Winner: Silver Levene

In an age in which the names of accountancy firms no longer refer to the families that founded them, Silver Levene is unusual.

A third-generation family firm, it boasts several members of the original families, Silver and Levene, which founded the firm.

Howard Levene is head of strategy and corporate finance, while Anthony Silver is head of media. Another Silver, Adam, has just joined, heading up the IT services department.

The judges said: 'They have put in some really significant effort. There was clear evidence of a client focus and they demonstrated some real innovation, knew where their strengths lay and played to them superbly.'

The firm made £8.7m in its most recently released numbers, a growth rate of more than 20% over two years, despite significant restructuring.

Perhaps one of the more innovative things the firm has done is to develop an office in China, remarkable for a firm of its size. It hopes to help Chinese companies enter the UK market.

In the past 12 months it has helped bring ten companies to OFEX and is set to bring one client to AIM.

It has also outsourced all of its typing to Bangalore, cutting its administration costs by more than 50%. On top of that it has scanned all its files, meaning it is close, it says, to becoming a paperless office.

With a staff of 100 and based in Warren Street in London, Silver Levene is the largest ACCA practice in the UK.