Watford-based Wenta, the local Enterprise Agency for Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, has won the National Enterprise Award for Innovation, at the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies’ annual awards ceremony.

The Awards were announced during a gala dinner hosted by snooker legend Willie Thorne at The Belfry Hotel in Nottingham. Wenta fought off strong competition from Business Support organisations around the country.

The accolade was awarded for Wenta’s latest service offering “My Incubator” which offers business incubation to start-up businesses. The first My Incubator was opened at the Business & Technology Centre (btc) in Stevenage in November last year, a second then followed in June of this year at The Business Centre in Luton.

Unlike the standard incubator model of small office accommodation for start-up businesses My Incubator has been designed to provide new start-up and pre-start businesses with a location to base their business/idea where they would receive intensive support from a highly skilled business advisor. The facility is free of charge for successful applicants for the first three months while they develop their idea, work on their business plan with an advisor and get their business started.

My Incubator is designed to complement Wenta’s existing service offerings of business advice, training and education programmes and business centre facilities. It provides an ideal environment for aspiring entrepreneurs along with new and developing companies. Once established, growing businesses are able to expand and move on to use the individual office suites at the centre within which My Incubator is based.

With two already open Wenta are now working on an exciting initiative to develop this further and create a network of incubators across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

Commenting on Wenta’s win, the judges of the National Enterprise Awards said, “For the Innovation Award, the judges were looking for new and different examples of good practice in enterprise support and how, ultimately, they contribute to greater sustainability of their organisation.. Our winner, Wenta is a perfect example of an agency improving the services offered to their clients through My Incubator. They have established a new incubator model with a comprehensive package of support for start-ups and created a specific brand for the project that is now being rolled out across a number of locations.”

Wenta’s Innovation Manager, Greg Thomas was delighted with the achievement and said: “In just ten months we have made it happen. We have established a unique service with a transferable brand that can applied to any business centre not just our own which gives the service unlimited potential.

” We believe establishing an incubator network across the counties we serve will fast track start-ups through a co-ordinated support network. This award is a fantastic achievement for Wenta and it’s great to have our efforts recognised by the National Federation.”

This is the third National Enterprise Award Wenta have received in four years. In 2007 they received the top accolade for Education links for the development of their Education programmes and in 2008 they were awarded for excellence in Marketing. They hope to continue this run of good fortune at next year’s awards.