Richmond Motors Group is celebrating after being recognised as one of the best businesses in the Midlands.

The company was among the 10 finalists at the 2004 Midlands Excellence Awards ceremony attended by 1,300 guests at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre on Thursday.

Managing director Ray Bradnock was presented with a certificate by five-times Olympic gold medalist Sir Steve Redgrave, who was guest speaker.

Midlands Excellence is dedicated to helping all-types of organisations across the region to improve their performance.

Entrants compile submissions of up to 75 pages in which they describe their performance in each of the nine sections of the EFQM Excellence Model, a management framework used by 20,000 organisations across Europe. Valuable feedback is then supplied by the team of specially trained assessors.

Richmond Motors Group is a family owned company specialising in accident repair, rental and servicing. Having grown from a two-car shed operation in Hockley, Birmingham in the mid 1960s it now employs 150 people and is one of the largest independent companies in its field in the UK.

The group operates from five sites in the West Midlands including Stourbridge, Redditch and Smethwick.

Bradnock said: "Being a finalist is great news and we are proud to see it as a point of achievement along the excellence journey we are undertaking."