The national award was last won by CES in 1991 when it had a single site distributing exhaust systems.

The company now has 11 outlets in the North-west and the Midlands and supplies a full range of replacement components to vehicle workshops and fast-fit operations.

"CES has gone from strength to strength," says managing director Howard Warren. "At the start there were just three of us. Now there are more than 200. We've always been at the forefront of any trade development, but people are everything. They make it happen."