David Scott, winner of the Purchasing and Supply Management Professional of the Year, and supplies manager at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said he was "passionate" about his work on the winning endoscope-purchasing project.

Scott's team saved up to half the cost of the endoscope equipment in a project that started as a Manchester initiative and is now being promoted as a strategy for all NHS trusts.

"Resolve and strength of character to believe in what you are doing are essential traits for good purchasing practice," he said.

"Purchasers at all levels should not be afraid of challenging the arguments against change."

Karen Felstead, commercial manager at Vodafone, took the Young Purchasing and Supply Management Professional of the Year award for her work on outsourcing the company's directory inquiries service.

"As a woman, the award means a lot in a profession that has been male-dominated in the past," said the 28-year-old business graduate.

Felstead started in purchasing during her year out from Coventry University and worked in the financial services cheque clearing house Bacs.

She told SM: "I like studying something at top level in a business and seeing what benefits I can bring to a project.

"I'd like to think we are the new face of purchasing, which is no longer to be seen as an administrative function."