Last week the finalists for the 2016 ABEX awards were announced with the presentations taking place on October 22nd at TCU Place in Saskatoon.

Steve McLellan, CEO of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce says they received 86 nominations this year which have been narrowed down to 55 finalists.

"The ABEX Awards are Saskatchewan's largest and longest running business awards. As a matter of fact they are the largest of it's kind in Canada. We have been running for over thirty year's and this year we have an excellent aray of candidates and nominees coming forward."

McLellan adds that the awards are comprised of a variety of categories which reflect what they consider to be important things for businesses to focus on including community involvement, marketing and innovation.

Local Swift Current brewery Black Bridge is a finalist in the new venture award category McLellan says they have a wonderful product and have done well getting themselves established across the province both within provincial licensed outfits and liquor stores.

Swift Current's Standard Motors is also nominated under the Community Cornerstone Award category. This is only the third year of the Community Cornerstone Award which adds a social media component so the public is able to vote online for Standards Motors to win. They have been around Swift Current for awhile and have served the community and their clients well, according to McLellan.

Voting for the Community Cornerstone Award will commence September 22nd at www.abexcornerstone.com and will run until October 22nd.

McLellan adds that they received a large and wide variety of nominees this year.

"This year was a little higher than normal and way more diversity then we have had in the past. Geography, type of business, young and old businesses, new ones and ones that have been around the business community for awhile were represented both in the nominees and of course the finalists. We were thrilled, this is a great sign of the business community across the province."

McLellan adds that Swift Current has had a successful run with the ABEX awards program and encourages other businesses to get out and nominate themselves next year.