, strong and thriving business community makes a successful and prosperous Europe.

*There are eight categories:

The Infosys Business of the Year Award
The RSM International Entrepreneur of the Year Award
The UKTI Award for Innovation
The HSBC Growth Strategy of the Year Award
The Award for Customer Focus
The Award for Corporate Sustainability
The Environmental Awareness Award
The Employer of the Year Award

Images available upon request

HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The Group serves customers worldwide from around 8,500 offices in 86 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$2,422 billion at 30 June 2009, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations. HSBC is marketed worldwide as 'the world's local bank'.