A FAMILY business is celebrating topping the food charts after being named England’s best takeaway.

Santa’s Pizza, which also sells kebabs and burgers and has outlets in Burnley, Nelson, Accrington and Blackburn, scooped the Takeaway of the Year England award at the Food Awards England 2015.

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They also won Takeaway of the Year North at the event at the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel on Sunday.

The awards celebrate and reward the very best in England’s food hospitality and are voted for by customers .

Miss United Kingdom Supranational, Rachelle Perez, hosted the evening, during which £1,000 was raised for the Make a Wish Foundation.

Ishrat Mehdi, manager at Santa’s Pizza, thanked his team for all their hard work and dedication.

He said: “To be recognised in the Food Awards England was a great honour but to actually win the regional and then the national award is an outstanding achievement.

“It’s an early Christmas present.”

He said their success had been the boost they needed to consider growing: “I think we are now hoping to get more branches around East Lancashire.”

The takeaway is well-known in East Lancashire for being named after Santa Claus.

It has its very own Santa and the takeaway is regularly contacted by event organisers wanting him to pay them a visit.

The original owner had intended for it to be called Pizza Centre, but after a mix-up with the sign writers it became Pizza Santa and is now known as Santa’s Pizza, joked Mr Mehdi .