THIRTEEN firms line up next month as finalists in the Oxfordshire Business of the Year Awards, writes David Duffy.

The awards are now in their fourth year and have become firmly established as the premier awards recognising excellence in the county, with interest growing every year.

A glittering reception is being held at the Randolph Hotel, Oxford, on June 5 where the five category winners and overall victor will be announced.

Award-winning cookery writer and restaurateur Prue Leith, who began her career cooking dinners at £3 a time for busy housewives and turned it into a multi-million pound enterprise, is guest speaker at the event.

This year the awards, run by the Heart of England Training and Enterprise Council, have attracted a new sponsor. Cowley-based express carrier DHL (UK) has joined Business Link Heart of England in sponsoring the Exporter of the Year Award, which this year has three finalists.

Two are from west Oxfordshire. Bartington Instruments, of Thorney Leys Business Park, Witney, makes science instruments for customers like NASA and IBM. Pentech International of Oxford Road, Eynsham, produces technical illustrations for catalogue and vehicle handbooks.

The third firm on the shortlist is Serotec, of Bankside, Kidlington, which sells more than 2,500 different types of immunology antibodies throughout the world. The company, which recently hit the news for its co-operation with Oxford Brookes University in the producing kits to help diagnose Down's Syndrome in unborn babies, has a £4m annual turnover. Serotec is also shortlisted in the customer care category, sponsored by business advisers Grant Thornton and Unipart.

The other customer care finalists are the Brothers Hair Sculpting Team of The Buttermarket, Thame, and Fired Earth, of Oxford Road, Adderbury.

The community in- volvement award, sponsored again this year by Oxford & County Newspapers and FOX FM, produced a wide variety of entries with Oxford United Football Club once again among the finalists. The other finalists are Bicester Village outlet shopping centre and Countrywide Porter Novelli, of Banbury, which is also a finalist in the developing people category.

Also on the shortlist in the developing people category, sponsored by Rover and Dale Carnegie, is the Oxford region of the Ixion Motor Group and safety firm Seton, the catalogue supplier of signs, nameplates, security and safety products, based in Canada Close, Banbury, which was Banbury Business of the Year 1997.

Another Banbury firm is one of the finalists in the last category, for small businesses, which is sponsored by Lloyds Bank and the Heart of England TEC.

Banbury Personnel was in with a chance of winning the developing people award in 1997. Now it is a finalist in the small business category.

Another north Oxfordshire firm on the shortlist is Nicholson Nurseries at North Aston.

Also on the shortlist is worldwide mail distribution service IRS - International Remail System - of Didcot.

IRS administers and distributes all sorts of consignments from junk mail to books.

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