Automotive Business Magazine – Q3 2026 – Digital edition - Flipbook - Page 62
NBM A
I N T R O D U CTION
ASTOR
An award
worth winning
→ Ryan Fowler is managing director at Astor Media
W
hen we bought Business
Motoring and Business
Vans, one of the first
things we looked at was
the awards.
Both brands had
proper history in the
market. They had been
recognising excellence
in business motoring for more than 20
years, but after Covid-19 the awards had
stayed online. I understand why that
happened at the time, but it was not
where they should have remained.
An industry united
These are trade brands with an audience,
a purpose and a place in the sector. So,
if we were going to rebuild them properly
under Astor Media, the awards had to
come back as a proper live event.
That is why the National Business
Motoring Awards will take place on
26th November 2026 at Coombe Abbey
Hotel, Coventry.
This is not just a dinner with a new
name. It is part of the work we are doing
to invest in our automotive division,
strengthen the brands we acquired and
give the market something credible to
get behind.
Combining the Business Motoring and
Business Vans awards also made sense.
The market does not sit in neat boxes
anymore. A business looking at vehicles
is often looking at cars, vans, leasing,
finance, tax, salary sacrifice, charging,
downtime, compliance, driver safety and
running costs at the same time.
Mixed fleet decisioning is now a major
part of the market. For SMEs, trades,
service businesses and commercial
operators, vehicles are not just a nice-tohave or a line on a spreadsheet. They are
how work gets done.
That is why the awards must reflect
practical value. We are not interested in
simply rewarding the biggest badge, the
loudest campaign or the most polished
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AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q3 2026
entry. The strongest winners should be
the businesses, vehicles and services that
genuinely help customers operate better.
That could be a van that makes sense
for tradespeople, a car that works for
company drivers, a leasing product
that gives businesses more flexibility, a
finance provider that understands the
market, or a technology business helping
fleets reduce cost, downtime or risk.
The point is that the awards should
reflect the market as it actually is.
Motoring’s historic home
Coventry also mattered. The historic
home of the UK automotive industry, it
felt like the right place to relaunch the
awards properly. Coombe Abbey gives
us the sense of occasion we wanted.
It is not a bland hotel ballroom. It is a
proper venue, with history
and character, and
that matters when
you are trying to
build an awards
event people
genuinely want
to be part of.
Astor Media
did not buy
these brands to
let them drift,
but because
they have value,
audience and
relevance. But that
only matters if we invest
in them and give the market reasons to
engage.
The National Business Motoring Awards
give manufacturers, leasing
companies, finance providers, fleet
service firms, technology businesses
and the wider business motoring market
a proper platform to be recognised.
Entries are now open, and I
would encourage anyone with a
strong product, service or story in
this market to enter.
