West Berkshire: Benchmark wins prestigious Queen’s Award for the second time

Furniture maker Benchmark has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development – the UK’s highest accolade for business success. The Award, which will be presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, James Puxley, on  July 14, was won by just 12 companies in 2015 and this is the second time that Benchmark has been named a winner.

Co-founded by Sean Sutcliffe and Terence Conran in 1984, Benchmark is widely regarded as a UK powerhouse of craft, with an unrivalled depth of knowledge of wood. Based in the rural village of Kintbury, West Berkshire, the facilities now include 40,000 sq ft of workshops for timber milling, cabinet making, veneering, spray shops, metalworking and in-house upholstery, as well as a design studio.

For the Award, environmental, social and economic considerations were reviewed and entrants were measured against strict criteria. The judges said: “A second Sustainable Development Award is made to Benchmark, a furniture maker having long established focus on craftsmanship, design and sustainability and an exemplary approach to transparency and accountability. Benchmark developed the world’s first wooden furniture with full Life Cycle Assessment results.

"Prioritising local sourcing, to reduce material and personnel travel, it was the first furniture maker accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest certification.

"Deeply rooted in local communities, it provides strong support to students, including those with disabilities, through apprenticeships, work experience and schools workshops.”

For over 25 years Benchmark has recruited young staff locally and trained them through an award-winning apprenticeship programme, and today two thirds of the staff are either past or current apprentices.

Sutcliffe said: “Receiving this award for the second time is an achievement the whole team is extremely proud of.  We are not content to stand still and are constantly seeking ways to reduce our environmental impact and make a positive contribution to the local and wider environment.

"We are particularly proud of our pioneering work on Life Cycle Assessment which we hope will provide the design industry with a better understanding of the cradle to grave environmental impact of the choices made when designing and manufacturing products."

Benchmark works internationally with hotels, restaurants, public buildings, offices and private residences and sells its own furniture range direct from the workshops. Recent high-profile projects include the new Cathedra and Cross for Leicester Cathedral and a ‘digital double’ of Number 10 Downing Street door for the GREAT Festivals.