Last Thursday we saw a return to industry gatherings and celebrations, in real life, with the Laundry and Dry Cleaning Awards 2021 – the LADAs – held at Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey.

This was a very much welcomed evening catching up with industry colleagues for the first time in a while. In its seventh year, the LADAs 2021 attracted the largest audience to date with over 270 people joining in the evening of celebrations.

The LADAs 2021 black tie event began as guests, including finalists and sponsors, networked at the champagne reception amongst beautiful Mercedes Benz cars, new and old. The evening’s entertainment came from the wonderful singing voice of Alison David, the sleight of hand skills of magician Collin Claus and our quick-witted compere Adger Brown. Following the delicious three-course meal was of course the main event – announcing the winners of each LADAs category. One by one the winners took to the stage with whoops and cheers filling the room. Our congratulations to all the finalists and our winners – it was a truly joyful occasion to celebrate the talents and achievements of the industry after what has been a very difficult year.

The cherry on top was the money raised from our annual raffle for the LADAs chosen charity – Pancreatic Cancer UK. Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund is the national charity dedicated exclusively to supporting research to improve diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer. The LADAs has supported the Pancreatic Cancer UK charity for many years and we’re delighted to share that this year we raised £3,500 – the most we’ve ever raised in a single evening! Our thanks for all the support on the evening and even bigger thanks to those who donated such wonderful prizes to make it such a success.

The event was organised and run by Mark and Tina Gleed of MEG Events Ltd. After the event they said: “What a success! What an evening! For the last 18 months we’ve spent so much time planning events, then rescheduling, then planning again – it was wonderful for this to finally take place and to see so many people enjoying themselves. From start to finish there was smiles and laughter and everyone commenting on how they’d been so looking forward to the event and that it definitely lived up to expectations. We must say a huge thank you to our judges for their time, professionalism and valuable contributions to selecting our LADA 2021 category winners. To all our finalists and winners – congratulations to you all for what you have achieved. And finally, to our sponsors. Thank you for your support and sticking with us – this event could never have taken place without your continued commitment. It’s been a pleasure to work with you all. Here’s to the LADAs 2022! See you again next year!” Look out for the full write up and photo gallery of the evening in our December issue of Laundry & Cleaning Today.

All 2021 finalists gather on the stage