A THRIVING company has won more coveted accolades for its overseas trade.

Acorn Stairlifts collected two export honours in a single week.

The Steeton firm was presented with a 'Made in the UK' award by a representative of the Government's UK trade and investment department (UKTI).

And the Station Road company, which exports nearly £80 million of stairlifts from its UK factories, has been named among Britain's leading 200 private firms with the fastest-growing international sales.

Acorn company secretary, Dave Belmont, said the team is delighted with its latest success.

"We are the largest dedicated manufacturer of stairlifts in the world – based here in West Yorkshire," he added.

Acorn, which qualified for the Made in the UK awards after winning a Yorkshire competition, beat seven other regional victors to take the national title.

Andrew Longthorne, the firm's Steeton factory manager, and his Shipley-based counterpart, Allison Wear, received the accolade during a ceremony at St George's Hall in Liverpool.

They collected the title from Kevin McGlone, of UKTI.

Judges particularly commended Acorn for its 80 per cent increase in the value of exports between 2011 and last year.

The company has invested more than £8 million in new plant and machinery in the past five years, and its factories now manufacture more than one million components a year.

It has also increased the size of its multi-lingual export department at Steeton by half in order to meet increasing demand for its products.

An Acorn stairlift is installed every nine minutes somewhere in the world.

The latest honours come just weeks after Acorn scooped two prizes in the prestigious Yorkshire International Trade Awards.

Acorn took the international company of the year award, for firms with £50 million-plus turnover, and the excellence in international trade title.

The judging panel praised the firm's fast-track service, which means a bespoke curved stair rail can be installed within two days of an order being received.

And it paid tribute to Acorn's heavy investment in establishing its own subsidiaries, rather than relying solely on third-party distributors, and its growth strategy.