AN ENGINEERING solution which is helping to fuel a boom in overseas sales has earned two prestigious awards for Acorn Stairlifts.

It won both the Innovation Award and the Export Award when the North East, Yorkshire and Humber regional winners were announced in the EEF Future Manufacturing Awards 2016.

The Steeton company now progresses to the national finals stage of the awards, to be presented in London at the end of January.

The Innovation Award recognises Acorn Stairlifts’ system called FastTrack. Developed in-house, the system allows Acorn’s engineers to build and fit a bespoke curved stairlift in a matter of hours by assembling a range of prefabricated stair rail sections on site to precisely follow the contours of a customer’s staircase.

Because the rail sections are stocked on installer vans, a curved stairlift can be fitted within a few days of an order being taken, even the next day if required.

This contrasts starkly with the conventional method of designing and manufacturing a one-off curved rail in a factory, which typically takes up to six weeks from order to installation.

The pioneering system has helped Acorn expand its business overseas, especially in the US where it has become the market leader for stairlifts.

It now builds more than 60,000 stairlifts per year at its factories in West Yorkshire and Scotland, and exports to 84 countries worldwide.

About two-thirds of its near £150 million annual turnover comes from export sales, helping Acorn to win the EEF regional Export Award for the second year running.

Last year it also went on to win the national EEF award for Outstanding Exports and the overall Winner of Winners title at the awards ceremony in London.

Nick Wilson, Acorn Stairlifts’ senior operations director, said: “These awards are a credit to all the team at Acorn, both here in the UK and in our growing operations overseas.”