A city-based business is in the running for a £1million prize courtesy of Virgin boss Richard Branson.

Action Petz, a Newport based dog park company has made it through to the final of Voom 2018 - the Virgin Media Business pitching competition.

The Newport firm attracted hundreds of votes from members of the public and will now be pitching live to Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, founder of Innocent drinks Richard Reed, serial entrepreneur and TV presenter Sophie Morgan, founder and CEO of Tropic Skincare Susie Ma and Virgin Media Business’ MD Peter Kelly for a share of £1 million in prizes.

The final will be streamed over Facebook Live tomorrow (Wednesday, May 23) at 9.30am.

Shelley Redding founded Action Petz in 2014 after her dog was stolen whilst out on a walk.

This awful experience inspired her to create a fun and safe environment for dogs to play, train and socialise with other dogs off lead.

She now runs two centres in South Wales and if they’re successful, will be able to relaunch a Cardiff centre.

Shelley secured Action Petz’s place at the grand final after first attracting public votes before going on to survive a grilling from industry experts at the semi-finals.

Over 200,000 votes were cast by the public to shortlist the 80 businesses that made it to the gruelling semi-final in Manchester.

There, they had to pitch their ideas and were grilled by panels of judges who assessed their ideas and business plans before whittling them down to just six finalists that will now face Richard Branson and the Voom judges.

Speaking ahead of the final, Virgin Group Founder, Richard Branson said: “We have great team of judges who will help scrutinise business plans and pitches before deciding who will win Voom 2018. The judges know all about the challenges of starting a business – and have the insight needed to spot a great idea and turn it into a business”.

You can watch the final live at 9.30am tomorrow at www.Facebook.com/voomfromvmb