A NORTH Yorkshire factory plans to take its latest award in relaxed fashion.

Dunlopillo, of Pannal, Harrogate, has won the Bed of the Year 2001 at the Furniture Industry Awards - the industry's equivalent of the Oscars.

The £27.5 million turnover company which is the UK's only manufacturer of latex beds and pillows has woken up Britain's bed market with the latest designs from Europe.

The company's willingness to embrace new trends and not rest on its laurels has seen its UK bed sales rise by eight per cent in 2000 to £13.6 million.

A panel of judges from major bed retailers declared Dunlopillo's new Studio One bed to be "innovative" and "complete for today's living."

Simon Williams, Dunlopillo's marketing manager, said: "The British bed market is incorporating new contemporary styles with an ever-increasing use of latex.

"Thanks to television and home interest magazines devoted to room makeovers, home furnishing has become a fashionable activity. We've captured the vitality of the new market and shown that we can be ultra chic in a traditional manufacturing sector."

The win could mean the company gaining an even greater share of the buoyant UK bed market worth around £12 billion, with four million new beds sold each year.