Poole: BOFA International presented with Queen's Award for Innovation

Dorset lord-lieutenant Angus Campbell has presented Poole-based BOFA International with the Queen’s Award for Innovation in recognition of world-leading technology that is transforming the way companies remove harmful dust and fumes from the workplace.

The accolade has been achieved by BOFA in its 30th anniversary year and acknowledges the success of its patented Intelligent Operating (iQ) platform, which enhances filtration system performance in industrial processes while simultaneously improving productivity.

Tony Lockwood, managing director, commented: “BOFA started as a small family business in a garage and has thrived over the last 30 years through a spirit of innovation.

“Today, we fly the flag for British manufacturing in over 100 countries around the world and we are very proud to add the Queen’s Award for Innovation to the Queen’s Award for Export we received in 2012. The award is testament to the vision and hard work of an incredibly talented group of people.”

BOFA was launched in 1987 as a small family business and has since developed into a global technology leader, employing over 200 people at its Poole headquarters as well as having offices in the USA and Germany.

The company continues to lead the way in the development of innovative dust and fume extraction systems that remove toxic and harmful airborne contaminants resulting from production processes in sectors as diverse as laser, electronics, mechanical engineering, printing, 3D printing, medical, pharmaceutical, dental and beauty.

The Queen’s Award for Innovation is acknowledgment of the impact of the company’s revolutionary iQ platform, which has introduced performance enhancements, including independent filter status monitoring and remote data analysis, to improve dust and fume extraction efficiency, reduce the risk of production downtime and lower the lifetime cost of technology ownership.

Lockwood added: “Our continuous investment in research and development has enabled us to grow a worldwide customer base, but we still retain the family values that were so important to the founders of the company.

“These pillars have enabled us to grow strongly, particularly in recent years. As a new management team in 2015, we set an objective to double our revenues within a five year period and for our US operation to treble in size – today, we are one year ahead of that plan, having grown by 30% in the last trading year alone.”