IT has supplied drinks to globetrotting adventurers Ellen MacArthur and Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

And today East Lancashire company Science in Sport has been given a royal seal of approval for the energy products it has developed.

The firm is a winner in the Queen's Awards for Enterprise 2005.

The awards, in their 40th year, are the UK's leading accolade for business success and are announced annually on the Queen's birthday.

Out of the 137 awards, the highest total for ten years, seven went to North West companies and two of those were scooped by Blackburn firms.

Science in Sport, which recently landed a sponsorship deal with the Great Britain Cycling Team, was named a winner in the innovation category.

The award was for developing Go-Gel -- the world's first isotonic energy gel, which provides athletes with high energy levels without compromising hydration.

It has been supplied to record breaking round-the-world yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur, adventurer Ranulph Fiennes and Olympic gold medal cyclist Bradley Wiggins.

The company previously supplied energy drinks to the England football team before the 2002 World Cup.

Tim Lawson, marketing director at Science in Sport, said: "We are very pleased because we have always tried to provide innovative solutions to real problems faced by athletes and sports people. The response to our products has been huge.

This is a great endorsement for us."

Science in Sport, established in 1992, has ten employees at its headquarters at Brockhall Village and around 20 at its production site in Altham.

Millbrook Instruments Limited, of Challenge Way, Blackburn, was named a winner in the international trade category after achieving worldwide sales for its MiniSIMS product - which analyses objects so small they cannot be seen by the human eye.

Dr Peter Stefanini, executive chairman of Millbrook, which has 11 employees in Blackburn, said: "It reflects a strong performance from a team of highly talented people."

Longridge cheesemaker Singleton's won in the international trade category -- for the second time in the last five years.

In the past 12 months Singleton's has become one of the biggest exporters of cheese to the USA, and has opened new markets in Eastern Europe such as Lithuania and Latvia.

l See our awards round-up in Tuesday's East Lancashire Business supplement.