A TALENTED fashion designer was this week crowned Best New Business in Tees Valley at an awards ceremony on Tuesday.

Kate Fearnley, who started her Billingham business in January last year, specialises in producing designer clothes from high quality fabrics, at high street prices.

She took the overall accolade at the Best New Business Awards 2002, as well as the Young Person Award.

The rapid expansion of the Kate Fearnley label has resulted in the business supplying 35 shops nationally and has meant that she now employs three full-time and two part-time staff.

"To win the award is a dream come true; it's what I've aspired to for years," she said. "It is an acknowledgement of the hard work put in and will give me inspiration to carry on working in the future.

"The awards provide an opportunity to meet fellow Northern entrepreneurs and to receive advice from professionals already in business in the North-East."

It was the third successful year for the Best New Business Awards, which were established to recognise and reward Tees Valley businesses which have been up and running for three years or less.

Colin Brown, of UK IFA NET, and co-promoters Business Link had their work cut out judging 174 entries across ten award categories, as well as deciding on the overall winner.

Other awards. - Community: Active Media UK, Guisborough, producers of the only independent, free newspaper in the North-East; Cultural Arts and Crafts: Ten Feet Tall, Middlesbrough, an independent organisation staging a broad range of music and arts events; Environmental: Mark Turnbull Forestry Services, Darlington, which carries out woodland and environmental contracts using working horses in difficult or protected areas; Manufacturing: Coverall (PVC & Canvas), Stockton, which offers made to measure cover solutions; Marketing: AFK Electro Vertreibs (UK), Darlington, which has launched a range of domestic appliances and consumer electronics in the UK market; Retail: MotoX Designs, Hartlepool, manufacturers of self-designed bedding and wallpaper with cross country motor cycle sport designs; Service: RS Cranes and Material Handling, Middlesbrough, which competes with multi-national companies in the field of cranes and material handling; Technology award: VTD, Norton, Stockton, which projects services to clients in the telecom and process engineering sectors.

Our picture shows, extreme left, Malcolm Taylor, chief executive Business Link, Tees Valley, and Colin Brown of UK IFA NET, with award-winner Kate Fearnley second from right and her staff, Sue Cooper, Gaynor Russell, and Danielle Endland.