A CORDLESS vacuum clea-ner which was designed in Worcestershire has swept up a major trade award in America.

Consumer magazine Good Housekeeping USA has voted Bissell’s new upright vacuum – designed by Grey Technology of Spetchley, near Worcester – as one of 10 winners in its annual VIP Awards for 2009.

The machine will now be launched in the UK this spring under the Gtech brand.

Nick Grey, chairman of Gtech, said: “The American award was tremendous news. We have driven the cordless market to new levels of performance with our sweepers that work on all surfaces and are able to sweep up anything from dust to dog biscuits in a matter of seconds.”

Grey Technology was founded by Mr Grey in 2001 and the trademarked name Gtech was registered the following year.

All its design, development and testing takes place at its Worcestershire headquarters. The company also has an office in Hong Kong that manages its manufacturing operations in China.

Mr Grey set about developing his first cordless electronic sweeper, the SW01, from a simple brief he had drawn up for himself.

He wanted to design “something small, light and unencumbered by cables, handy to pick up and use, but still capable of cleaning the floors of an entire house on a single charge”.

His design has so far sold more then eight million units worldwide and in 2004 Gtech launched a range of cordless garden tools, a cylinder mower, a grass strimmer and hedge cutter.

The products were a resounding success and have subsequently been improved with more powerful and greener lithium battery packs to make gardening even easier.

The company has also launched a new hand-held vacuum cleaner, the HV01, which uses revolutionary ‘V’ technology for up to 18 times more efficient cleaning than a regular vacuum and it is capable of cleaning up to 14 times closer to skirting boards and furniture than its traditional rivals.

Mr Grey said: “Innov-ation remains at the heart of our business. We now have a range of sweepers to cater for every need imaginable and our products are brimming with technology designed to make people’s life that little bit easier, in fact, each sweeper contains six patented features by Grey Technology.”

Gtech products can be found in many of the largest retail outlets in the UK including Comet, House of Fraser, Tesco, John Lewis and Selfridges. The company has sold more than 10 million products to date all over the world from Europe to Asia.