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Export and innovation leaders win Queen's Awards

Date added: 21/04/2015 01:00:00

A private equity-backed high street footwear retailer, a luxury bathing products maker and a reigning Insider North West International Trade Awards winner are among the North West businesses honoured in the 2015 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

Nine companies in the region have received an award, which recognise achievements in international trade, innovation and sustainable development and are the UK's highest accolade for business success.

A total of 141 UK businesses are recipients, along with six individuals who have won the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. In the North West six have received gongs for international trade, two for innovation and one for sustainable development.

Among those rewarded for overseas success is Skelmersdale-based Beaconsfield Footwear, which trades on the high street as Hotter and makes a pair of shoes every 20 seconds. The business, backed by Electra Partners, has grown export earnings by 123 per cent over the past three years after expanding into the US, Middle East and South Africa.

"From our HQ in Lancashire we design, develop and manufacture shoes for our global markets, ship over two million pairs of shoes around the world each year and support our customers with a dedicated call centre and personal shopping service that works across multiple time zones," said managing director Peter Taylor.

Altrincham-based energy recruitment agency Worldwide Recruitment Solutions, holder of the International Company of the Year (£10m - £25m turnover) at Insider's North West International Trade Awards 2014, also won for its international success. During the past six years, WRS has placed candidates in more than 50 countries. Its export business in 2013 accounted for 84 per cent of its £22m turnover with the largest trade regions being Europe and Asia.

Francis Dunleavy, operations director of WRS, said: "It is truly an honour to be recognised by the Queen for the work we have done over the past six years. We have come a long way in that time, from just five employees to now over 80 across our global network."

The four other North West international trade winners are Evans Vanodine International, a Preston-headquartered exporter of cleaning and hygiene chemicals for industrial and janitorial use; Manchester IT network equipment broker and distributor Gen-X IT; bath products maker Grace Cole, based in Cheadle; and Holroyd Precision in Rochdale, a specialist in grinding and milling machine tools.

Tracy Mort, managing director of Grace Cole, a business which makes 50 per cent of its products in the UK and exports to 80 countries worldwide, said: "We have always strived to support the UK economy by creating jobs within our supply chain and produce products that can add value to the UK’s export industry.

"Sometimes this has felt like a huge undertaking and a massive investment. However, we knew in the long term it would not only expand our business, but it would secure large contracts for UK-based companies."

Holroyd Precision's chief executive Dr Tony Bannan added: "In securing the award, we were able to demonstrate significant growth in overseas trade, something that was achieved in spite of challenging global trading conditions."

Elsewhere in the North West, Contra Vision in Stockport and The Brownsword Group in Denton won awards for innovation, while the North Mersey Business Centre was rewarded in the sustainable development category for its work to convert redundant land into industrial units.