Sussex companies are in line for honours in the county's leading business competition.

Winners in the annual Sussex Business Awards will be announced on November 28, when more than 500 business and civic leaders gather for the awards gala dinner at The Copthorne Effingham Park, Gatwick.

The master of ceremonies will be writer and broadcaster Simon Fanshawe.

In a new award, Learning pays!, sponsored by Sussex Learning and Skills Council, three finalists are contending to prove they are best at developing their workforce:

the Martlets Hospice, Hove, Southdown Housing Association, Lewes, and Southern Water, Worthing.

Two Brighton businesses square up for the small business award, sponsored by Seeboard Energy: Cleanroom Solutions, which designs and installs clean rooms for information technology and pharmaceuticals, and recruitment consultants Thinkwell.

Digital media, construction and creative communications companies are in the finals of the business community citizenship award: Desktop Display, Integra and Lime Marketing, all Brighton-based.

The award for outstanding achievement in community involvement is sponsored by American Express and Brighton and Hove Business Community Partnership.

Finalists for the creative industries award, sponsored by the Brighton and Hove City and East Sussex County councils, are Brighton-

based design and digital marketing agency Kerb and entertainment and arts venue Komedia.

Two women and one man vie for Sussex businessman/ businesswoman of the year, sponsored by Southern FM: Joanne Freer, managing director of Cotton Bottoms, Storrington, a baby goods wholesaler, Jane North, chief executive of The Enterprise Agency for Brighton, Hove and Lewes, and John Worth, managing director of Worth Media, Brighton.

Cotton Bottoms is also a finalist in the Virgin Atlantic dynamic business award, pitted against Crawley computer software business Mission Testing.

Another new prize, the career development award for the most effective use of training, has Anthony Magee, an assistant supervisor with Brighton Fire Alarms, in the finals with East Sussex County Council staff members, Fiona Hall, a personnel officer, and Hilary Humphreys, assistant clerk to the Lord Lieutenant.

The award is sponsored by Sussex Downs College and Cash Bases, of Newhaven.

The finalists for the environmental awareness award, sponsored by South East Water and the Environment Agency, and the university business partnership award, sponsored by Brighton and Sussex Universities, will be announced at the dinner.

Companies vying to prove they have the most innovative products or services are Hailsham-based charity gift voucher organisation Donate As You Spend and the specialist tour operator Equity Travel, of Brighton, finalists in the asb law/Sussex Innovation Centre-sponsored innovation award.

Sussex retailer of the year, sponsored by The Argus, is between Uckfield-based Frills all Round and State of the Art Styling, of Goring.

Sussex company of the year, sponsored by business advisors KPMG, sees Brighton Fire Alarms up against Eastbourne photographic company CMS (GB)

and haulage, storage and Sussex Business distribution business Page Transport, of Ford, near Chichester.

The finalists were chosen by a panel of judges headed by Malcolm Diamond, former chief executive of Uckfield-based industrial fastenings group Trifast.

Sussex Business Awards are supported by Sussex Enterprise, Fortis Bank, the Copthorne Effingham Park, and Concept Media.

The awards were created and organised by The Priory Partnership.

For ticket availability, visit www.sussex-businessawards.co.uk or call Lynna Williams at the awards office on 01273 207155.