Gloucestershire businesses took home three of the biggest awards this year at the FSB South West Small Business Awards.
Gloucester-based BioStart won the Innovation Award for their biometric-based anti-theft system for vehicles; with Cheltenham-located Firestarter Business Solutions being awarded the Expansion and Growth Award for helping other businesses drive sales growth; and the Forest of Dean's Authentic Bread Company scooping the Family Business of the Year award.
Companies from Wiltshire, Bristol, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall were among the other winners.
Emily Crewe from the Authentic Bread Company said: 'We were delighted to receive this award in recognition of our achievement as a family business. Family businesses are a special environment and we see all of our much-valued colleagues as an extension of our family.'
All three Gloucestershire winners will now get the opportunity to enter the nationwide finals in the spring, where they have a chance of being named the best small business in the whole country.
Sam Holiday, the FSB development manager for Gloucestershire, said: 'It would be wonderful to think one or more of these brilliant Gloucestershire firms could now add a national title to their regional one, so I will be rooting for them all when they take part in the UK final in Blackpool.'
