hungryhouse has scooped a prestigious Nectar Business Award, fending off stiff competition from hundreds of successful enterprises to be named "Online Business of the Year, 2011". We were selected to win by a panel of business experts, including star of BBC1's The Apprentice, Karren Brady.

Run by Nectar Business, a loyalty programme designed to help small businesses by offering them the ability to earn rewards on their everyday business expenditure, the Nectar Business Small Business Awards were started in 2009 to recognise the cream of Britain's business talent. As a winner, we received a trophy, £2,000 prize money and 50,000 Nectar points.

Why Karren Brady gave us her vote.

Commenting on why we were chosen for the Award, Karren Brady said: "I was really impressed by hungryhouse.co.uk's business model, with virtually no overheads it is able to create revenue from the sales of other businesses. As judges, we were pleased to see how quickly Tony and Shane had built a strong network and grown sales figures to date."

James Frost reflects on why hungryhouse was picked.

James Frost, Marketing Director at Nectar says: "When we launched this award we were looking for a business that has produced exemplary work in the digital business world, and hungryhouse.co.uk is a prime example. The business makes full use of the digital world using its website, social media and app to communicate with customers. The standard of entries to the Online Business of the Year category were particularly high this year, but hungryhouse.co.uk is a worthy winner."

Managing Director Shane Lake gets a bit emotional.

Shane commented: "We're jumping for joy that hungryhouse.co.uk has won the Nectar Business Online Business of the Year Award. When Tony and I started out with just a few London restaurants in 2006, we dreamed of our website becoming a household name and winning awards. We'd like to thank Nectar Business and Karren Brady for this acknowledgement of all the hard work the team has put in to get us where we are today. I'm sure the prize money, Nectar points and recognition from winning this award will help us continue to spread the word about hungryhouse.co.uk."

For more info on the awards check out the Nectar Business awards.

The hungryhouse Team (minus a few people). Note the large glass award Nicholas is holding up. Best quote of the photoshoot, "You know its a proper trophy if you can bludgeon someone to death with it." - anonymous