A Birmingham manufacturer that has supplied silverware for top hotels like The Ritz and The Dorchester has won a contract at the city’s new Hotel La Tour.

Heritage Silverware, based in Small Heath, beat off competition from China, Germany, Italy and France to win a lucrative deal to supply designer tableware to the new £24 million hotel.

The silverware will be used in the hotel’s Aalto restaurant, which has been overseen by the double-Michelin-Star-holder Marcus Wareing, and has received more than 6,500 items of cutlery, crockery and tableware.

Hotel La Tour, which has 174 bedrooms, is newly-opened and has already received £1 million worth of inquiries.

Heritage Silverware managing director Martin McDonagh said the deal provided a great showcase for the company’s products in his own city.

He said: “We decided some 12 years ago that the tableware industry would be unlikely to survive as a world force in its then current way of serving the hotel Industry and we decided to learn and follow the lead set by our Midland motor car companies and invested heavily in high tech design and rapid prototype facilities.

“It has proved to be the best decision we ever made as sadly as we have seen almost all our fellow manufacturers close down or give up manufacturing altogether in the UK, yet we have never been more in demand.

“These high tech facilities and our highly skilled workforce give Heritage Collection the ability to design, and manufacture unique cutlery, glassware and tableware which very few companies in the world can match.”

Heritage was founded in 1976 and is run by Mr McDonagh, his wife, Mireille, and their children, Nathalie and Anthony.

The company has supplied to Michelin-starred restaurants in Birmingham, as well as the Orient Express and The Lanesborough. Adrian Colman, operations director of Hotel La Tour, said the deal was given based on quality, not geography.

He said: “Heritage Silverware won the contract hands down on innovative product, quality and service, and the fact they were also a Birmingham based company also met our ethos to support local suppliers. When we discovered that their factory was literally five minutes around the corner from the hotel, we were amazed.”

Mr McDonagh said Birmingham still had a great manufacturing base, despite the recession.

He said: “We’re specialist manufacturers of fine silverware, cutlery and China for the world’s best restaurants. We hear so much doom and gloom about the economy.

“It’s time that people also heard about a success story from here in the heart of the city.”