National Award Win for Birmingham Business

Midlandís business officebroker.com, the UKís online provider of commercial office space, is today celebrating having been named national runner up in the Innovation Category of the British Small Business Champions Awards 2007.

Managing Director Jim Venables picked up the prestigious award at a Gala Dinner held in Gibson Hall in the City of London last night.

Commenting on his firmís success, Jim said: ìWe are truly honoured to have been named runner up in the Innovation Category of the British Small Business Champions Awards. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our employees, I am delighted that small as well as large businesses are now being recognised by the wider business community for their achievements and contribution to the national economy.î

Jim continued: ìWe have huge ambitions for officebroker.com which is already growing at a rapid pace and, having already moved into and made our mark on the US market we are now looking to expand into the Far East later this year. The success of our business is based on innovation and we have a fantastic team in place to ensure that we continue to develop in this as well as all other areas of our business.î

The British Small Business Champions Awards were launched in 2003 because the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) felt that while there were already many business awards schemes, none of them focused solely on small businesses.

Open to business with less than 50 employees and which have been trading for five or more years, these are the only national awards exclusively for small businesses and their aim is simple - to celebrate the achievements of and give recognition to small businesses across the UK. The Awards are broken down into six different categories ñ Innovation; Retail, Manufacturing, Ethical Business, Services and the Young Entrepreneur Award.

John Wright, National Chairman of the FSB, said: ìThese awards have become the highlight of the small business calendar and I congratulate officebroker.com on their impressive achievements to date. With small firms employing over half the UK private sector workforce it has never been more important to recognise their successes.î

Launched six years ago by entrepreneurs Jim Venables and Andy Haywood, officebroker.com has grown into a multi-million pound enterprise with offices in the UK and US, and plans to launch a division in Hong Kong in 2007.