TELEVISION production entrepreneur Phil Redmond was last night named Business person of the Year at the Daily Post's annual Regional Business Awards.
Mr Redmond received his award at a glittering ceremony at St George's Hall in Liverpool city centre.
The black tie dinner was attended by 500 of the region's leading business figures.
Mr Redmond won his award for more than two decades of work building up the Childwall-based Mersey TV business that started in the early 1980s when he first wrote scripts for Grange Hill. He subsequently produced Brookside for Channel 4 and more recently Hollyoaks, the soap based around the lives of young people living in Chester.
His award was presented by Philip Rooney, a partner in law firm DLA Piper, an awards sponsor.
The KPMG-sponsored Company of the Year award was won by Bibby Group. This long-established company appealed to the judges because of its 200-year track record of investment. It has also undertaken a major broadening of its activities into financial services in recent years.
The runners-up in the category were VLM. Following its arrival in the city last year, VLM continues to show commitment to Liverpool and has aspirations to expand its services further.
Getrag Ford Transmissions was the third short-listed company in the category. This business is successful on several fronts, exporting most of its output overseas and employing local people in highly-skilled jobs. In total, 75 entries were received for the seven short-listed categories.
STS Boats won the New Business of the Year award for the way it has exploited growing interest in canal holidays. Break Bread, an innovative gourmet food home delivery service and Taxi TV, which is introducing video facilities into taxis in a number of cities around Britain, were the runners-up in the category.
The Exporter of the Year award was won by Speke-based laboratory equipment maker Powder Systems. Export orders account for 85% of the company's output. From its Estuary Commerce Park premises, it makes and sells laboratory equipment to all corners of the earth, including a diverse range of linguistic markets.
Eli Lilly's Speke factory was short-listed because it sells products to a worldwide network of pharmaceutical factories. It is an example of the type of employer that is key to the future of the region's economy. The Speke factory makes the company's entire global supply of biosynthetic human growth hormone.
