Queen’s Awards recognise region’s enterprising zeal
FIFTEEN Yorkshire companies have been recognised for increasing overseas sales, innovation and sustainable development in the annual Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
Regional winners in the prestigious business accolades – which are awarded annually on the Queen’s birthday – include can making machinery designer and manufacturer CarnaudMetalBox Engineering, footwear and clothing exporter Ward Shoes and sustainable facrics manufacturer Camira Fabrics, which uses stinging nettles in its products.
Bev Hurley, chief executive of YTKO Leeds, which runs the Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship, is one of only 11 individuals to receive The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion for efforts to encourage UK entrepreneurship.
Ms Hurley has been instrumental in founding several inspirational enterprise projects across the UK and also created the Enterprising Women Network.
Suzanne Emmett, director of the Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship, said: “We would like to pass on our sincere congratulations to Bev. Receiving the award is an achievement for Bev, personally, as well as for YTKO, and we are all very proud.”
The Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship scheme is a region wide programme aimed at helping academic researchers take their idea to commercialisation.
Seven companies in Yorkshire and the Humber have won the international trade award, and six the innovation awards.
Two of the 10 sustainable development awards presented nationally are in Yorkshire and the Humber.
The winners of the international trade award are:
– Allam Marine, of Melton, Hull, for the manufacture and distribution of its marine generating sets and increasing overseas sales to almost £94m a year,
– CarnaudMetalbox Engineering, of Shipley, for its global market coverage of its can making machinery,
– McCalls Special Products, of Dinnington, Rotherham, for its manufacturer of threaded bar and cable systems for the construction industry which has seen it increase export earnings by 124% from its markets in 58 countries,
– Pace, of Saltaire, wins its third successive Queen’s Award for Enterprise and has been awarded for increasing export revenues in three years to £920m a year,
– Pipeline Engineering & Supply Co, of Richmond, for its manufacture of pipeline pigging and flow assurance products used mainly in the oil and gas pipeline industry,
– Ward Shoes, of Sheffield, for growing export sales of customer returned footwear and clothing, to countries including Ghana, by 131% in the last five years,
– Yellow Octopus, Skipton, for growing exports of clothing and footwear to wholesalers and retailers.
The winners of the innovation category are:
– ATB Morley, of Leeds, for developing high voltage electric motors for the global coal mining industry,
– Joseph Rhodes, of Wakefield, for the development of presses used to form and join titanium and aluminium alloys used in the aerospace industry,
– Salamander MooD Active Enterprise Business Unit, of York, for its software which enables the defence and security sectors to operate more effectively,
– Simcyp, of Sheffield, for the continuing development of modelling and simulation software to evaluate new medicines safely on a computer before clinical trials on humans
– Surgical Innovations, of Leeds, for the manufacture of semi-disposable laparoscopic instruments used by surgeons to access the abdomen during operations,
– Tickhill Engineering, of Doncaster, wins an award for developing machinery for washing, polishing, sizing, inspecting and packing vegetables.
Sustainable development winners are:
– Camira Fabrics, of Mirfield, West Yorkshire, for its ‘Second Nature’ range of fabrics made from recycled or renewable materials including discarded MOD army jumpers and stinging nettles,
– Gripple, of Sheffield, has won an award for its innovative and sustainable product base.
Gripple’s managing director, Mark Edmonds, said: “This award, which is a unique achievement for a company of our size, is highly valued by us all. We are extremely proud to have joined the select group of companies which have been so prestigiously recognised for making worthwhile contributions to sustainable development.”
Graham Bowland, managing director of Surgical Innovations, said: “We were one of the first companies to develop flexible but rigid laparoscopic devices and have since have gained a worldwide reputation for developing and manufacturing innovative devices.
“This award acknowledges this commitment and also the dedication made by every single one of our employees from design through to production and also acknowledges Yorkshire’s cutting edge healthcare technologies industry.”
Mark Ridgway, managing director of Group Rhodes, the parent company of Joseph Rhodes, said: “We are delighted and honoured to have won the Queen’s Award which is a tribute to our loyal and highly skilled workforce and recognition for our high quality, innovative products.”
A total of 143 Queen’s Awards have been announced this year. Overall, 95 companies have won awards for international trade, 38 for innovation and 10 for sustainable development.
