Businesses get royal seal of approval on Queen's awards list

The annual scheme, which recognises enterprise excellence in the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses, was established in 1965 and coincides with the Queen’s birthday – her 91st.

Business secretary Greg Clark today named this year’s winners, including three firms in The News area.

Winners include businesses in a broad range of industries – from 
medical healthcare to insurance, to robotics and aerospace engineering.

One of these firms, Auto Integrate, a fleet management company that has solely American and Canadian customers, operates from 1000
Lakeside, North Harbour.

It was set up in 2013 by Terry Bartlett and it has won an award for international trade.

He said: ‘It’s a really exciting opportunity and a pleasure to have won.’

Another firm, Bigneat Ltd, in Waterlooville, also won an award for international trade.

Robert Monks, managing director, said: ‘It’s an absolute honour to be recognised for the success we have achieved over the past few years.

‘We pride ourselves on our long-standing heritage and our customer-focused ethos. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of our dedicated employees for their hard work, enthusiasm and commitment.’

Now in its 51st year, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are one of the most prestigious business awards in the country, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queen’s Awards emblem for the next five years.

Mr Clark said: ‘The Queen’s Awards for enterprise highlights everything that’s great about UK business today.

‘We have some of the best entrepreneurs and innovative minds in the world who are at the heart of small start-ups providing excellent customer service to larger businesses developing global solutions.

‘Over one million new businesses have been created since 2010, all playing a vital role in creating jobs and driving growth across the UK.

‘I’m extremely proud to see such a wealth of businesses across the south east being recognised.’

Entries are now open for next year’s awards. Deadline is September 1. To apply go to gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise/overview

All the south east winners

Innovation award

* Carbon8 Systems Ltd, Kent

* Celaton Ltd, Milton Keynes

* Feefo Holdings Ltd, Petersfield

* Mediplus Ltd, Bucks

* Mettler Toledo Safeline X-ray Ltd, Hertfordshire

* Owen Mumford Ltd, Oxon

* RJM Corporation (EC) Ltd, Hampshire

* Servecorp Ltd, West Sussex

* Spinlock Ltd, Isle of Wight

* SwimTrek Ltd, East Sussex

* Tempcover Ltd, Fleet Hampshire

* UKCloud Ltd, Hampshire

International trade award

* A World of Buzz Ltd, West Sussex

* Aerospares 2000 Ltd, Watford

* Auto Integrate Ltd, Portsmouth

* Bigneat Ltd, Waterlooville

* David Store Navigational Management Ltd, Hampshire

* Dianne Lee Regulatory Consultancy Ltd, Hertfordshire

* Ecotile Flooring Ltd, Bedfordshire

* Ekioh Ltd, Cambridgeshire

* Electronic Temperature Instruments Ltd, West Sussex

* HH Global Ltd, Sutton Surrey

* IDT Systems Ltd, Surrey

* Keen and Toms Holdings Ltd, Buckinghamshire

* Lucid Group Communications Ltd, Bucks

* Mark Roberts Motion Control Ltd, Blindley Heath

* MR Solutions Group Ltd, Surrey

* PJ Pipe and Valve Co Ltd, Hertfordshire

* Premier Coatings Ltd, Kent

* Rentokil Pest Control, Surrey

* Road Safety Support International, Essex

* Servecorp, West Sussex

* Symply Pet Foods Ltd, Buckinghamshire

Firm enjoys incredible growth

IT’S designed specifically for the American and Canadian markets and has seen incredible growth since its launch in 2013.

Auto Integrate provides an online vehicle maintenance electronic authorisation software system for the auto-motive sector.

It has radically changed the way fleet management companies and fleets transact with their vendors with maintenance approvals now processed in less than one second supplying a full audit trail to ensure fast and full payment to the vendor.

The company operates 100 per cent internationally in the North American market and its international sales have grown from £137k to £483k over the last three years, an overall growth of 251 per cent.

Current contracts include Bridge-stone, Ford, Chrysler, Valvoline and TBC Corporation giving them 90 per cent of the national vendor footprint.

The company, based at Lakeside North Harbour, now employs more than 20 people.

Innovation scoops award

A QUEEN’S Award for Innovation is made to Feefo Holdings for its software platform.

Founded in 2010 and based in Petersfield, the company has developed a platform for providing trusted customer feedback.

The software-as-a-service tool facilitates the collection, publication and analysis of transaction-based feedback. Feefo stands out from its competitors with its mechanism to prevent fake reviews from being posted.

After a transaction, the customer is emailed with an invitation to provide feedback ensuring that only genuine reports are made.

The platform is also enabled with video upload and insight tags to add data such as name of sales person or store location.

Company turnover has grown at an annual average of 89 per cent to £6m over the past five years.

Recognition for manufacturer

AFTER four decades of trading, Bigneat Ltd has won a Queen’s Award for International Trade.

The firm in Waterlooville started in 1973 selling ductless fume cabinets.

Since then it has established itself as a world-class manufacturer and leading provider of clean air and hazard containment systems for science and industry.

It designs, manufactures and services laboratory fume and bio-hazard safety cabinets and specialist environmentally controlled enclosures.

This equipment is used in laboratories, for research, experimentation and measurements in biological, chemistry, education, electronics, food, medical, nanotechnology, pharmaceutical and other more general industry.

Bigneat has clients in the USA, Middle East, Europe and Asia Australia.

Overseas sales have grown by 163 per cent over the past three years. Its proportion of exports has increased to 43 per cent of total sales.