Gloucestershire businesses celebrate Her Majesty's 90th birthday with Queen's Awards

Four businesses in Gloucestershire have received a new Queen’s Award for Enterprise, recognising their contribution to international trade and innovation, named by Business Secretary Sajid Javid today.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The Queen’s Awards are a great way of celebrating the best of British business. Whether you’re a disruptive start-up making life easier for your customers or a large company with a blockbuster product, these awards recognise your contribution to enterprise.

“We are a country full of exciting and innovative businesses that deserve to be celebrated. I’d like to commend all the winners for their hard work in creating jobs for people and driving our growing economy.”

Widely regarded as the most prestigious business awards in the country, 2016 marks the 50th anniversary for the winners of the Queen’s Awards scheme in what is also her Majesty the Queen’s 90th birthday year. The winning businesses will also be able to use the esteemed Queen’s Awards emblem for the next five years. 

Gloucestershire winners

Helipebs Controls - Queen’s Award for International Trade

Despite challenging market conditions Helipebs Controls Ltd has redefined themselves by investing in the company and looked to overseas markets. This strategy realised outstanding growth in overseas earnings that has also lead to growth on the domestic side of the business and substantially improved profitability. As a result Helipebs Controls Ltd wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade. Formed in 1969 they took over the groups subcontract machine shop which in the past had manufactured agriculture implements and started manufacturing imperial hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders under license from an American company. They converted them to metric for the UK, then Europe and then further afield. Ten years ago the UK market was flooded with low cost imports and recognising they were unable to compete they changed their approach to low-volume, high-value bespoke units for subsea oil and gas, aerospace and Formula.

Advanced Insulation Ltd - Queen’s Award for International Trade

Established in 2007, Advanced Insulation Ltd has grown to become a single source provider of subsea insulation and topside passive fire protection systems to the upstream oil and gas industry. Its products are now qualified and used worldwide by major oil and gas companies including Total, ConocoPhilips, Chevron, BP, Statoil, BG, ENI Woodside, Talisman and ExxonMobil. A previous Queen’s Award winner for

International Trade in 2012 and Innovation in 2013, the company continues to grow supported by a network of local representations in key countries around the world including USA, Kazakhstan, Korea, United Arab Emirates, Angola, Malaysia and Brazil. The company employs a hub and spoke system with the UK hub providing manufacturing, management and support, and feeding the local regions. Building on its integrated international strategy overseas sales have grown by 332% over the last three years, and the company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for this outstanding performance.

Hope for Tomorrow – Queen’s Award for Innovation

Hope for Tomorrow wins an Innovation Award for its Mobile Chemotherapy Units (MCUs). The MCUs address the problem of patients having to travel long distances to and from treatment and provide the NHS with additional capacity. Coincidently, their first MCU was in ‘the world’ not just the UK! The MCUs are owned and maintained by the charity and are operated as part of a partnership with the local NHS Trusts. Hope for Tomorrow currently operates ten MCUs in a number of locations. The charity, established in 2002, was the first to offer such a service in the UK. Each unit can perform up to 2000 treatments per year.

Robert Welch Designs - Queen’s Award for International Trade

Established in 1961 Robert Welch Designs Ltd has won the Queen’s Award for International Trade for outstanding growth in overseas sales over three years. The company designs and manufactures stainless steel dining cutlery, kitchen knives, utensils and living ware (candlesticks, tea lights and bathroom accessories). Starting out from a local base in a shop in the Cotswolds it won a major export order

with Virgin Airlines and used this as a reference order to promote and expand the business in the USA and Canada. The company now sells in over 30 markets worldwide and international sales have grown by over 50% over three years and now accounts for 44% of total turnover.

David Owen, Chief Executive of GFirst LEP commented: “It’s fantastic to see Gloucestershire businesses recognised for their hard work and determination in international trade and innovation. I look forward to hearing more about the growth and achievements of these companies; and would encourage other local businesses to enter the 2017 Awards to have their contribution to business recognised.”