PAMELA HOLE of Ridgeway Contractors, Tredunock, has won the 14th annual Gwent Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

At a winners' lunch at Cwrt Bleddyn Hotel near Usk, Welsh Development Agency chairman Roger Jones presented Pamela with a silver salver and a £3,500 package of cash, computer vouchers, free advertising and consultancy.

The judges of the competition, which is backed by the Argus, Barclays, M4 Business Breakfast, Newport & Gwent Enterprise and Peacheys, praised the outstanding approach to business of Pamela and her husband and business partner Stephen.

They could also be praised for their tenacity, having entered the competition last year and been pipped by winner Draig Personnel. After two years of trading, Ridgeway Contractors has a turnover of £500,000 and a profit margin in the region of 25 per cent.

The company is a fencing specialist but anticipates diversifying into other forms of groundwork during its five-year plan.

Its unique selling point is the quality of its work: in an industry where 'rough and ready' is often the norm, Ridgeway stands out for its workmanship.

Innovation has also played a role in the company's success. Construction steelwork is assembled by a subcontractor off site and dropped into the ground rather than being assembled in situ. This costs little more in material/supplier costs but saves two-days' labour.

The company also won the special M4 Business Breakfast training prize of £1,000 for its impressively-structured approach to training.

By next year the firm anticipates employing 10 people and hopes to double this by 2005.

There were two runners-up in this year's competition: The Salad Bowl, founded by Louise Rumsey, and Osborne Lodge day nursery, founded by Nikola Masters.