THE top prize in this year's Winchester Business Excellence Awards went to an engineering company that had looked as if it would leave the awards ceremony empty-handed.

Cougar Automation, based at Denmead, had been shortlisted for two of the seven award categories, but failed to win either of them.

"We thought we'd blown it," said boss, Clive Hutchinson.

Despite being passed over for the Mawson & Company Award for Service Excellence and the Dutton Gregory Solicitors Award for Business Excellence through People, the Cougar team was called onto the stage to receive the Royal Bank of Scotland Business of the Year Award.

The judges said they awarded the top prize to Cougar largely because of its enlightened attitude to staff.

Stuart Vause, MD of Winchester Cathedral Enterprises, and organiser of the city's Christmas ice rink, was this year's recipient of the Millennium Egg.

The black-tie occasion included a three-course meal and dancing until 1am.

The awards were presented by Amar Latif, the blind entrepreneur, broadcaster and adventurer, with each category and its shortlisted entrants described by Stewart Dunn, MD of Newsquest Hampshire, and Richard Steel, chairman of the Winchester funeral directors.

Mr Dunn, whose strategic responsibilities include the Hampshire Chronicle, said every firm in the finals represented "the cream of local enterprise".

He praised the awards' principal sponsor, Royal Bank of Scotland, thanking senior commercial manager, Gordon Warren, and his team for being "a real driving force" behind their success.

A new category this year was the Hampshire Workspace Start-up Business of the Year Award, which went to Platform School of dance, a company started 17 months ago.

After the ceremony, Platform's co-director, Jenny Rooney, said dance instruction was highly competitive in Winchester: "So it's good to know that people recognise a dance school as a business."

Jonathan Greatrix, boss of TFW and the Furniture Emporium, was "thrilled" to win the e-Hampshire Award for e-commerce: "It's what we wanted to excel at because e-commerce is where the world is going."

Graham Compton-Price, manager of Jones Bootmaker, in The Square, said the shop had won the service excellence award partly through the ability of staff to serve more than one customer at the same time.

Sarah Pepper, founder of Bouquet Bouquet, said she couldn't believe she had won the University of Winchester Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

She explained the company's novel formula of making gift bouquets, not from flowers, but from useful and appropiate items; for instance, dusters, for a house-warming, or baby clothes, for a new arrival.

Tracey Hillier, manager of Bereweeke Court Nursing Home, said she believed the home had won the Excellence through People Award largely by giving responsibility to staff and showing confidence in them.

"I'm only as good as my staff," she added.