THE Barcode Warehouse is Britain's number one in its sector and – now – the local business world too.

The company, which supports some of the UK's largest firms, has carried off the Evening Post's Nottinghamshire Company of the Year Award.

That's the icing on the cake for a firm which has been on a roll all year and, now turning over some £16m, has increased its Newark workforce by 20 per cent during the past 12 months.

The KPMG and Nottinghamshire County Council-sponsored award was presented during a ceremony held at the Council House which featured video profiles, sponsored by The University of Nottingham, of all the finalists.

The Barcode Warehouse's business is supplying and supporting the technology enabling barcodes to be produced and, along with the items they're attached to, to be tracked.

Still growing, it has more than 16,000 customers and – with the Royal Mail Group, TNT, DHL and Smiths News among them – must assist in delivering to just about everyone in the country at one time or another.

Earlier this year the company won its most prestigious contract to date, the largest ever roll-out of enterprise mobility systems in Europe which included the supply and support of 27,500 hand-held devices to Royal Mail Group under a five year contract.

Another radio frequency identification (RFID) system is being trialled in the NHS as a way of keeping track of blood products and has the potential to be rolled-out nationally –which would mean big business for the firm.

Deanestor plc, Omega Red Group Ltd, and J Wright Roofing Ltd also won through to the finals.

PARAGON LAW has won the Business Link-backed Nottinghamshire Small Business of the Year Award.

It comes on top of the growing reputation the firm is building at national and international level for its advice on immigration, asylum and human rights.

Established only five years ago, it provides advice to both corporate clients and individuals as far afield as India and China. Currently with a team of 55, it turned over more than £1m last year, and is also gaining a steady stream of referrals from other law firms not specialising in its niche.

It is regularly retained by the HR departments of large organisations. Locally, its blue chip clients include Speedo, Centre Parcs, Vision Express and The University of Nottingham.

Paragon currently holds one of the largest Legal Services Commission contracts for immigration law in Britain.

MD Thalej Vasishta has been the driving force behind the firm's creation and success.

He founded an immigration team for a law firm a decade back and then, just five years ago, engineered its amicable spin-out to become today's stand-alone Paragon.

He was also voted Nottinghamshire Solicitor of the Year by the law society in March.

Prime Principal and Sweet Success Sugarcraft Ltd were also finalists.

JAMES STEPHENS shouldn't have any trouble making a home for his newly-won Emda-sponsored Nottinghamshire Young Businessperson of the Year Award.

He is MD and driving force behind specialist fitted furniture company Deanestor plc which has been producing growth rates of up to 50% per annum even during the recession.

Although allied to the construction sector, it is still turning over almost £10m in its latest full year and employing 180 people. Mr Stephens has been responsible for a successful restructuring to take advantage of heavy government investment in the health and education sectors.

Now, its forte is the manufacture and installation of fitted furniture for hospitals, dental surgeries, laboratories, health centres and, increasingly, the education sector.

As part of that, the Mansfield firm operates on a just-in-time basis and provides an almost entirely bespoke service and products.

Some of its less successful competitors have been offering standard items coupled with long lead-in times and have failed to recognise the importance of health care end-user requirements such as infection control and clinical issues. Their failure has enabled Deanestor to become the market leader.

Trent Bridge Construction founder Chris O'Hara and Paragon Law MD Thalej Vasishta were also finalists.

QUANTIX's bright-ideas team has helped it carry off the Browne Jacobson-sponsored Business Innovation Award. The company finds new ways to help client organisations improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their IT systems.

Its clever moves are meeting an ever-increasing demand from organisations working towards making the most of the post-recession era.

Active in sectors ranging from financial services to health care and from telecoms to transport, it has won some prestigious IT industry awards including Oracle Technology Partner of the Year, and an 02 mobility award for its secure remote access services.

Based on Nottingham's Chetwynd Business Park, it has launched several new managed services over the past six months, including GEM – enterprise IT, and its Rapid Recovery disaster recovery software.

In lay terms, GEM is said to be a ground-breaking enterprise checking solution able to monitor every device, database and application that is part of a client's IT infrastructure.

Continuing development of such programmes is expected to enable the company to maintain its double-digit growth rate – and the latest forecast for 2008/9 is that pre-tax earnings will approach £2m, more than 40% up on the previous year.

Innovata Biomed Ltd and Source BioScience plc also got to the finals.

NATIONWIDE FIRE SPRINKLERS has added the Nottingham City Council-sponsored New Enterprise of the Year Award to its scorching trail of success.

Formed a little over two years ago, the company develops and manufactures fire sprinkler systems and associated technology.

It turned over more than £1.5m in its second year – and recently took orders worth £200,000 in two days.

The Nottingham company has also boosted its workforce by a quarter to 22 people during the past year, and sells to the growing numbers of householders fitting sprinkler systems in their homes as well as to non-domestic customers.

Its non-domestic contracts include one for the MoD to help protect British and NATO troops, several for local authority care and children's homes – one involving 74 establishments in one order – and for a 420-bed hotel.

But the firm's real growth potential is in its in-house developed and patented ATACS (automatic testing and control system) which provides constant remote monitoring of sprinkler installations while removing need for routine servicing.

The system constantly monitors installations and, if there's a problem, sends a text message to the company's 24-hour control centre which can then promptly arrange to fix it.

ReMIT Ltd and The Storage Bed Company were also finalists.