A Carlisle firm which gives its staff free fruit twice a week has won an award for its efforts to promote healthy lifestyles.

Carlisle Brass, on Parkhouse Road, became the first winner of the Active Workplace Award at the prestigious Cumbria Sports Awards, held last Friday.

The award recognises organisations that demonstrate innovative approaches to embedding physical activity for staff in and around the working day. The awards are organised by Active Cumbria.

Carlisle Brass has placed a healthy workforce at the heart of its business, and actively encourages its employees to keep active.

Paul McConnell, operations director at Carlisle Brass, was one of the main drivers of the initiative. He was previously health, safety, quality and environment manager.

He said: “While everyone looks at the safety aspect of the job, no one really looks at the health side. We came up with a five point plan to address this and started working with Active Cumbria.

“We encourage staff to log their activity and then all their names get put into a hat for a monthly draw to win prizes like Amazon Echos and £50 sports vouchers.

“The whole idea is to make it inclusive – it doesn’t matter if they’ve run a marathon or taken a quick walk to the supermarket at lunchtime. It all makes a difference.”

The firm took part in the Government’s Sugar Smart campaign and as a result, now provide free fruit twice a week for employees.

Mr McConnell added: “We do things like put a barrier on using the lift, unless it’s necessary, so people use the stairs instead.

“Staff are the most valuable thing we have, so it is important to us that they stay healthy – if they don’t turn up, it can cause issues business-wise.

“But it also helps people in their home life too. People are walking up Binsey or playing with their grandchildren and saying ‘I couldn’t have done that a couple of months ago’.

“It’s got into people’s minds and it’s a snowball effect among the staff. People are inspired by others to go out for a run or a cycle or a walk.”

Cumbria Sports Awards judges said: “Carlisle Brass understand the company’s success belongs to the team and as people thrive in a happy and healthy environment, they actively encourage their employees to engage with sports and keep active.

“During the last 12 months they have supported their staff in a number of programmes including Sport Relief, Colour Run, a sponsored walk along Hadrian’s Wall and the Workplace Challenge Eight-Week Activity Challenge.”

Carlisle Brass also sponsored the Carlisle Half Marathon.

Richard Johnston, of Active Cumbria, said: “We felt it was crucial to recognise the importance that workplaces can have on encouraging staff to be more physically active.

“Research tells us that a more physically active workforce is likely to be more productive, have better morale, and have less sickness absence, so we felt the time was right to reward companies that are going the extra mile to enable their staff to be active in and around the working day.

“Our winners, Carlisle Brass have been introducing lots of great initiatives to enable their employees to be more active and they were extremely deserving winners.”

Next year, Mr McConnell said, Carlisle Brass would continue its initiatives to help people stay healthy and also focus on mental heath.