THREE companies from Worcestershire have secured a place in the final stage of the Midlands Family Business Awards, the only independent initiative to celebrate and recognise the region’s family run and owned enterprises.

They include quality management specialists ISO Quality Services of Bromyard Road, Worcester, logistics firm Oakland International of Redditch, which is nominated in two categories, and Broad Street DIY of Bromsgrove.

They are joined by 17 other West Midland companies and 31 family businesses from the East Midlands to contest the ten categories in the the seventh year of the annual awards.

ISO Quality Services are finalists in the employer of the year award, while Oakland features in both the corporate social responsibility and service excellence categories. Broad Street also contests the service excellence award.

The winners will be unveiled at the awards dinner in Birmingham’s Great Hall on Thursday, November 17. All 51 finalists are now automatically entered in to the People’s Choice Award, which will see them face the public vote to find the overall winner and highly commended businesses.

Now in their seventh year, the not-for-profit Midlands Family Business Awards are backed and run by The Wilson Organisation. The firm’s managing director Charlotte Perkins, the third generation of the family to lead the business alongside her sister Annabel Prow, said: "The awards are the regions only independent initiative to recognise the work and achievements of family businesses. This year’s entries demonstrate the exceptional pedigree of the Midlands’ family businesses, and the finalists together prove the family business sector’s vital contribution to the region’s economy. We wish all fifty-one finalists the very best in the final round.”