The achievements of businesses across the regions have been celebrated as the monarch marks her 96th birthday, with Queen's Enterprise Awards for Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development, and Promoting Opportunity.
Winners will be invited to a Royal reception and presented with an award by a Lord Lieutenant – one of the Queen's official representatives.
This year 232 businesses across the UK were recognised. There were 141 recipients of the International Trade award, 51 recipients of the Innovation award, 31 recipients of the Sustainable Development award, and nine recipients of the Promoting Opportunity awards.
Small Business Minister Paul Scully said: "This country is renowned for its entrepreneurial achievements and there is no greater showcase for it than The Queen’s Awards. It’s vital we celebrate the success of our businesses and recognise the contributions they make to communities across the country.
"I congratulate this year’s winners for their hard work and commitment over the last year and I wish them every success for the future."
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN has been graciously pleased to confer Her Awards in 2022 upon the following business units in recognition of their outstanding achievements in Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development and Promoting Opportunity.
Solid State Logic, which employs 112 people, is an Oxford-based designer and manufacturer of high-performance music and audio production tools, which they've been doing since the early ‘70s.
Their products include mixing consoles, audio interfaces and processors aimed at the studio, broadcast, and live sound markets. The company won a Queen’s Award for Innovation for its System T broadcast audio production platform in 2020. They have now developed SSL Fusion, an analogue outboard processor designed for the modern hybrid music studio.
The company identified a range of the subtle yet desirable artefacts of analogue processing and reproduced them using innovative and unique circuit designs to give precise characteristics. SSL Fusion incorporates these analogue processing circuits in a single device using innovative low power electronic designs, which can be individually selected by the user.
The product won the 2020 Technical Excellence in Creativity Award for Signal Processing Hardware, which acknowledges technically innovative products.
TOWER Cold Chain Solutions, based in Berkshire, which began trading in 2012, builds reusable thermal containers that are rented to the global pharmaceutical industry and used to transport temperature- sensitive products such as vaccines, blood kits, medical devices and clinical trials materials.
Tower increased its fleet of rental containers, from 300 to nearly 3000, over the last 18 months. In three years overseas sales grew by 250 per cent and the proportion of total sales exported grew from 59 per cent to 80 per cent using sales and operational teams in the USA, Europe, APAC and South Africa.
Top markets are the USA, Germany, Belgium, South Africa and China. The period saw increasing commercial success with UK staff numbers growing from 23 to 40. The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
The firm employs 40 people at its headquarters in Theale.
Focusrite Audio Engineering is based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and has been trading since 1989. It produces audio interfaces which allow a user to connect microphones, guitars and other instruments into a computer to capture and play back audio in extremely high quality.
Its devices enable musicians, podcasters, streamers and other content creators to produce professional sounding recordings anywhere, with demand growing during the pandemic.
All products are developed in the UK and manufacturing is outsourced to three contract manufacturing partners in China and one in Malaysia. Disruption with deliveries were dealt with to meet the increased orders.
Overseas sales grew by 145 per cent in the six-year period with top markets including North America, Germany, Austria, France, Benelux, Australia and South Korea. It won the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2018 and International Trade in 2012 and 2016 and the company now wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
The firm employs 300 people.
G&L Scientific, established in 2016 and based in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, provides expert scientific regulatory affairs and quality assurance consultancy services and support to Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) companies around the world.
Additionally, two new sub-brands were launched in 2021 providing bespoke regulatory affairs recruitment solutions and Regulatory Affairs-driven management consultancy advice to the industry.
The company provides strategic consulting, outsourcing and functional support across global hubs in the US, Europe, India and Asia Pacific with the support of over 7,000 consultants worldwide. Overseas sales have grown by 59 per cent over three years now accounting for 29 per cent of total sales.
The company has 147 global colleagues currently, and offices in England, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, USA, Canada, India and South Korea. At present it sells into six core overseas areas, Central Europe, Southern Europe, West, East and Southeast US, and Canada. The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Turville Valley Wines, based in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire,started trading in wines in 1979. It sells a range of the rarest and finest new- and old-world wines but is best known for its selection of Domaine de la Romanee Conti wines.
Originally the company supplied a small network of UK private collectors but its customers now span the globe and include private collectors as well as corporate and trade buyers.
The majority of the company’s customers are very knowledgeable about wine, but they still look to it for advice on vintage variations, ready dates for drinking and market insight. Overseas sales doubled in three years into its markets of the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, the EU and Japan and achieved considerable overall commercial success.
The company, which has six employees, wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Wirth Research was founded in 2005 and based in Bicester, Oxfordshire, it now has 23 staff and a turnover of £3 million.
Sustainability is led by Nick Wirth, President & Technical Director and majority shareholder who was the youngest-ever Fellow of the Royal Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The company has been on a journey from pinnacle motorsport design to using their expertise in aerodynamics and computer modelling to design sustainable solutions for problems in different sectors - for instance their products are extensively used to save energy in supermarket fridges.
Wirth is awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development because it is an innovative and exemplary company that has used its modelling and aerodynamic skills acquired through the motor racing industry to transition to providing energy solutions in a range of diverse industries. It has demonstrated leadership both within and outside the company and has had a major positive impact.
Neighbourly Limited, established in 2014, has developed an innovative digital platform that helps businesses donate volunteer time, financial support, and surplus products to local communities.
The Neighbourly platform provides a digital presence to thousands of local good causes operating in communities across the UK and Ireland. It enables large businesses to develop measurable and scalable programmes to benefit the communities in which they are based.
Unlike traditional CSR programmes that tended to support a small number of national or international charities, the Neighbourly platform gives businesses access to thousands of vetted small charities and community causes working at a hyper-local level to tackle a broad spectrum of societal and environmental issues and themes.
Companies can track, measure, and quantify their impact and be fully transparent about the action they are taking to meet their CSR and social value commitments in an authentic way, thereby building consumer and employee trust.
Neighbourly employs 31 people in Bristol.
Synalogik Innovative Solutions, established in 2018, has developed an innovative automated data aggregation, cleansing, and risk scoring platform for intelligence and investigation teams.
Scout is the ‘Single Intelligence Environment’; permitting concurrent searches over multiple live data sources to be analysed. The system integrates internal, third party and open-source intelligence data into automated workflows so that teams no longer need to log in and out of different data silos before decisions can be made.
The result is swifter and more rigorous decision making, whether you’re "looking for" fraud, money laundering or Regulator- driven compliance checks. Scout is used by Law Enforcement Agencies, Government departments, banks, gambling companies and insurance companies; saving each of them significant time and enhancing their decision making capability.
Based in Tewkesbury the firm employs 17 people.
Christie International was established in 2002, and is based in South Woodchester near Stroud, Gloucestershire.
It provides a complete Export Management Service for UK food and non-food SMEs who do not have a dedicated Export Department of their own.
Over twenty years it has experienced many challenges including global financial meltdowns, tackling import barriers & tariffs, battling significant exchange rate fluctuations, geo-political instability and the more recent issues arising from Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the three years to November 2020 its overseas sales have grown by 65 per cent. All sales are to overseas markets, and have grown on average by almost 30 per cent per annum. In 2020 the company exported products to 30 countries, including South Africa, UAE, USA, Malaysia and Turkey and Liberia.
The company, which has five employees, wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
LB Bentley, which employs 168 people in Stroud, Gloucestershire and has been trading since 1972. It designs and manufactures filters and desiccant dryers, and designs and supplies small bore subsea valves and actuators to the oil and gas industry.
Products are manufactured to a highly engineered level to produce high quality products that fully satisfy the challenges of the extreme environments in which they are deployed.
Overseas sales grew by 75 per cent in the three-year period with top markets including the United States, Brazil, Malaysia, Norway and Germany. Over the last two years putting risk mitigation actions in place reduced the impact on its supply chain to a minimum and it stays ahead of the competition through new product development, understanding the customer and delivering value added services to existing customers.
It won the Queen’s Award for International Trade in 2014 and the company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales.
The Wentworth Wooden Jigsaw Company Ltd, based in Malmesbury, Wiltshire,began trading in 1991, producing unique and intricately hand-crafted wooden jigsaw puzzles which they manufacture using laser technology.
Initially selling them through retailers, in the last 14 years the company has actively sought to sell their puzzles direct to customers through dedicated web sites in the UK, USA and more recently Germany.
It still sells to selected galleries, museums and charities, which then retail the products through their gift shops and websites.
In 2015 the company prepared a ten year export growth plan and overseas sales grew by a total of 439 per cent in six years with the proportion of goods exported increasing from 38 per cent to 60 per cent.
The company, which employs 45 people, wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Long Term Growth over the last six years.
The Little Soap Company has been in operation since 2008, but in 2018, they identified a gap in the market for job-specific soaps to replace the generic soaps currently available. Moreover, the company wanted a product that played to its ethical strengths.
It developed a range of bars that are entirely plastic free, ocean- friendly, and biodegradable (soap and packaging). They also eradicate the need for bottles by formulating traditionally bottled liquids into bar form. The bars were launched under the Eco Warrior brand, covering all aspects of a personal hygiene regime. The development is unique because each bar replaced a product traditionally packaged in plastic bottles or pressurised cans.
The bars eliminate unnecessary plastics in bathrooms and are produced in a plastic free supply chain. The affordable range makes it possible for consumers to make simple eco-switches.
The firm employs seven people at Broadway, Worcestershire.
Proteus Instruments, which employs five people in Stoke Prior, Worcestershire is a subsidiary of RS Hydro, formed in 2018.
It was set up after developing, in conjunction with the University of Birmingham, a measuring device that detects harmful bacterial coliforms and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (among a range of other contaminants) in real-time.
Improving on the existing, slower methods allows customers to constantly monitor supply and wastewater, leading to better purification, reduced waste and more efficient use of resources. Much can happen between traditional sampling and analysis, so this system allows the user to receive more consistently monitored water, significant globally, but particularly in developing countries with a less well established water treatment infrastructure.
In developing countries, the company works with aid agencies and NGOs to improve water supplies, which also helps protect the environment. The technology utilised in the product is patent protected.
Staeger Clear Packaging, established in 2000 and based in Coventry,manufactures food-grade packaging for the retail industry.
Typically clear food packaging is made from PVC, the only viable material. The company wanted to improve their environmental impact whilst maintaining the quality of packaging that its customers expected.
To achieve this, they worked with UK extruders of recycled PET to change their product to meet the standards required. The company then developed a novel post extrusion heated sheeting machine to transform rolls into sheets.
The innovation has raised the quality of the extruder's product and enabled the use of UK recycled PET in food packaging. Previously, such recycled materials had to be imported from Europe. By manufacturing the materials in the UK, the company has secured raw materials with a 20 per cent cost reduction, ready supply, and reduced carbon footprint.
BOXRAW started trading in 2016 and is based in Coventry. It produces sportswear and equipment for boxing and has developed the world’s most comprehensive machine learning model for boxing training, based on the largest data set of boxers ever captured.
BOXRAW sells to 120 countries worldwide spread over six continents. To access beyond BOXRAW’s top-selling markets of US, UK, France, Germany and Australia, and where e-commerce is less trusted or utilised, the company uses distributors and independent retailers.
The company - which employs 35 people - demonstrated exceptional innovation in response to the challenges presented by COVID, focusing on people in isolation, providing free mindfulness and boxing workouts.
Overseas sales have grown by 335 per cent over the three-year application period and in the final year of application 66 per cent of total sales was exported. The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short-Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Coventry University is part of a dynamic and forward-thinking global education group, with a heritage stretching back more than 175 years.
The university delivered undergraduate and postgraduate education to 38,430 students in 2019/2020, making it the 4th largest HE provider overall in the UK and the 2nd largest provider of undergraduate education.
With 13,445 international students they were the 5th largest HE recruiter of international students in the UK; and overseas sales have grown 91% overall across the last six years.
Their top markets include China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Hong Kong. Their push to innovate in digital teaching meant they were well placed to deliver teaching and learning remotely when forced to close their campuses in March 2020.
In 2020/21 they were named as the world's best university for the provision of Massive Open Online Courses. The university wins the Queen's Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
Excool, based in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, was incorporated in 2010 to supply cooling equipment to the emerging and rapidly growing data centre market.
It developed as a technology and service-led company which manufactures and services large-scale energy and water-efficient cooling equipment for data centres worldwide. It developed a superior technology which uses up to 50 per cent less energy and 65 per cent less water than comparable technologies.
Over six years to March 2021, its overseas sales have grown 740 per cent, and now make up 70 per cent of all sales. Its main markets are Germany, Switzerland, Norway, France, and China. It has set up a division in North America and also entered into a joint venture with a Chinese partner in Beijing.
The company, which employs 174 people, wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
MNB Precision is based in Coventry and has been trading since 1980. It is a third-generation, family-owned business providing high quality precision engineering solutions to customers in the oil and gas sectors.
It works in a range of other sectors operating in safety-critical environments such as rail, power generation, defence and metro. MNB manufactures complete to customers exacting specifications which are typically high complexity, high value, robust components that are designed to perform within the harshest environments, whilst meeting strict safety standards.
These components are typically produced in exotic materials such as inconel, beryllium, copper and non- magnetic stainless steels. Overseas sales grew by over 500 per cent in the six-year period with top markets including Norway, the United States, UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Romania.
The company, which has 86 employees, wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
Momentum-Pharma, established in 2015 and based in Hereford, provides outsourcing services to the clinical trial industry.
Its clients are Pharmaceutical, BioTechnology and Medical Device Companies, and it focuses on Oncology and Rare, Genetic Diseases for adults and children.
It focuses on expanding treatment options through clinical trials to patients with life-threatening illnesses, often with no other treatment options: providing clients with experienced consultants globally to assist with running clinical trials in their region.
The business is entirely international with overseas earnings growing by 2,200 per cent over six years. Clients by number are largely based in the USA but the company also works in the EU and Switzerland.
The actual consultants the company source clinical trials to are based in 34 countries worldwide. Over 70 per cent of business currently comes from the USA but business is growing in the EU and Far East.
The company, which has a staff of 3.5, wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
Pharma Packaging Systems is based in Pershore, Worcestershire and has been trading since 2002.
It specialises in the custom design and manufacture of standalone or integrated turnkey pharmaceutical tablet counting machinery and provides high-tech, reliable packaging solutions.
Innovative high-speed counting technology uses specially-designed infra-red sensors to count multiple products such as tablets, capsules or chewable vitamins at speed as they are dispensed into bottles or sachets. It installs, maintains and services the machines, allowing it to build a close working relationship with its customers, many of whom are the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry.
Overseas sales grew by over 60 per cent in the three-year period with top markets including the United States, Germany, Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey. The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Pharma Packaging Systems employs 30 people.
Premier Health Products was formed in 2012 and is based in Coventry, manufacturing and exporting food supplements.
Premier Health Products also provides order fulfilment and customer services for over 70,000 e-commerce consignments worldwide annually. There are three product ranges their own brand Basic Nutrition; private label services and a customisable range for chains to brand with their name and logo.
The company exports to Middle East, Africa, Europe and South East Asia. The export strategy is based on establishing a global network of trusted distributors (sometimes facilitated by an agent) and winning international Hospital Tender contracts for food supplements.
Overseas sales have grown by 158 per cent over the six-year application period and sales exported has increased to 50 per cent of total sales. The company, which employs 27 people, wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
Whitefurze started trading in 1978 and is based in Coventry, where it employs 117 people.
Whitefurze supplies high quality injection moulded plastic consumer goods for storage, housewares, food storage and garden products. The strategy involves establishing product ranges with large multi- national enterprises that have European and global offices, so each range has potential to reach multiple countries.
Main markets are Ireland, Canada, and Europe. Export activities are managed by employed personnel based near the market and a Belgium-based Head of International Sales covers Europe, and locally based Territory Manager covers the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The company demonstrated agility and innovation in response to the challenges presented by COVID, seeing increased demand across all sectors including national accounts, independent and export customers. Overseas sales have grown by 151 per cent over the three year application period.
The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Clean Sheet is a Coventry-based national organisation and has been part of the Langley House Trust Group since 2019. It provides employment support to broaden job opportunities for people with convictions across the UK.
Each Clean Sheet Member has a dedicated employment team advisor, and the organisation puts them in touch with a list of employers prepared to open up their vacancies to people with convictions.
Once employment is secured, there is a 12- month period of support and check-in. The organisation directly engages with over 100 willing employers, which helps Members to access job opportunities.
Over the five years reported for this award, 976 people with convictions secured a job outcome. Another significant outcome is that 85 have progressed into Further Education and two into Higher Education, whilst 58 have started their own businesses.
Clean Sheet itself employs eight people.
DRPG was established in 1980 and is based in Hartlebury, Worcestershire. It has 342 employees.
It is an integrated communication and production specialist. It creates internal, external and experiential communications solutions, producing award-winning campaigns.
Its CSR Charter is the culmination of a 15-year journey and the launch of a long-term ambition to achieve a number of goals by 2030, such as carbon neutrality. The strategy focuses on material issues, and is aligned to its values.
The culture appears to have sustainability embedded within it and there is evidence of significant staff engagement in activities and initiatives.
DRPG is awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development because it can clearly demonstrate its sustainability journey over 15 years with a range of positive impacts.
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