AXA - Be Life Confident

The company, which designs and manufacturers bespoke laser and fiber optic systems for precision instrumentation, goes forward to the grand final of the prestigious National Business Awards, dubbed by Gordon Brown as the 'Business Oscars', at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on 13 November.

Point Source's expertise has aided bio-technology research and semiconductor fabrication, and has even been used in research on the NASA space shuttle and in human genome projects.

The AXA Small to Medium Sized Business of the Year Award recognises businesses for their entrepreneurship and innovation and highlights the importance of management excellence in maintaining a successful business today and continuing to grow it in the future.

Graham Trueman, the South East Regional Judge, said: "Although it was a hard decision with such strong competition from the region, we chose Point Source because it was able to demonstrate market leading innovation, which combined with a strong customer focused strategy has ensured that their customer retention and re-order levels remain strong and sales and profitability impressive. We wish them every success in the National Final."

Point Source now joins four other regional finalists battling it out to win the AXA Small to Medium Sized Business of the Year Award. These are:

• Tyrrells Potato Chips, Leominster (www.tyrrellspotatochips.co.uk) - Producers of gourmet snacks to over 5000 independent retailers in the UK and last year’s regional winner for the second time.
• Quartix, Newtown (www.quartix.net) - Producers of a vehicle tracking system to commercial fleet operators, and finalists for the second year running.
• Applied Language Solutions, Huddersfield (www.appliedlanguage.com) - Professional translation services covering the financial, medical, marketing or any other field.
• Valueworks, Wigan (www.valueworks.co.uk) - Provider of tailor-made supply chains that remove cost inefficiencies and controls purchasing behaviour across organisations.

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