A PET behaviour centre based in Defford, near Pershore, is celebrating the purr-fect start to 2005, by winning a top industry award.

The firm, which is located on Upper Street, won Best Small Exporter at the UK Trade & Investment's international trade awards.

The centre, which has just three full-time employees and one part-time worker, won the award for its work in launching a series of animal behaviour booklets in the USA and Europe.

Its success started two years ago following an unsolicited order of 220,000 booklets to Japan. Now it hopes to increase its annual turnover by more than 20 per cent.

The business's popular series of books, including The Good Behaviour Guide, How to have a Happy Puppy, and How to have a Contented Cat, is now on sale in the USA.

It has also appointed distributors in the Netherlands, France and Germany to sell the animal guides.

Publications manager Pauline Appleby put much of their success down to the work with UK Trade & Investment.

"They have given us the knowledge and direction to find the right contacts and sources of information," she said.

"Working with UK Trade & Investment has saved us a huge amount of time and resources and has given the project additional credibility.

"I have also attended a number of export workshops run by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce and Business Link and benefited not just from the excellent tutors, but from the other attendees, all of whom had their own experiences to share."

As well as booklets and guides, the centre also does one-to-one consultations.

For more information log on to www.petbehaviourcentre.com