Family-owned dealer group Harratts has opened its new headquarters on Denby Dale Road in Wakefield.

The £3 million facility is the biggest construction project the business has seen in its 45-year history.

Adjacent to the new building is a new two-storey, purpose-built Honda dealership of 12,000sqft which will open in the coming weeks, creating 25 jobs in the Wakefield area.

The business said the new HQ site would allow it to better serve its network of its 12 dealerships with increased office space and new facilities.

The opening of the new site coincided with Harratts’ Customer Service Excellence Awards where Simon Miller received a prize of £2,000 from managing director Shaun Harratt for exemplary customer service during 2011.

The award is the culmination of the year long scheme which each month saw every one of Harratts’ dealerships put forward a member of staff who had demonstrated outstanding levels of customer service. From the 12 monthly winners, Simon Miller was chosen by Shaun Harratt to receive the overall award.

Miller won the award for work carried out on behalf of a long-standing Harratts Volvo customer. Following a request from the customer to have a certain electrical spec available on their car, he successfully negotiated with the manufacturer who said the spec was no longer manufactured and was able to provide the customer with exactly what they wanted, in spite of it no longer being commercially produced.

Harratt said: “The opening of our new headquarters marks the start of an exciting chapter in the history of Harratts.

“We now have a fantastic facility that will enable us to continue our expansion across the region, while offering staff a wonderful working environment with state-of-the-art facilities.

“We are delighted to welcome staff to their new home and look forward to the next 45 years. We also celebrate Simon Miller’s achievement today, having won the ‘Customer Service Excellence Awards – 2011’.

“Without doubt, Simon is a fantastic example to his colleagues and is a very worthy winner. At Harratts we pride ourselves on offering the highest levels of customer service and the award further underlines the importance we place on this.”