YORK Gift Hampers, that wonderful marriage of tradition and technology, was a finalist in last year's awards. Can it succeed again in the Innovative Use of New Technology category? And can its new venture win the New Business of the Year?

The fine foods firm, bought 26 years ago by John and Josephine Atkinson, and based on the site of an 18th century brewery in Pocklington, last year launched into cyberspace with its own website, www.yorkgifthampers.com

It began as a modest call to local web-surfers.

But the family effort, in which their son managed the technical side, and their daughter, together with their son's partner, prepared photographs and text, draws in orders from all over the world for its hampers of yummy Yorkshire fare such as biscuits, marmalades, chocolates and cheese.