THE three winners of The Journal's competition to support young North East businesses are revealed today - and they demonstrate the wide breadth of entrepreneurial firms we have.

IT and telecommunications group Specialist IT Group, digital signs company F1 Group and Stanley-based Lingotot, which helps babies and young children to learn foreign languages, are the successful firms.

They win a year of mentoring from three senior local business leaders – Alan Holmes, Geoff Hodgson and Alan Hall – as well as free advertising in The Journal through the Local Business Accelerators competition.

Today, Prime Minister David Cameron led the congratulations for the winning companies.

“It’s brilliant that so many promising young companies, from such a wide range of sectors, are benefiting from this excellent initiative,” he said. “Entrepreneurship, creativity and ambition are essential for our economic recovery and through Local Business Accelerators, newspapers such as The Journal are supporting some great new British businesses to grow and helping to boost their local economy.

“I wish the newspapers, businesses and their mentors every success over the coming months.”

Lingotot’s Angela Sterling is launching three pilot franchise operations as well as new products in 2012 and said the award “couldn’t have come at a more perfect time”.

She said: “The business is at a point where it’s about to grow and Government support has been cut. I’m very excited about the free advertising, but the mentorship is possibly even more important.

“When you’re on the cusp of growth, you really need professional advice so that you can find out more about who you should trust and where to invest the money you have.”