Bentley Brushware has been highly commended in the Manufacturing Excellence category of this year's Midlands Family Business Awards.
The manufacturer and supplier of own-label cleaning and laundry equipment has been selling brushes to the world since its inception in 1860, but it says it has never lost its family ethos. The business has been progressively steered by the direct descendants of the company's founding father - six generations of Bentleys - and while it has offices in America and Hong Kong it is still based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, where the first Charles Bentley began trading 152 years ago.

His namesake, current managing director Charles Bentley, said he was "absolutely thrilled" to have received the Highly Commended Manufacturing Excellence award, seeing it as an acknowledgement of all the hard work, loyalty and dedication of the whole Charles Bentley team throughout the years.

The Midlands Family Business Awards showcase the achievements of family businesses and their leaders, giving the region's best-run and most innovative family businesses the chance to shine.