A NEWTON Aycliffe company has won the best kitchen title in the 2010 national Grand Designs Awards.

PWS received the prized award for its Metris Wave Curve kitchen from designer and television presenter Kevin McCloud.

The company, which celebrated its centenary last year, was up against many other high-profile brands judged by a 17-strong panel of leading designers.

The Wave Curve won because it has an historically-bespoke design which has been created from a modular 1,200mm curved system. It is not only highly versatile but priced competitively.

The 12 award categories attracted more than 500 entries judged by a who's who panel of designers including George Clarke from Channel 4's Restoration Man; Sebastian Conran; Wayne Hemingway and Orla Kiely.

Barry Stubbs, PWS design manager, said winning against such formidable competition was "overwhelming".

He said: "It's less than a year since the Metris brand was launched to the consumer so such recognition is incredibly rewarding.

"It is our most adventurous and dynamic product yet. It's a premium contemporary kitchen range, which competes squarely with the leading German and Italian brands, but offers all quality, design and service benefits of being available from a British supplier.

"The award is testament to all the hard work, expertise and dedication of the team behind the collection and we should all be very proud of this remarkable achievement."

Metris has already been named best kitchen innovation by Homebuilding & Renovating and won The Designer magazine's gold award for product innovation.

PWS is a fifth generation family business which began life in 1909 as an ironmonger and hardware distributor to engineering companies, joiners and builders merchants.

It is one of the kitchen market's leading players, known for its top-quality innovative designs.

In 2008, it invested £10m in its own granite manufacturing facility which led to its workforce increasing to more than 250.

A key to its continued success is its Second Nature kitchen brand which has more than 50 modern and classic furniture designs sold through more than 200 independent kitchen specialists nationwide.