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There are two weeks left to nominate Stirling’s outstanding independent and national retailers for a variety of honours at the city’s 2026 Business Awards.
Nominations are underway for the annual awards, organised by Go Forth Stirling BID (Business Improvement District), and will close on Friday November 14.
There are a total of 14 categories for the 2026 awards which also feature an inspirational new honour – Outstanding Woman in Business.
Once nominations close, the BID will announce a longlist, in late November, when the public have the chance to vote for their favourite business in each category.
A shortlist of the top three businesses for each award will be revealed in January, when – in a change to the usual format – there will be a further round of voting to choose which businesses should be named the winner of each category.
The winners will be announced during the week beginning Monday March 2 with trophies awarded during individual presentations at their premises instead of an awards ceremony.
Go Forth Stirling Project Director Danielle McRorie-Smith said: “We’ve decided to run the awards slightly differently this year and are planning a week-long celebration instead of the usual awards night.
“We recognise the cost to small businesses which the awards ceremony incurs and know how tight budgets are for all of us in the business community just now.
“However, we are still keen to celebrate our businesses and the contribution they make to Stirling and look forward to showcasing the achievements of the finalists and winners in early March next year.
“We also plan to host a full awards ceremony once again for the 2027 Stirling Business Awards.”
Almost 500 people have already put forward a range of local businesses for the 14 awards categories via a dedicated Stirling Business Awards webpage – www.independentstirling.co.uk/awards
The categories include Café/Coffee Shop of the Year; Visitor Attraction of the Year; Restaurant of the Year; Hair & Beauty Business of the Year and Pub of the Year.
There is also the New Business of the Year Award – recognising businesses which began trading in 2025 – and Service-led Business of the Year covering healthcare firms, graphic designers, solicitors, tailors, estate agents and more.
The Charity of the Year Award is also returning for nominations and for the first time there will be an award for Charity Shop of the Year.
The Retailer of the Year Award has been expanded to cover Independent Retailer of the Year and National Retailer of the Year to reflect the high calibre of national stores who invest in Stirling in addition to the city’s wide range of unique independent stores.
Meanwhile, further new categories for 2026 are Accommodation of the Year and Most Attractive Shop Front.
Nominees should be businesses based within the city centre BID zone except for Outstanding Woman in Business and Charity of the Year.
Nominations close at 5pm on Friday November 14 with voting to narrow down an initial longlist of businesses taking place from Friday November 28 until Friday January 9.
This will be followed by another round of voting, from Monday January 12 until Friday February 13, to pick the final winner in each category from a shortlist of three.
The winners will be announced from Monday March 2 onwards with films and photographs to mark their achievements featuring on Go Forth’s social media pages.
Meanwhile, the winner of the Outstanding Woman in Business award will be revealed on International Women’s Day – Sunday March 8.
Ms McRorie-Smith said: “We’ve already had a great response to our call for nominations and there’s still time to get involved and nominate your favourite business in each awards category.
“The Stirling Business Awards are an annual opportunity to highlight the wide range of retailers, hotels, attractions, hospitality venues, beauty salons and other businesses based in Stirling and we look forward to seeing who is nominated this year.”
She added: “To mark the fourth year of the Awards, we’ve added several new categories and will also be celebrating the achievements of some of Stirling’s most inspirational women.
“We’ve also tweaked the voting format to include the chance to vote for the winner of each category which should make the voting process more exciting!”
Go Forth Stirling is the city’s Business Improvement District (BID) which represents more than 600 business owners with a key objective of increasing visitors to the city and devising initiatives to help make it a more welcoming destination for businesses and shoppers.
For more information, visit www.goforthstirling.co.uk
