A small and friendly family-run Shropshire building firm has been crowned the best commercial builder in Britain.

EJ and GJ Groom of Church Stretton received the award from Naomi Cleaver, presenter of Channel 4′s Grand Designs Trade Secrets programme, at a glittering awards ceremony in London for the Master Builder of the Year 2008 awards.

This followed an earlier awards ceremony in Birmingham where the firm was presented with a plaque for winning the West Midlands heat.

The accolades were in recognition of their work on a stunning contemporary community centre adjoining the Holy Trinity Church in Meole Brace, Shrewsbury.

The building – the Trinity Centre – was made possible after half the funds were raised by the 10,000 parishioners of Meole Brace.

Community group committee representative Tim Creyke nominated EJ and GJ Groom for the award.

He said: “They were a pleasure to work with and were also very careful to save money for us. Without reducing the quality of the build, they suggested changes that saved us around £25,000.”

EJ and GJ Groom brought in local craftsmen and women for specialist carpentry and stonework and to create a beautiful stained glass window that perfectly complements the church.

They also suggested a basement storeroom and a play area and donated topsoil for a vegetable garden.

Federation of Master Builders director general Richard Dirment said: “These awards are an opportunity to showcase projects around the country that would otherwise be overlooked.

“Size is not important, while solid craftsmanship, excellent customer services and delighted clients are.”

The architect who designed the centre, James Wade, of Arroll Snell of Shrewsbury, has also received an ecclesiastical award in recognition of his work.

The owners and staff of EJ and GJ Groom are understandably delighted with their award.

The company was launched 25 years ago by the late Edward John Groom and his son Graham John Groom, after they were both made redundant from a building company.

The firm does both commercial and domestic building work and describes itself as a general builder.

Managing directory Graham Groom said he had no idea the firm had been nominated.

He said: “We are dead chuffed about winning. We are really pleased to receive the award and the way the awards ceremony was staged. We’ve never been to anything like that before.”

Graham said that the project took 18 months and was completed just before Christmas 2007. He said: “There was quite a lot of traditional-type work involved, including stone-masonry and making oak rafters and windows.”

These were made by Graham’s own staff in his workshop in Church Stretton.

Graham said: “We were lucky. We had clients who knew what they wanted and an architect who could put it down on paper for them.”

EJ and GJ Groom have a small and much appreciated team of staff.

Graham said: When people do come to work for us they tend to stay for long periods of time. We employ people when a lot of other people only have agency workers and only take them on a contract basis.

“It is a big risk for us employing people, but I think it’s a better way and I think clients get a better rapport as well.”

The company tends to spend half of its time doing commercial work and the other half doing domestic. It can take on projects from just a few hundred pounds for a repair job up to a £1million project.

At the end of last year, work included building a four bedroomed split-level bungalow and two very large houses. There were also two good commercial projects to look forward to in Telford and Tenbury.

But what about the credit crunch and what does Graham think will happen in the building industry this year?

He said: “I think that, like for a lot of builders, the first four months of 2009 are going to be very tight. I think after April things are going to start to pick up slowly and by the end of 2009 things will be a lot better.”

Further details on the firm, which is a member of FMB, are available from www.groombuilders.co.uk

By Cathy Stanworth