A SKIPTON business is celebrating success at a recent awards ceremony where they were finalists in two categories.

Builders, plumbers, timber and decorating merchants, Merritt and Fryers, based at Firth Street Works, took top honours when the business won the Lightside Showroom of the Year category at the National Builders Merchants Awards, in London.

Held at the Hilton Park Lane, on Friday, the company had also been shortlisted for Bathroom of the Year in the same competition.

Merritt and Fryers director Rachel Fryers said the win was 'fabulous recognition for all the team who had worked hard to get us there'.

"We are absolutely delighted. It was a huge event and as a small, independent merchants operating from a single branch in the town it is a superb achievement.

"Hundreds of businesses had applied to the competition so we are delighted to have beaten off the opposition," she said.

She said she and her brother, Paul, who is lightside showroom manager, picked up the award from gold medal-winning Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes and Simon Bicknell, marketing director of award sponsors, Toolbank, in front of a packed audience of industry leaders.

"It was a wonderful occasion and we were also thrilled to have been shortlisted in the Bathroom of the Year category which is another great achievement for us.

"As a small business you never know who or what you are pitching against so to have done so well is recognition that we are good at what we do.

"To have been shortlisted in two categories and to win one of them is a huge achievement for us."

Lightside refers to such items as tools, decorating and ironmongery, while the company also supplies heavyside goods, such as aggregates.

A team of around 60 staff operate from the family business which next year celebrates its 85th anniversary.