The winner of the Evening Press Business Awards 2000 will be announced tonight at a glittering awards ceremony at the Merchant Adventurers' Hall, York.

The packed event will be the tense climax of months of deliberation by judges who picked 25 finalists in eight categories from a record number of entrants in the competition's ten-year history

They are our widest-based and best-backed business awards ever.

Sponsors are Barclays Bank (Small Business of the Year), North Yorkshire Training and Enterprise Council (Progress Through People Award), Compris (Best Innovative Use of New Technology), Yorkshire Water (Best Environmental Company), York and North Yorkshire Export Forum (Exporter of the Year), Torch Telecom (Growth Business of the Year), Garbutt & Elliott (Business Personality of the Year) and DE Ford insurance brokers (New Business of the Year).

Hosting the black-tie presentation dinner will be BBC Radio York broadcaster Colin Hazelden, the producer and presenter of North Yorkshire Tonight. He joins fellow broadcaster Harry Gration, who will be guest speaker.

Details of all the winners will be available on thisisyork tomorrow.