STOURBRIDGE businessman Chris Hodgkiss is celebrating after winning a slot on a prestigious list of "trusted" traders.

Chris Hodgkiss and Associates - trading as RockSolid Group - is the only computer repair business in the area so far included in the "Which? Trusted Traders" list, run by the Consumers Association.

"We were put through our paces as we underwent the stringent application process for Which?," said managing director Mr Hodgkiss, aged 35, whose business is based in Queen Street, off Lower High Street, Stourbridge.

"As a small but professional IT company, the staff pride themselves on delivering a first class, honest service to their customers, which has now been recognised.

"Trust is difficult to earn and we are delighted that we have been approved by the scheme, which will now allow us to appear on the Which? Trusted Trader database to provide further reassurance in the quality of our work to our customers."

Mr Hodgkiss manages a network of consultants to offer services ranging from retrieving information from failed hard drives to putting customers' IT in "the cloud".

The nearest other Which? listing for a computer repair business is based in Stratford-upon-Avon.

He was brought up in Stourbridge and Kingswinford and now lives in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Which? carried out credit checks, examined customer references, business procedures and the code of conduct of the company before endorsing it.