MANSFIELD company Hall-Fast Industrial Supplies has been named the East Midlands Online Business of the Year by the Federation of Small Business – its 24th award.

The company will represent the region in the national finals in London in May.

Hall-Fast operates numerous websites featuring more than 175,000 products that are supplied to 78 countries.

Owner Mr Malk Hall said: “It’s great that our innovative strategy to use the internet to generate export sales has been recognised yet again on a national level. It is pleasing, we are proud to be flying the flag for the region.”

In June 2013, the UK government published its Strategy for the Information Economy sector. This formed part of the Government’s work on wider industrial strategy, and Hall-Fast was used as an example of how a business can grow using the web.