A RECORD number of businesses raced to enter this year's Oxfordshire Business Awards.

Entries were boosted by new categories for innovation, new business and Oxfordshire Business Person of the Year, a new sponsor and a new venue for the glittering final of the competition, which is now in its fifth year.

The innovation category, which replaces community involvement, is being sponsored by Newsquest (Oxfordshire), publishers of the Oxford Mail and FOX FM.

Innovation finalists are computing firm Connectology, of Wellington Street, Thame; communications company HighwayOne Corporation, of Oasis Park, Eynsham and medical firm PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, of Oxford Science Park, Oxford.

The finalists in the new business category, sponsored by Business Link Heart of England and Lloyds Bank are: Apartments in Oxford, of St Thomas Street, Oxford; mail-room specialists Promail, of Beaumont Road, Banbury; and Signum Technologies, of

Thorney Leys Business Park, Witney.

Brothers Gary and Jon Frank, of The Fabulous Bakin' Boys, Station Lane, Witney, are finalists for Oxfordshire Business Person of the Year along with Michael Glossop, of Ferrofluidics, of Talisman Business Centre, Bicester; and Dr Paul Drayson, of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals. Finalists in the developing people category, sponsored by the Heart of England Training and Enterprise Council and car makers Rover, are: Keith Bailey Travel, of St Aldate's, Oxford; nursery company Child and Co (Oxford), of Reading Road, Wallingford and print firm WebMart, of Telford Road Industrial Estate, Bicester.

Finalists in the export category, sponsored by express carrier DHL International (UK) and business advisers Grant Thornton, are: medical firm Cytocell, of Adderbury, near Banbury; publisher Health Press, of Abingdon and former Oxfordshire Business of the Year Software 2000, of the Oxford Science Park.

A new sponsor for 1999 is the Four Pillars Hotels Group, which will host the final at the Oxford Thames Four Pillars Hotel at Sandford-on-Thames, on Friday, June 18, where the guest speaker will be Labour MP Ken Livingstone.

The Four Pillars hotel group is joining Unipart in sponsoring the customer care category in the competition, which is organised by the Heart of England Training and Enterprise Council.

The customer care category finalists are the three-star 63-room Banbury House Hotel, of Oxford Road, Banbury; book storage and distribution company Bookpoint, of Milton Park, near Abingdon; and security firm Fortress Alarms, of Abingdon Road, Drayton, near Abingdon.

Story date: Friday 21 May

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.