Three staircases and balustrades worth £73,000 at the club's training complex near Cobham, Surrey, were skilfully built by Specialized Fabrications – a metalwork and staircase company.

The Chelsea work isn't the only high-profile contract recently secured by the successful company.

Two upmarket staircases and glass balustrading will be installed at Burberry fashion house's office in central London, while work worth £215,000 to build numerous staircases, handrails and mixed metalwork is due to start at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth.

From October the company will start a four-month project to build the largest bus depot in Europe when it starts work on the West Ham bus depot in London ready for the 2012 Olympic Games.

And that's not forgetting contracts with household names like Asda, Sainsbury's, McDonalds and RAF Northolt.

Technical director Tony Dunn said: 'It's a sign of the success of the company. Over the last few years our work has been more prestigious which does raise our profile.

'We get the orders from contractors so we don't know where the work
will be to start with.

'But when you find the job is at places like Chelsea Football Club and think of some of the money being spent then it does make an impression on you.'

The company was in the final two for the Employer of the Year category at the Learning and Skills Council's annual awards, and has won plaudits for its training and apprenticeship schemes, which have seen the 120-strong firm train around half of its staff in-house.

The firm's turnover is about £7m, up from £4m since 2004 when it moved from Fareham into new, larger Gosport premises in Heritage Business Park.

Mr Dunn said: 'We love it here in Gosport. We've got a user-friendly factory here and our workforce come from Gosport.

'Peter Viggers (Gosport MP) is a star and helped us with the opening of the new site. Gosport has been good to us.'