It is not often quarries win awards outside of the industry, but Huddersfield sandstone producers Johnsons Wellfield were voted runners-up in a business competition backed by the Huddersfield Examiner newspaper and a firm of local solicitors.

Graham Goldthorpe, managing director of the quarrying side of the Johnsons group, attended a presentation at the beginning of July to receive the glass award that now sits in the reception area of the business.

Before companies reach the final of the competition they have to be voted \'business of the month\', a title Johnsons won in April, their supply of 5,000m2 of nicely detailed ashlar to the Kingsgate shopping development in Huddersfield being cited as among their achievements.

The monthly winners then compete against each other for the title of Business of the Year.

Goldthorpe was particularly proud to have been among the finalists because most of the companies that made it were service companies rather than manufacturers. The winners were a theatre company.

Kingsgate used £600,000 worth of stone, which was certainly their biggest job of the year, although they have now won two contracts to supply 8,000m2 of Crosland Hill sandstone for office developments, one with J W Smith Masonry and the other with Stirling Stone, which they believe could lead on to the supply of more stone as the project continues over the next 10 years.