HIGH-flying Bolton entrepreneur Imran Hakim has won another award to add to his steadily growing collection of trophies.

The Young Achiever of the Year trophy will add to his mantelpiece which is already groaning under the weight of his numerous awards.

He collected his latest at the PricewaterhouseCoopers-sponsored Eastern Eye Asian Business Awards in London.

Mr Hakim is best known as one of the most successful individuals to gain investment on BBC2’s Dragons’ Den with his innovative iTeddy product.

But his business experience goes far beyond the realm of television.

An optometrist by profession, the 30-year-old runs a successful chain of independent practices in and around the North-west.

And having run his own business since he was 16, Mr Hakim has extensive first-hand experience of a huge range of business sectors.

He received the latest award at a ceremony at the 12th annual Eastern Eye Asian Business Awards, held at Wembley Stadium.

The event celebrates the continued successes of the pioneers and leaders from the Asian business community.

More than 800 VIPs, public figures, MPs, millionaires, A-list British Asian and international talents were in attendance.

Mr Hakim said: “It’s absolutely fantastic winning this award, but I have a great team around me and it’s really those people who share in this award — it should have been called the young achieving team of the year award.

“These awards are almost always held in London and a lot of business from the North don’t get the recognition they deserve.

“So it’s good to see someone like myself from ‘up North’ being recognised in the businesses world and for people to know that there’s life beyond the M25.”

In 2007, after securing investment on Dragons’ Den, Imran worked with Dragons Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones to launch the award-winning iTeddy and associated licence platform, www.iteddy.com.

This year he has put together a distribution deal with Vivid Imaginations, the UK’s biggest toy company, and the product is now retailing in more than 40 countries, including every major UK toy retailer.

Mr Hakim has won several business awards in recognition of his numerous endeavours, including Best Newcomer to Vision Express 2005, the North-west Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006, and Fusion Entrepreneur of the Year 2007.

His work growing the iTeddy brand has earned him awards for Design, Innovation and Technology 07, Toy Inventor of the Year 07 and World Toy Innovation 08, Startup Business of the year 08, IoD Northwest Young Director of the year 08, as well as a string of International product awards.