Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The fast growing Bluetooth chip specialist won both the Quoted Company category and the coveted Business of the Year prize, an achievement of particular note given the keenness of competition across all of the categories. The feat earned the company the right to take home two of the competition's trademark Steuben crystal obelisks.

CSR also became the first company ever to win the award two years running and only the second to win it twice.

The region's foremost and longest-running business awards are sponsored by Eversheds, Lloyds TSB Corporate, English Partnerships, UK Trade & Investment, Deloitte and the East of England Development Agency (EEDA).

Plastic Logic, which is developing printable plastic electronics, won the coveted Innovation award, following in the footsteps of world-class players such as ARM and Acambis. The company's technology has the potential to overhaul vast swathes of the electronics industry, enabling new product concepts in a wide range of applications including displays and sensors.

Astron, a Huntingdon data and document management company won the Private Company prize. The company is growing fast internationally and is likely to continue to do so through a mix of organic expansion and acquisition.There has been increasing speculation that the company maybe working towards an IPO, but chief executive, David Mitchell said this only one option being explored.

Specialising in document business process outsourcing, the company's Blue Chip client list includes British Airways, Lloyds TSB and Marks and Spencer.

Two Peterborough companies emerged victorious from the ceremony, with Peter Brotherhood scooping the International Trade honour and Coloplast prevailing in Growth & Expansion.

Peter Brotherhood is a 137 year-old steam turbine manufacturer, with equipment operating in over 100 countries around the world, supported by an international network of representatives.

Fast-growing Coloplast, has developed an innovative range of specialist healthcare products ranging from ostomy and wound care to skin health.

A special award was presented by Business Weekly to Michael Marshall, chairman and CEO of Cambridge's largest industrial employer, the Marshall Group. The award was given in recognition of his personal contribution to the aerospace industry locally, regionally and nationally.

The guest speaker at the ceremony was Professor Sir David King, chief scientific adviser to the UK Government. In a wide-ranging address, Sir David highlighted the role that UK manufacturing must play in improving the country's competitiveness on the global stage.

He also mapped out his vision for the creation of a ‘Golden Triangle,’ harnessing the innovative capacity of centres such as Cambridge, Oxford and Bristol and the financial muscle of London to build the next generation of UK-owned hi-tech heavyweights.