West Midlands businesses honoured in latest Queen’s Awards
BUSINESSES across the West Midlands have been recognised for their contribution to British industry in the Queen’s Awards for 2015.
A Coventry engineering firm which exports 80% of its UK-manufactured products, Jaguar Land Rover, Coventry University, a Birmingham healthcare firm and The Midcounties Co-operative have all been recognised in the awards, which have been announced today.
Coventry-based T A Savery & Co, which trades as energy absorption specialist Oleo International and hydraulic solutions provider Savery Hydraulics, has won the Queen’s Award for International Trade.
The award comes at an exciting time for the company, which has recently manufactured the world’s largest elevator buffer system, launched an industry-first global online sales portal, and expanded its international presence with new sales operations in Spain, North America and China.
The company has been successfully exporting its products for the last 60 years.
The company’s chairman, Sul Sahota, said the award was testament to the company’s innovative design and manufacturing processes, which all take place in the UK.
He said: “We are delighted to have been awarded one of the most celebrated and high-profile awards for commercial success.
“We have been designing and manufacturing all our products from the UK and exporting them overseas for many years and we owe this award to our staff, stakeholders, suppliers and quality processes here in the UK, and to our strong global network of distributors, agents and service centres.“
T A Savery designs and manufactures hydraulics solutions in the UK for customers internationally and currently has operations in China, Germany, the USA and an office in India.
Savery Hydraulics designs and manufactures hydraulic systems for the Ministry of Defence, the energy sector and automotive, and recently designed and installed a hydraulic ring main system at Jaguar Land Rover.
Oleo International designs and manufactures elevator, rail and industrial buffers in the UK and has a strong sales presence in countries such as Sweden, France and Australia. Oleo recently manufactured the world’s largest elevator buffer system, which will be installed into some of the world’s tallest buildings. The buffer is the only one in the world designed to support elevator drop speeds in excess of 20 metres per second.
The company also has the world’s tallest buffer testing tower situated on site at its Coventry plant.
Coventry University is recognised for its international growth and success over the past six years.
The university is one of only a handful of higher education institutions to be so honoured.
Recognised in the International Trade category, the award marks the university’s ‘continuous achievement’ since 2009 in growing and supporting its international student population in the UK and overseas.
The university draws students from more than 150 different countries – making it one of the top ten UK universities for the size of its international population – and it operates teaching programmes abroad for over 12,000 students at 14 different locations.
The award also recognises the positive contribution subsidiary company Coventry University Enterprises has made to the institution’s international operations, as well as the university’s research programmes.
Dr David Pilsbury, deputy vice-chancellor for international development, said: “The growth in scale and breadth of our international activities is something we’re immensely proud of and it is wonderful to have it recognised by receiving the UK’s most prestigious business and enterprise award.”
Despite Jaguar Land Rover’s massive growth in global markets, the company is recognised in the Sustainable Development category for reducing the environmental impact of its products and its operations.
It is the 14th Queen’s Award that JLR has received since 1967 – the second year of the scheme (although prior to 2008 the company was split into two distinct business; Jaguar and Land Rover).
The latest award follows a 2014 award for International Trade, in recognition of the company’s outstanding overseas sales growth.
“Jaguar Land Rover is honoured to receive this 2015 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development,” said CEO Dr Ralf Speth.
“We are focused on growing a long-term, sustainable business, as leaders in environmental innovation and making a positive impact on society.”
The award has been announced during Responsible Business Week, which is appropriate timing as JLR was named Responsible Business of the Year 2013/14 by Business in the Community (BiTC).
Joining JLR in the Sustainable Development category is The Midcounties Co-operative.
Kings Norton-based NutraHealth is another regional winner. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elder Pharmaceuticals, operates healthcare businesses which include brands such as BioCare, Natural Wellbeing and Brunel Healthcare, together with its own label manufacture.
