A CROSS Hills company has achieved coveted accreditation.

Wheatlands Aire Valley Engineering, commonly known as Wave, has gained Investors in People silver status.

The 15-employee firm, founded in 2015, provides engineering and project management consultancy services to household-name food retailers.

Managing director, Keighley man James Bailey, said he was “absolutely delighted” at the accreditation.

He added: “As a four-year-old business, achieving accreditation is remarkable and testament to our company and our people.

“Not only did we succeed with the accreditation but we achieved silver status – something very few companies attain, especially those that are a young business like Wave.”

The company’s commercial and projects director, Mark Williams, said the achievement ranked Wave seventh out of 140 Investors in People-accredited businesses operating in the construction sector – and 158th out of all 1,751 accredited businesses with up to 49 employees.

“The accreditation benchmark score is 724 out of 900 – and Wave achieved 834!” he added.

Findings of a rigorous assessment included that employees “love coming to work”, “respect and admire” what has been achieved, appreciate opportunities provided to them to grow and develop and have confidence in the “expertise and commitment” of the leadership team.

The firm was also praised for its contribution to the wider community.

Nabil Cook, Wave’s director of engineering, said the accreditation would help the growing firm to continue to attract the highest calibre of recruits.

He added: “An aim is to attract a trainee into the business every year – and since 2017 the company has enjoyed significant success with local homegrown talent.”

Among them is Ellie Clare – who won the Trainee/Young Professional of the Year title at last year’s Keighley & Airedale Business Awards – Sam Cameron, a finalist in the RAC Cooling Awards Trainee of the Year contest, and Jack Brockbank, who joined the business in September and this year will manage his own engineering projects.