A COMPANY director has expressed his delight after winning an award celebrating his skills as an entrepreneur.

Stuart Hazell, 44, of Dovercourt, won entrepreneur of the year at the Newsquest Essex Countywide Business Awards on October 21.

He was anonymously nominated for a passion project that saw his company, Hazell Hospitality, convert a former toilet block on the Dovercourt seafront into a wine bar that will open soon.

Mr Hazell expressed his delight in winning the award for a conversion he has been working in since the Covid pandemic begun.

He said: “I was totally surprised about the nomination, I didn’t know anything about the award show and I still don’t know who nominated me.

“However, it felt great winning the award on the day, it was a real icing on the cake as the project is finished now.”

Mr Hazell was first notified about the nomination by Lynda Clark, events manager for Newsquest South East but he ignored it because he didn’t know if it was real or not.

A follow up email was sent informing him he was a finalist, as the 17 people initially nominated was cut down to three.

Mr Hazell added: “Another reason I was pleased to win the award because it is good publicity.

“When people walk past site as it is now the shutters are up so they don’t really know what’s going on.”

Before the conversion, Mr Hazell tried several times to get permission to use the site in Dovercourt, which had been out of service for a few years.

One day, by chance Mr Hazell drove by the toilets and saw a ‘to let’ sign put up, which made him take action and get planning permission for the site.

Mr Hazell added: “When I managed to get permission I decided to put my heart and soul into it.

“We started with a new roof, rebuilt the building, fitted internal walls out and we’ve just grown it from there.”

Mr Hazell’s partner Sally will run the wine bar and it is set to open in January 2023.