AN Historic bed-making company in York has received a prestigious award for its leading work in ecological innovation.

Harrison Spinks, in Bolton Percy, York, has received the esteemed Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development, bringing the total number won by the company to five.

The 179-year-old-family bedmaker was awarded the prize for their Innovation and International Trade in 2018, and are one of only six to win the award this year for for their Sustainable Development in 2019.

The company was granted the award in recognition of a number of ecologically friendly innovations they have recently created.

Both the mattresses and beds they produce and the process by which they are created now more sustainable.

This includes reusing waste from the production process, replacing synthetic materials with natural, whilst also recyclable products and reducing CO2.

The company believes it is the only furniture maker to hold three Queen’s Awards and the only specialist bedmaker to win the Sustainable Development award twice.

Speaking on receiving the award, Simon Spinks, Managing Director of Harrison Spinks, said that the company have worked particularly hard in diversifying the business so that it becomes greener and environmentally efficient.

He said: “We’re delighted to be granted another Queen’s Award for Enterprise and are honoured that the efforts we’ve made to make our business more sustainable have been recognised.

“We take our responsibility to act sustainably very seriously and we’ve been proud to challenge the market to make beds and mattresses in a different way, avoiding the need to use chemical products like foams that are difficult to recycle.

“We’ve worked hard to diversify our business to become one of the most vertically integrated furniture makers in the UK.

"This has helped us look at the way we run our business.

"We are now solely focused on reducing our reliance on non-recyclable materials, waste, energy consumption and CO2.”

The Press reported in 2011 that the firm spent £150,000 on a long leasehold on two plots at Sand Hutton Woods near York – Whey Carr Plantation and Scrogs Bottom Wood, from the Secretary of State for Environment.