Recipients of the first King’s Awards for Enterprise announced
Businesses across the regions have been recognised in the first King’s Awards for Enterprise, announced today (21 April).
The Award programme, which was previously known as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, have now been running for 57 years, recognising more than 7,000 companies since they started up back in 1965. The new name reflects His Majesty The King’s desire to continue the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II by recognising outstanding UK businesses.
This year sees 148 businesses from across the UK recognised by His Majesty the King for their efforts in one of four categories: Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development and Promoting Opportunity (through social mobility).
The awards will be presented to businesses by His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenants across the year.
The South East has 16 companies recognised this year, with seven in the Innovation category, eight in International Trade and one in Sustainable Development.
Innovation
Hampshire-based Care Friends has been recognised in the Innovation category for its app, which was launched in partnership with Skills for Care.
The Care Friends app is a digital employee referral solution which supports the recruitment and retention of high-quality care staff. It enables and encourages existing care staff to refer new potential recruits to apply for a role in their organisation faster and more easily using their own mobile phone.
By utilising this personal recommendation process, applicants have proven to be more likely to be high-quality and new recruits are more likely to stay in their roles long-term. Employees are rewarded with points for referring successful candidates which can be redeemed for cash.
Neil Eastwood, Founder and CEO of Care Friends and author of ‘Saving Social Care’ says: “I am absolutely thrilled to receive a King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. It means so much to all of us at Care Friends.
“We really are offering an innovative solution to the unprecedented recruitment and retention challenges that we know the vitally important social care sector is facing, and for our work to be recognised in these prestigious awards is a real achievement.
“Since launching in 2020 Care Friends has generated over 85,000 candidates who have been hand-picked for their values and suitability for social care by our existing workforce. Care workers have earned £4.5M via the app and employers are reporting year one staff turnover rates of new starters hired via the app are as much as six times lower than they are used to from other sources.
“We will continue to optimise the technology and are looking forward to bringing it to many more employers to support the social care sector in the future.”
Berkshire-based pharmaceutical container specialist Tower Cold Chain has been awarded the King’s Award for its KTM container, a thermally insulated passive pallet shipping system, with a patented modular construction design.
Tower’s passive systems consists of phase change materials (PCMs) and/or dry ice, intended to maintain the internal contents of the container within a specific temperature range for 120 hours, without any requirement for active control, electricity, or manual intervention. The standard controlled temperatures are ambient (15 to 25°C), chilled (2 to 8°C), frozen (-15 to -25°C) and deep frozen (-60 to -80°C).
Employing a modular construction of roto-moulded parts, this produced a lighter, more robust and cost-effective option – between 5% – 30% lighter than competitor products. This further improves the KTM’s sustainability credentials across all transport supply chains, offering a fully reusable, space-efficient solution.
“To win any King or Queen’s Award requires the highest standards, so for Tower Cold Chain to receive awards in two consecutive years is a fantastic achievement,” said Niall Balfour, Tower Cold Chain’s CEO.
“With our industry-leading product, it is an incredible honour to receive such recognition for the KTM range as we continue to work with global pharmaceutical manufacturers, airlines and third-party logistics customers to deliver products to patients in a robust, reliable, reusable method.”
Kent-based eXroid Technology uses electrotherapy to treat haemorrhoids. The company has developed the technology and overseen its introduction into UK, helping thousands of haemorrhoid sufferers.
Based out of Discovery Park, the company’s services and clinics are available across the country, with treatment delivered by some of the leading Colorectal Specialist Consultants.
Infoscience Technologies is a Wallingford-based company which been recognised for its Artificial Intelligence algorithms which use Natural Language Processing to read text within reports, enabling companies to automate work tasks including data extraction, summarisation and classification, as well as detection of new knowledge through trends, anomalies and meaningful insights to support ideation.
Founded in 2018, it targets oil and gas exploration, carbon capture and storage, mining, geohealth, geothermal, radioactive waste disposal, geotechnical and geohazards.
ipTEST, based in Guildford, Surrey, has developed a high accuracy Dynamic Switch Tester used for characterising next generation wide-band gap semiconductor devices.
Wide-bandgap semiconductor devices are often used in high-power and high-frequency applications where they are required to switch rapidly and efficiently. Therefore, it is important to test their switching performance under various conditions to ensure that they operate reliably and efficiently.
A dynamic switch tester is a specialized instrument used to test the switching behavior of semiconductor devices under different voltage, current, and temperature conditions. It measures the device's switching speed, efficiency, and other key parameters, allowing engineers to optimize the device's performance and identify any potential issues that may arise.
High performance surveillance asset manufacturer Sesanti has been awarded the King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its ultra-low light level long range product (ULARI).
The Hampshire-based firm first conceived the product in 2016. It uses high-speed processing and algorithms to extract high-quality images from very few photons. Along with security, the product has applications in humanitarian and search and rescue situations.
It has significantly improved low light level capability, and the company has already sold multi-millions of pounds worth of systems with ongoing interest from customers in both the UK and across the world.
Isle of Wight-based designer and manufacturer of rope control and safety devices Spinlock has been recognised with the Innovation award for its waist-worn lifesaving device, the ALTO, which is primarily targeted at the fishing and watersports sectors.
The ALTO is a compact alternative to a bulkier, body-worn buoyancy aid, becoming buoyant once inflated and complying with the same ISO standards as its foam counterparts. Its protective cover is released once activated and inflates a bright yellow horseshoe ring which remains attached to the waistband.
Spinlock, a previous recipient of both a Queen's Award for Innovation and an Export Award, assembles all of its products at its base in Cowes, where they are also tested to ensure performance.
International Trade
Berkshire-based Dog Rocks offers a natural solution to stopping lawn burn marks from your dog’s urine. They differ from other solutions to this problem as they don’t lower the urine’s pH level, which can cause urinary tract problems. Instead they work by remove the nitrates from the dog’s drinking water.
First discovered in Australia in the late ’90s, Dog Rocks were tried and tested for many years and are now used by over a million dog owners worldwide.
Wycombe-based Durston Tools has been manufacturing rolling mills and tools for the jewellery industry since 1961, with its products now available in more than 50 countries around the world and working with more than 250 jewellery industry dealerships around the world.
The company has seen its imports increase exponentially over the past ten years, with between a 25 and 30 per cent increase each year for the past three.
Berkshire-based Frog Bikes was founded by Jerry and Shelley Lawson in 2013 after a fruitless bike hunt for their own two children.
They have since won industry awards for innovation and design, and are found in around 1,800 retailers around the world along with having developed a number of partnerships.
HealthScience communications consultancy Oxford PharmaGenesis was founded in 1998 and now employs more than 500 people worldwide. It offers expertise in services including strategic communications, medical affairs, value demonstration, patient engagement, informatics and data science, publications.
The company, which picked up a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2019, works with more than 50 healthcare organisations including specialist devices, diagnostics and nutraceuticals companies, and professional societies, patient groups and academic institutions.
The Oxford Scholastica Academy was founded in Oxford in 2014. They are passionate about giving students the edge to help them succeed, find their purpose, and make a difference in the world.
They offer transformational education programmes for 12-18 year olds held online and in the city of Oxford. They are proud to win the first ever King’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category as a result of their international growth of 550% over the past three years.
They welcomed students from over 70 different nationalities on their residential courses in 2022, and students from over 60 countries attended their online courses.
Oxford-based Penman Consulting has been supporting the chemical industry in meeting complex international regulatory needs since 2008. The company helps companies demonstrate their products are handled safely for both human health and the environment.
Penman Consulting employs 35 people in the UK and another 30 in Europe.
Mike, who received an MBE in 1996 for “Services to Environmental Safety”, and Sue Penman, the founders of the business said they were delighted at the recognition the award brings.
“Not just for the company, but for all the staff across the company, past and present. They have worked so hard over so many years to develop and provide first rate services to those involved in the international chemical community.”
Surrey-based family-run home fragrance manufacturer Sebnini was established in 2001, although its founders, Gert and Carina Schyberg, first started making candles in 1987. The company expanded from Great Britain into mainland Europe and Ireland in 2007 then into American markets in 2020.
The company, which works with fragrance houses around the world creates bespoke products for its customers, tracking market trends to help its clients offer great value products their customers love. Sebnini has seen a massive uptick in its exporting over the last three years, growing by more than 500 per cent.
Sebnini also aims to reduce packaging, minimise wasteful or unnecessary product journeys and create products which can be re-used or recycled by the end user.
Sebnini’s founder and Managing Director, Gert Schyberg said: “We are so incredibly honoured, humbled and excited for our business and staff to receive such a prestigious award in recognition of many years hard work and achievements. All of the team work so hard to make the business a success and we couldn’t have achieved this without their endeavours and expertise. It’s a real tribute to them.”
Fellow founder, Carina Schyberg said: “This really is an amazing achievement for us and the business and I couldn’t be more delighted to gain such recognition.”
TPS Global Logistics is a Kent-based family run firm which was renamed to its current name in 2015 in memory of Tim Paul Smith, the father of Matt Smith our Managing Director and Toby Smith Fulfilment Director.
The company previously won Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in 2015 and 2018, and offers a variety of different freight services including air, sea, road and rail working with a number of specialist industries including healthcare, technology, sports equipment, hazardous goods, oversize and bulky cargo and retail.
Sustainable Development
Berkshire-based creates furniture with sustainability at the forefront of its business. Founded in 1984, the company was one of the first furniture makers in the UK to have chain of custody certification from the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Benchmark is also ISO14001 certified, and has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category twice.
