The husband and wife who founded a children's nursery firm celebrated a triple success at the Oxfordshire Business of the Year Awards last night.

Lesley and Ian Millar, who run Child & Co, based in Wallingford, were the toast of hundreds of guests at the glittering ceremony as the company took the Business of the Year title as well as the Customer Care category.

The evening, held at the Four Pillars Hotel, Sandford, was also a personal triumph for Ms Millar as she received the Business Person of the Year accolade.

The mother-of-three left school at 16 with no qualifications before becoming a primary schoolteacher and then an office manager. The ten set up the nursery business.

Child & Co runs 11 nurseries caring for 1,500 children and prides itself on the lengths taken to ensure their young charges, parents and staff, are looked after properly. Founded 12 years ago, the company now employs more than 250 staff.

Mr Millar believes the secret of Child & Co's success is the personal touch. He said: "The whole idea is that we are approachable. We have an open-door policy which means anyone -- parents, children or staff -- has access to Lesley or myself."

The awards also saw the introduction of a new category, Young Business Person of the Year, which was won by Nigel Harris, managing director of fruit and vegetable wholesaler Fresh Direct, based in Bicester.

Since being appointed in 1997, Mr Harris has transformed the family firm's fortunes, turning a £700,000 loss into a £294,000 profit last year, thanks to a string of national contracts.

The company now has 145 staff and is building new premises which will employ a further 40 workers.

Another new category, E-commerce was won by Abingdon-based TM Solutions, which was created just two years ago. TM provides a wide range of telecommunications for small businesses and carries out much of its business on the Internet.

Offering structured training to all workers landed Bibby Distribution in Bicester the Developing People award. Judges noted that this had led to staff turnover dropping by 40 per cent with the sickness rate down by a similar figure.

A groundbreaking device which can diagnose a variety of diseases from a pinprick of blood in seconds won Yarnton firm Oxford Biosensors the Innovation award.

It will allow tests to be carried out immediately by doctors rather than patients having to wait for results from laboratories. The device is as small as a mobile telephone.

The Growing Business category was won by Abingdon firm Leadbitter Con- struction.

When founder Frederick Rendell retired, his son Bob expanded the business from £300,000 annual turnover to an estimated £109m this year.

Last year, it moved from Eynsham to new premises at the Abingdon Science Park and now employs 330 with offices at Bristol and Bracknell and a new development planned for the south coast.

Earlier this year, it was taken over by Dutch construc.tion giant Heijmans but Mr Rendell is still in charge and the firm is run independently.

Stephen Dexter, chairman of the awards organising committee, said: Standards improve every year, but we are confident the winners will be beacons for other businesses to emulate."

List of winners and runners-up in full Oxfordshire Business of the Year:

Winner: Child & Co, Wallingford.

Business Person of the Year: Winner: Lesley Millar, Child & Co, Wallingford. Runners up: Tracey Putt, Fired Earth, Adderbury; Bruce Savage, BioAnaLab, Oxford.

Young Business Person of the Year: Winner: Nigel Harris, Fresh Direct, Bicester.

Runners up: Paul Bailey, Keith Bailey Travel, Oxford; Donna Boyles, SOS Recruitment, Banbury.

Growing Business: Winner: Leadbitter Construction, Abingdon. Runners up: British Bakels, Bicester; Godwins Ice Cream Farm, Weston-on-the-Green.

Innovation: Winner: Oxford Biosensors, Yarnton.

Runners up: Spice Application Systems, Abingdon; The Aroma Company, Wallingford.

Developing People: Winner: Bibby Distribution, Bicester.

Runners up: Origin Pharmaceutical Services, Wantage; Daniels healthcare, Kidlington.

Customer Care: Winner: Child & Co, Wallingford.

Runners up: Leadbitter Construction, Abingdon; Allen Associates, Oxford.

E-commerce: Winner: TM Solutions, Abingdon.

Runners up: Divorce Online, Abingdon; Xit2, Charlbury.