At The Business End.

Byline: NEIL HODGSON Industry Reporter

THE contenders for this year's ECHO and MSIF Kickstart title are now in the home straight as we reveal the final three short-listed companies.

Today's feature completes the run-down of this year's finalists and judges will soon deliberate to choose the overall winner of the prize which is worth up to pounds 25,000.

The successful company will receive a pounds 10,000 cash prize and up to pounds 15,000-worth of business consultancy.

Kickstart is a joint venture between the ECHO the Merseyside Special Investment Fund to create 2,008 new jobs by the year 2008 when the city assumes the title of European Capital of Culture.

Judges whittled down this year's entry list to a final nine-strong short list which has been featured over the past three weeks.

The cash prize and consultancy is aimed at helping Merseyside entrepreneurs take the plunge and either create their own business or expand their existing business, hopefully leading to recruitment.

Kickstart, backed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and entrepreneur Richard Branson, will run until 2008 to present maximum opportunities for budding local businesses.

MSIF has an pounds 80m fund to provide businesses with finance packages (not grants) from pounds 3,000 to pounds 3m and so far has awarded investments to more than 800 companies.

If you need funding to start or grow a business or you just need advice call the Kickstart hot line on 0845 900 0151 and the Kickstart team will be pleased to help.

CPOS Systems, based in Old Swan, develop and supply point-of-sale systems for the hospitality industry.

Director Gary Smith (pictured) has years of experience in the cash register business and set up CPOS in 1994. One of the offshoots of the cash register point of sale (POS) industry has been the onset of hand held tills. CPOS have joined forces with Australian company Palmteq who manufacture the hand held POS system and supply them to bars and restaurants all over the Europe.

Clients include national chains Revolution Bars and Apollo Theatres as well as local bars and restaurants including Newz, Baby Cream and Pan American.

CPOS now employs 16 people and has a turnover of pounds 2m.

Gary Smith said: "The business began with just a few customers and now we are growing rapidly. We are currently in discussions with distributors in other European countries as well as Asia and America and we are also looking at manufacturing the systems here in the UK.

"Becoming a Kickstart finalist is a great achievement - hopefully we can now go on and win."

CROSBY-based Sushi San manufacture and supply freshly made sushi.

Robert Duce set up the company four years ago in 2000 and they are now one of the only independent suppliers of sushi in the UK.

Sushi San supply to supermarket giants Asda and Somerfield as well as to caterers and hotels. The company employs 21 staff and has a turnover of just under pounds 1m.

Managing director Robert Duce (pictured) said: "I came up with the idea as I'm a sushi fan myself and found that apart from in Japanese restaurants it wasn't really available anywhere.

"I approached Asda and asked if they would be interested in stocking sushi and when they said they would I set up Sushi San.

"When we first started out sushi was a lot less mainstream, perhaps because many people think it's raw fish.

"In fact, sushi is the rice part of the dish and only some sushi has raw fish in it.

"To encourage people to try it we devised `chicken tikka sushi' and `peking duck sushi.' Nowadays it's very popular and we are getting lots of requests from outside caterers who have been asked to supply it at events.

"It's fantastic to be a finalist in the Kickstart competition. Getting the business where it is today has been hard work, but being recognised in something like this makes it worthwhile." E-TECH Components (UK) supplies electrical cable accessories used in the electrical contracting trade to industry giants such as BNFL, Amec, Balfour Beatty and Marconi through electrical wholesalers.

They are also the sole UK distributor for the Swedishbased company Elpress.

The company was part of the Norfolk-based E-Tech group. When E-Tech announced their decision to move the Liverpool branch out of the area, former employee Chris Montgomery (pictured) decided to buy out the business and grow it on Merseyside, preserving his own job and two others.

Managing director Chris said: "When I discovered the intention to take the company outside Merseyside I decided to buy out the existing management and run the company myself.

"Now the business is doing really well, I am expanding the export side of the business and I have also introduced a web site brochure.

"I'm thrilled to be a Kickstart finalist - it's really nice that our achievements have been on Merseyside."