LAST year the boss of Middlesbrough-based pawnbroker Ramsdens was named Teesside's leading business boss.

Executive chairman and owner Stewart Smith then went on to become the region’s champion of champions, being named the North East Business Executive of the Year 2010.

The son of Ramsdens founder Herbert Smith, Stewart has grown the company into a £37m turnover business employing 350 staff across 85 UK branches.

And annual revenues are set to rise to around £45m this year on the back of new contract wins and the recent seven-figure acquisition of Scottish pawnbroker Queenspark.

The meteoric rise of Ramsdens has attracted national attention with the firm listed in the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 and in the top 10 of the Sunday Times PwC Profit Track 100.

It also won recognition on a regional level when Stewart was crowned Business Executive of the Year last November.

Smith is now looking firmly to the future as he attempts to find new growth opportunities for Ramsdens.

Growing up in Middlesbrough, attending Acklam Hall Grammar before completing a business studies degree at Teesside Polytechnic, Stewart joined Ramsdens in 1974.

By then the family business was already going strong after launching as Ramsdens Financial in the 1950s.

Initially the business was primarily involved in home collected credit but in 1997 it branched into pawnbroking as a franchisee of John Ramsdens Pawnbrokers.

Five years later it acquired the Ramsdens business from its franchisor, quickly beginning a rapid expansion into the pawnbroking industry across Teesside. Other Teesside firms will try to emulate Ramsdens’ upward mobility over the coming months.

But great businesses don’t exist without great people behind them.

That’s why the Business Executive of the Year Awards were launched – to reward inspirational corporate leaders who can navigate their business through choppy economic waters.

:: Click here to find out more about the North East Business Executive of the Year Awards 2011