VENERABLE ceramic wall and floor-covering firm A De Cecco has embarked on a contract for the Glasgow Subway - nearly four decades after it laid its first tile on the city’s underground network.

The Glasgow-based company is currently working at Kelvinbridge for the second time, having been first contracted to supply and fit wall and floor-covering to the station in 1978.

A De Cecco said the £107,000 project would see its team deliver new wall tiling to the escalators, and main ticket concourse. The contract also covers the re-tiling of platform floors, tunnels and headwalls.

Chairman Alberto De Cecco, whose grandfather left Italy in 1912 and brought his artisan skills to Scotland, said: “A De Cecco maintains its Italian heritage thanks to the specialist knowledge my grandfather brought with him – I am very proud that his legacy is still going strong and that the business has been involved in some of Scotland’s biggest construction projects.”

He added: “To be working on the Glasgow Subway four decades on from when the business was first commissioned to provide tile coverings is very rewarding and demonstrates the quality of our work.”

The company said that Skillbuild 2016 apprentice of the year, Gordon Cook, 34, who it noted had seen off competition from around the UK to be named wall and flooring tile winner, was among those working on the project.

Mr De Cecco said: “To be encouraging the next generation of master tile-fixers like Gordon, who came into the business as a mature apprentice, is very important to us.”