BUSINESS editor Bill Gleeson reports on the region's premier business awards, held at St George's Hall last night
By Bill Gleeson, Daily Post
THE chairman of Peel Holdings was last night named Business Person of the Year at the Daily Post's Regional Business Awards.
John Whittaker was chosen by a panel of judges to be the DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary Business Person of the Year for the way he has run his businesses over the long term.
Mr Whittaker's family firm Peel has owned Liverpool John Lennon Airport for nine years. In that time, the group has invested £80m in new terminal buildings and other facilities while taking no dividend from the business.
Instead, Peel has built up a business that has seen passenger numbers grow from 500,000 in 1997 to more than 4m today.
As well as the airport, Peel last year acquired another part of Merseyside's transport infrastructure when it paid £770m for Mersey Docks and Harbour Company.
The deal has created expectations locally that Peel will now begin the job of regenerating hundreds of acres of derelict docklands to the north of Liverpool city centre. Peel has a track record built on the fact that it has transformed Salford Quays in the past.
The KPMG Business of the Year Award was made to Denholm Logistics, a Scottish firm that relocated its head office to Merseyside after acquiring a local firm.
