AWARD-WINNING corporate clothing specialist Simon Jersey has scooped another top accolade in a national competition.

As a winner of the Inside UK Enterprise 2000 Awards, the Altham-based company will be taking the secrets of its business success to Germany at the end of the month.

Together with the four other national winners, two senior managers from Simon Jersey will spend a week visiting six German companies to compare notes on best practice in business.

Technical director Richard Mullen, who will be accompanied on the visit by Anne Baldwin, customer focus manager, said the award had created a "real buzz" at the company's headquarters. "We have for many years striven to deliver the best in everything we do," he said. "To be nominated by our visitors to be the best new host demonstrates how far we have come as an organisation.

"We are, of course, hungry for more ideas, thoughts and comparisons and that is why we are very much looking forward to the study tour to Germany.

"I am sure we will come back with a long list of things to work on."

The Inside UK Enterprise is a best practice exchange programme run by the Small Business Service, an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Visitors to Simon Jersey voted the company best new host.

Last year, it won a North West Excellence Award and had further success in the Management Today/Unisys awards. It also won the BBC Brian Redhead award for services to the community.