A local hotel is among 13 companies across Wales to win one of the prestigious Wales Quality Prizes, part of the Wales Quality Awards 2001.
The proud winners were announced at a glittering ceremony at City Hall, Cardiff, last Thursday, in the company of leading politicians and business figures from across Wales.
The Fourcroft Hotel in Tenby was awarded The Tourism Prize (sponsored by the Wales Tourist Board) in recognition for their 'best business practice'.
The hotel is no stranger to awards having been granted a three star accreditation by the Wales Tourist Board, AA and RAC respectively.
The Wales Quality Awards, now in their eighth year, are organised by the Wales Quality Centre at the QED centre in Treforest, South Wales. The aim of the awards is to enable companies to assess their internal systems against the European Excellence model.
Driven by 'quality' and by Vincent Kane's much quoted "the future of Welsh industry is quality, quality, quality," in 1996 the hotel decided to test its quality systems and practices in order to improve standards even further and provide greater customer satisfaction.
With the support and guidance of the Wales Quality Centre, the hotel continues to improve its services and remains confident in the quality assessment process.
"We have enthusiastically signed up to a framework which we are confident will help us deliver quality - quality for the benefit of all our customers, our staff, our suppliers and our guests, " said managing director Chris Osborne. "We also hope that our involvement with the Wales Quality Centre will support our aspirations to remain in the vanguard of the hospitality industry.
"This prize shows us that we have the right edge and that we are on the right track to travel down the road to continuous improvement," added Mr, Osborne.
The hotel, which occupies a spectacular location, overlooking Tenby harbour and across Carmarthen Bay, has been in the family for three generations, since it was taken over by 'Ossie' and Helen Morgan in 1946 after derequisition from the War Office.
The hotel is justly proud of its reputation but realises there is always room for improvement.
The Gala Dinner, hosted by Vincent Kane OBE, was a celebration of hard work, commitment and achievement to the organisations that took part in the EFQM process.