Coventry-based Reeds Carpeting has opened its own training school for fitters.

It follows a quantum leap in turnover, up 28 per cent to just over £6 million.

Managing director Stuart Reed said: "We recently interviewed 108 applicants in one day and have appointed 13 new staff including five carpet fitters. Our team is also being boosted with two more delivery personnel, three more in the warehouse, two sales assistants and a supervisor.

"To make sure our fitting standards remain as high as possible we have set up our own training school with a dedicated area within the warehouse, which features three dummy exhibition stands for trainees to work on.

"Exhibition and event carpet laying can be much more demanding than working in homes and offices. Super-tight deadlines, special layouts, vastly varied settings, a huge range of surfaces on which to work, and a fast-increasing stock of carpets, all add to the pressures.

"Our success over the last 22 years has been based on relentless attention to technical detail and client service standards. This works for us and we hope it will continue to work with an ever-expanding client portfolio."

Some of the new fitters made their "live" debut, under supervision, at the Town and Country Festival, at Stoneleigh Park, where Reeds fitted the carpet and vinyl floorings to the complex's two exhibition halls.

Other new recruits will form part of the Reeds team at the Autumn Fair, which opens at the NEC Birmingham on September 3.