After successfully negotiating the unstoppable rise of the chicken balti pie, Warwick pie maker Shire Foods has scooped this month's Birmingham Post Business Award.

The family-owned company - which started baking in the 1970s, when the likes of chicken and mushroom pies still ruled the roost - provides pies, pastries and sausage rolls to super-markets and 66 rugby and football clubs around the country, producing 300,000 products a week.

Now with an ambitious expansion plan ahead, which will see it move into a new headquarters in Leamington next spring, it plans to up this to 1.2 million units a week within three years.

And the chicken balti pie is likely to remain its most popular flavour.

Producing its new, spicy flavours, suited to an ever more spice-loving national palate was an exhaustive task.

"With the chicken balti pie we had to go to great lengths to get it right," said customer service director Vic Doyle at the award. "You can't just mix in curry powder and expect the British public to like it."

Shire now keeps its spices in a special room, mixing its own blends and only uses British beef under 30-months old.

With recent concern over healthy eating, the firm has also reduced the salt levels and stopped using unhealthy hydrogenated fat.

The chicken balti pie has also given it a new weapon to break over Hadrian's Wall - providing Scottish football clubs with an alternative to their traditional pies.

These are successful times for Shire, but they have only come after a lot of hard work.

Three weeks ago Vic got a phone call at 3am. It was a warehouse supervisor saying they were a driver short. Vic jumped out of bed and drove the van himself.

The firm has, he said, a very hands-on approach - and one that stretches back a long while.

"When I first joined I met up with the drivers at 3am and went out with each of them," he said. "They are a brilliant team."

With its people central to the business, Shire holds meetings once every three-months, briefing them on the turnover and profits. A certain proportion of the profit is put in a pot and shared out at the end of the year.

"Some of the jobs are labour intensive," said Vic. "We try to make our workers time here at work as pleasurable as we can.

"It is about getting a happier workforce," said Vic.

And now that it has achieved one, it is not keen to lose it. The move to a new £4.5 million manufacturing facility has been in the works for two years as it wanted to find a site that would not inconvenience its employees.

"We could have moved out before," Vic said. "We had a lot of offers and incentives, but we have invested in our people and decided to go to a site which is only a mile and a half off."

Once it had purchased the freehold and new equipment the investment was saved up by the family shareholders reinvesting their dividends in the business. And the staff will remain, a vital move. Vic said they are something of a unique selling point.

In an era of increasing mechanisation, they still hand-crimp the pasties - providing each one with a degree of individuality that many competitors find hard to match.

The Post Business award is the latest exciting development for the firm.

"Winning this award has been an honour and a surprise," said Mike Tzirki, managing director and part of the founding family. "I'm very proud of what we've done, we've got 75 loyal staff and we are all now hoping for the best for the future.

"People think that pies are not a sexy business, but they are."

l The main sponsors of The Birmingham Post Business Awards are Intercity Mobile Communications and Churchill Vintners, in association with Champagne Taittinger.

Lloyds Bank co-sponsors the overall winner's luncheon. Biz-tv, part of Aston Media at Aston University, produces a business video of each monthly winner worth £2,500.

The judges choose the best news story appearing in The Post that month. If you have a story to tell, call the Business Desk on 0121 236 3366.