HERE’S a lovely piece of news: chocolate making is to return to the site of the Terry’s chocolate factory. Entrepreneur Sophie Jewett, founder of the York Cocoa House, made the announcement at last night’s glitzy Press Business Awards ceremony at York Racecourse.

Admittedly, the new chocolate-making operation won’t be on the scale of Terry’s in its pomp. But it will see 20 new jobs created. And it will see the original Terry’s Roasting Room – which has lain derelict since the factory closed in 2005 – transformed into a chocolate processing base again. That is cause for celebration in itself.

Sophie is typical of the kind of bright young entrepreneur that we need in York if the city is to continue to develop and thrive.

But there was plenty of entrepreneurial nouse and creative business energy on display at last night’s awards, which were supported by main sponsor Hiscox. The evening saw 16 awards presented in all. And as Press managing editor Steve Hughes said: “All our finalists and all the businesses represented at the awards are working hard, employing people, being creative and innovative.”

Business of the Year went to the Wold Top Brewery – a farm diversification project which owners Tom and Gill Mellor have turned, in the space of 11 short years, into a micro-brewery producing more than 4,000 gallons a week. Farming has been tough in recent years, but Wold Top shows how, with determination, imagination and entrepreneurial flair, it is still possible to make a good living from the land.

It was a worthy winner, and a great example of the kind of never-say-die spirit that is so vital to enable the small businesses on which so much of our prosperity depends to grow and thrive.

Three cheers for Wold Top – and for all our winners and finalists from last night.