GOING for gold has paid dividends for one of York’s biggest employers – as it lands a slice of the London 2012 Olympics action.

Huntington-based Portakabin is doing its bit to ensure preparations for one of the world’s biggest sporting showpieces stay on the right track after winning the race for a major Games contract.

The family-owned business held off competition from throughout the UK to take the tape in the contest to secure the tender to build the main project office for 400 workers at the main Olympics and Paralympics site in east London.

In the space of eight weeks, Portakabin’s staff constructed a three-storey building to house some of the Games’ workforce following their switch from facilities at nearby Canary Wharf, using environmentally friendly techniques to keep carbon emissions to a minimum.

Now the firm has begun work on a second building to act as the Games’ command control office, which will house a medical centre and act as a security and logistics centre, and has also signed a deal to provide four more Olympic buildings over the next six months.

The tender is welcome news for Portakabin after the recession and subsequent construction downturn forced it to announce 77 redundancies – 57 of them being compulsory job losses – earlier this year, only two months after the economic climate led to an early Christmas shutdown where workers had to take three days of their holiday entitlement.

“The staff are delighted with the excellent quality of the HQ,” said Mike Williams, general manager of Portkabin Hire Division.

“The interior is of the same standard that they have been used to in Canary Wharf, with well-designed furniture and quality carpets, the air-conditioning system maintains a productive working temperature and they have a range of well-planned IT, meeting and training rooms, communication centres and spacious open-plan offices.

“Gaining this contract is great for our business and we are delighted to be one of the companies benefiting from the Games coming to London in 2012.”

Portakabin has also installed the new building’s security and alarm systems, as well as using recycled carpet tiles, dual-flush toilets, waterless urinals and motion sensors as part of the lighting system in a bid to make the structure eco-sensitive.

“It’s great to see one of our region’s companies successfully gaining contracts for London 2012,” said Jim Farmery, assistant director of business for development agency Yorkshire Forward.

“This is just one of many opportunities available and businesses can access these through Competefor.com, the chosen site of London 2012 for the publication of Games-related contract opportunities – and, by doing so, put their services in front of a worldwide audience.”