TWO Dunmow men who helped create luggage tags that could make lost bags at the airport a thing of the past have won an award. Baggage PIN won the new company category in the Mid Essex Business Awards 2007, at a ceremony held at Braintree, on Friday Septem

TWO Dunmow men who helped create luggage tags that could make lost bags at the airport a thing of the past have won an award.

Baggage PIN won the new company category in the Mid Essex Business Awards 2007, at a ceremony held at Braintree, on Friday September 21.

Dereck Jones, IT director for Baggage PIN, said: "We are delighted to win this award.

"We were told by Lloyds TSB who judged the competition that we had been shortlisted as finalists, but we didn't find out that we had won until the gala ceremony in Braintree."

Baggage PIN was set up in February 2007 by Mr Jones and his two colleagues David Pearce and Jonathan Spooner, who are both from Great Dunmow, to solve the problem of lost luggage at the airport.

"It's a simple concept," said Mr Pearce, from Woodlands Park Drive. "First of all you have to subscribe to the system online by going to www.baggagepin.com paying anything from £6 for one month's membership or up to £12 for a full year.

"Once that is done, you are allocated a unique digital code and sent a corresponding code tag and security strap in the post, which can be securely attached to each of your suitcases."

Baggage PIN gives the airline the necessary information to return the lost luggage to the legal owner or forward on to the required location.

Since winning the award Mr Jones said: "We have really noticed an increase in interest in the product from both the media and consumers."

The idea for Baggage PIN started when the three entrepreneurs noticed a "baggage crisis" that was occurring in airports around the world.

"We came up with a solution in about 24 hours," said Mr Jones. "It took about four weeks to put it into practice and six months to refine it."

The company has been selling their product since June and they have customers all over the world. They have also been in talks with major airlines and baggage handling companies to adopt their system.

According to data from the Associate of European Airlines (AEA), across the 24 largest airlines more than 5.6 million bags went missing in 2006, an average of 15.7 bags per 1000 travellers.