At the annual "Salute to Business" Awards Luncheon and ceremony hosted by the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce and the Macon Economic Development Commission, awards were presented to the Startup of the Year, Small Business of the Year, Business of the Year and Outstanding Young Business Leader of the Year.  More than 200 people attended the event held at The Armory Ballroom.

The 2017 Startup of the Year Award was presented to Tommy's Bakery & Café, who opened its doors in Macon in 2016. Tommy's offers doughnuts and other baked goods, along with a daily hot lunch special and frozen casseroles for takeout option. In one year's time, Tommy's has grown from one employee to 14 employees. They are best known for their mouthwatering maple bacon doughnut. Owner, Tommy Sadler accepted the award.

The 2017 Small Business of the Year Award was presented to ASP Franchising, LLC.    America's Swimming Pool Company was founded in Macon in 2002 and is the nation's largest pool maintenance and repair company. ASP's ultimate vision is to develop more locations to conveniently and reliably assist customers throughout the nation with their pool service needs. Stewart Vernon, Owner, accepted the award.

The 2017 Business of the Year Award was presented to ESG Operations, Inc.  ESG Operations is a utility operations and public works management company with close to 700 full-time employees, whose corporate headquarters are located in Macon. For the past seven consecutive years, ESG has been recognized as one of the top 200 Environmental Firms in the nation. Daniel Groselle, Principal and Co-Founder of ESG accepted the award.

The 2017 Outstanding Young Business Leader Award was presented to Andrew Eck.   Andrew Eck is the Founder, President and VP of Marketing, Finance and Operations for Georgia Artisan. Georgia Artisan is a Macon-based boutique furniture manufacturer located in downtown Macon. Not only is Eck growing a successful local business, he also pours time and energy into the community. He is involved in various capacities with the Business Education Partnership, OneMacon, Friends of Macon Music, Macon Productions, 5/4 Music Space and SparkMacon.

All nominees submitted information that was evaluated by a panel of judges.  The nominees were ranked based on their economic impact in the community, the overall workplace environment, their demonstrated efforts to be environmentally conscientious and corporate citizenship, which includes charitable giving and employee volunteers working with charitable organizations.

This year's event was presented by Walthall Oil Company.  Gold level sponsors of the event were Georgia Power, Middle Georgia Freightliner, YKK and Hargray Communications.