A WORCESTERSHIRE company supplied the celebratory tipple at the annual investors company conference of the Adv-antage Early Growth Fund (AEGF).

Eliot's Ltd, which has benefited from AEGF backing, patents a unique dispenser that heats up alcoholic beverages - and which can be found at about 2,500 pub and club premises across the UK.

The £5m AEGF - part of the Advantage West Midlands extensive Access to Finance initiative - is a venture capital co-investment fund set up to assist early stage businesses that have growth potential and are based in the West Midlands.

Eliot's Ltd, started in 1997 by managing director Ian Elliott and co-director Mark Lee, attracted £100,000 of venture capital support from the AEGF in July 2005, as part of a £250,000 equity fund-raising venture.

The company, based at Hanley Childe, near Tenbury Wells, is looking to more than double its turnover in 2005/06, aiming to increase its installed dispenser base to more than 7,000 sites.

Ian Elliott, of Eliot's, said: "The company has gone from strength to strength and the investment from the Advantage Early Growth Fund has enabled the development and manufacture of a new dispenser allowing the company to expand its customer base and sales this winter.

"In the first year of trade, we supplied three pubs. We now supply about 2,500 and this will rise to more than 7,000 this winter. We also supply the catering trade, supplying major venues such as winter ice-rinks at Warwick Castle, Hampton Court and Somerset House - and alternative drinks, such as Whisky Hot Toddy, are popular at Twickenham and Murrayfield."

The dispenser is provided on free loan to the pub, on condition the mulled wine is bought from Eliot's.