Aberthaw Cement Works has been hailed as one of the best-performing plants in Western Europe by its parent company, the Lafarge Group.

The cement works, which employs 100 people and produces up to 550,000t of cement a year for customers across South Wales and south-west England, won a top award at an event for Lafarge Group’s Western Europe region.

It came first in the region for best improvement in the reliability of the kiln.

Aberthaw was named Plant of the Year for 2007, standing out as the best in comparison with Lafarge’s six other manufacturing plants in the UK.

Works manager Allan Ruxton said: “These awards are the culmination of lots of hard work by the team here at Aberthaw.

“We have gone the extra mile to improve both our plant performance and our reliability of supply to our customers.