BOSSES at a designer wallpaper company in East Lancashire are celebrating after being named one of the country’s ‘coolest’ brands for the fifth year in a row.

Graham and Brown, which is based in Blackburn, rubs shoulders on the 2014-15 list with the likes of Apple, fashion designer Stella McCartney, Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic and the trendy hotel group Malmaison.

The Lancashire company, which has a factory outlet in Padiham, is one of 100 companies featuring in the CoolBrands UK book.

Mark Radford, design and marketing director, said the company is determined to stay ahead of the competition with its ‘edgy’ ethos.

He said: “It feels great to be listed again.

“The first time it was wonderful and now we just get nervous every year.

“It is something we do quite deliberately.

“We are a local company, but we sell a lot of wallpaper all over the world so we have a responsibility to continue being trendy.”

Business selected for the CoolBrand list are chosen by an ‘expert council’ of voters as well as members of the public.

They are marked for style, innovation, originality, authenticity, desirability and uniqueness.

Graham and Brown was founded by Harold Graham and Henry Brown in 1946, with the first wallpaper products quickly achieving mass appeal for a generation of post-war Britons in search of home comforts.

The business now sells 150 products in major DIY shops in the UK, North America and Europe.

The latest figures show the group turnover is £100million, with overseas sales representing half of the figure.

Mr Radford bosses will have to keep pushing the boundaries to remain ‘a cool brand’.

He said: “Everybody has embraced the feature wall, but we really want to get people to put wallpaper on more than one wall. We keep doing things which feel slightly uncomfortable, but within a year it is fine and it will be cool.

“We also have to embrace all the new social media so our consumers become our ambassadors.”