A GLOBAL soft furnishings company based in Bingley has been celebrating after receiving a prestigious award recognises its success over the past few years.

Bancroft Soft Furnishings, based in Cottingley Business Park, Cottingley, has been handed the Queen's Award for Enterprise for international trade.

It is the only company in the Bradford district to be honoured in this year's awards.

The Queen's Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for British businesses and other organisations who excel at international trade, innovation or sustainable development.

Bancroft sells items such as bed lining, curtains and upholstery to the hospitality and leisure trade around the world, along with selling to the healthcare and education sectors.

Founded in 2008, the company has gone from strength-to-strength, and the success will be recognised at a reception held at Buckingham Palace in London later this year, and the company is to be presented with the award by the Queen's Lord Lieutenant.

Greta Henderson, managing director at Bancroft, said "tonnes" of hard work over the last few years has led to this accolade.

She said: "For the last four or five years we have seen an increase in the turnover for exports and in staff we have employed in that time.

"It is recognition of the progression of growth for the company and four or five years of trading.

"WE targeted the service sector, like hotels, as this looked like a good market.

"We had to introduce products to target that market and deal with new customers, now we have two or three partners in each country."

Bancroft deals goods to 22 different countries around the world, including states in the Middle East, Europe, and in the USA.

Ms Henderson also paid tribute to her team for helping the company to achieve so much in a relatively short space of time

"For us as a company we only started in 2008, so we have come a long way, and that is all down to the hard work of the team," she added.

"We have a brilliant team and we have also had a lot of support from suppliers and customers, and we are very honoured and proud, I am over the moon."

To be awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the category of international trade, a company must show a substantial and sustained increase in export earnings over three consecutive years, to a level which is outstanding for the products and services concerned, and for the size of the organisation.