A ‘WORLD beater’ is the vision for the East Lancashire firm which took home the Innovation and Technology of the Year award.

Despite only having a product on the market for eight months, the ingenuity of Prestige Medical Ltd is driving it way ahead of its competitors.

Ecstatic though the Blackburn company’s representatives were, they appreciated how tough the competition was.

Prestige Medical Ltd was up against Burnley-based Copifax, a copy, scan and print solutions firm, and Clayton-le-Moors-based Cleverboxes, which offers IT hardware resale.

Christine Bowness, sales and marketing manager at Prestige, said: “We are excited to have won this award, it was a strong category. We launched the product in March so we are delighted to win.

“For people who work at Prestige Medical they know we are local people who are keen to see the business grow.”

Prestige Medical Ltd has created a new generation of sterilisation equipment.

The company, which employs 63 people at its Dutton Way base, specialises in supplying dentists and vets with instruments which are used to sterilise equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam.

Autoclaves, as they are known, have been taken to an innovative new level by Prestige Medical Ltd.

The company has developed and invested in a vacuum autoclave which can process four times as many instruments as leading autoclaves in the market.

The Optima uses Flash Steam technology which can also cut cycle times by 50 per cent.

Sales are expected to reach circa £180,000 this year with predictions that it will double next year.

Robert Stevenson, quality assurance manager, said: “A lot of hard work from staff has gone into that product and together we hope it is a world beater.”