Cream of the crop awarded

The community had its say on some of the best things their town has to offer at the 2017 Spirit radio and Red FM Best of Geraldton Awards.

Categories were highly competitive, so for some businesses, winning more than twice was a huge boost.

Starting off the night with arguably the most important category — Geraldton’s best coffee — Culinary HQ took out the title for the fourth time.

Culinary HQ managing director Paula Purcher said she was humbled by the win.

“I think Geraldton in the last four to five years has had a huge culture change in coffee,” she said.

“There are now several wonderful places to choose from to go for coffee, so I think our town is lucky.”

Ms Purcher attributed the win to having some of the best baristas in town.

“I put it down to our wonderful baristas who care about what they’re doing,” she said.

This year’s category that received the highest amount of votes was Geraldton’s best supermarkets.

The Rigters Supermarket Group cleaned up in this category.

Rigters SUPA IGA and Wonthella SUPA IGA were finalists and the title was claimed by Queens SUPA IGA.

Despite a tough financial year in 2016/17, the best building company category had new nominations.

However, the veterans at WA Country Builders took out the title for the third time.

New home sales consultant Jason Seppala said being in Geraldton the longest and teamwork got the business the win.

“It’s very nice to be recognised, especially now for the third time,” he said.

Mr Seppala said the win could also be attributed to a good team and strong systems in place.

Winning the category for best not-for-profit for the second year in a row was Geraldton Dog Rescue.

GDR’s Lenci Millman said they were excited to win again, going up against the likes of Foodbank and Midwest Charity Begins at Home.

“Going up against the big players like those two, I never expect to come out on top of them,” she said.

“I always think because we’re a group for dogs, not humans, that it won’t be appreciated as much in the community, but that’s obviously not the case. I guess people have a soft spot for dogs ... we also don’t like to be pushy. We just want to do what’s right for the dogs.”