FURNESS firm Luscombe Plant Hire is officially one of the best in the business.

The company - based in Ulverston - has taken a prestigious award, Outstanding Single Depot Hire Company from industry event the Executive Hire Show.

This saw it beat off more than 700 other competitors from all over the UK.

The company was set up in 2001 as a side project to owner the Luscombe family's main business. It has become so successful that it is now far bigger than the original operation and employs 12 people.

Beverley Luscombe said: "We hire everything from wallpaper strippers to an eight ton digger and everything in between."

The firm was inspected by representatives from another plant hire business who looked at criteria including the quality of its depot in North Lonsdale Road, how welcoming the staff were, the quality of the equipment and how it was maintained and how the firm marketed itself.

This involved a number of visits from mystery shoppers. They were told that they were nominated for the prize and invited to the event in Coventry.

"We came out the winners, which was a nice surprise," said Mrs Luscombe, who runs the business with her husband Simon and their son Dan.

The family ended up working in plant hire almost by accident.

Mrs Luscombe explained: "We install playgrounds all year round and had amassed stuff.

"People used to come and borrow stuff and we just decided one day that we should hire it out instead. It grew quite quickly."

She added:"When people want to hire a digger it is a much better experience than 20 years ago," she said.

"We have a shop and people can come in and have a look at what they want to hire - it is more friendly and more welcoming."

Simon Luscombe added: "We got an email to say we had been nominated and we thought that was great but we never expected to win at all."

Alan Guthrie, from the Executive Hire Show, said: "We have a visitor campaign team who visited more than 700 hire companies throughout the UK and Eire to promote the show and encourage them to attend the show at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. They keep a log of who has impressed them most.

"We whittled that down to a shortlist of seven companies, and Luscombe came out on top in their category after a further visit by an independent judge, which is a superb achievement."