The setting for this year’s Queen’s Awards Gala Dinner was London’s historic and majestic Clothworkers’ Hall. The sumptuous surroundings provided the perfect location to celebrate the outstanding achievements of more than 100 British businesses winners of The Queen’s Award for International Trade in Enterprise.
The annual event, which was organised and hosted by The Institute of Export (IOE) and sponsored jointly by Amber Road and HSBC, provided award recipients with an evening of celebration, entertainment and a host of networking opportunities with some truly exceptional companies, whose continuing successes has made them leaders in the field of exporting and international trade.
Speakers at the event included IOE President Jim Davis, IOE Chairman Ian Taylor, IOE Director General, Lesley Batchelor OBE and Craig Pattinson, Senior Area Commercial Director, HSBC.
IOE Chairman Ian Taylor began his speech by listing some of the successes that the IOE has enjoyed during the past year, including the increase in student numbers and the acceptance of the IOE’s message regarding professionalism in international trade. He then had the honour of presenting awards to three companies who impressively had won the prestigious accolades over consecutive years.
Founded in 1996 and a subsidiary of Elekta AB of Sweden, Elekta Limited, which designs and manufactures solutions for radiotherapy treatment of cancer, has won the Queen’s Award in International Trade for the last three years.
For the fourthyear running, London-based smart voucher provider Ukash Limited, won the Queen’s Award in International Trade. The company, which delivers white-label and Ukash-branded electronic money services, has enjoyed an increased overseas sales growth of 31.7% for 2013 compared to 2012.
Completing the line-up, and winning for the second consecutive year, was Southall-based Nasco (UK) Ltd,which exports a range of British and European branded consumer goods primarily to Africa, India and the Middle East and more recently to Nigeria, the Philippines, Jordan, Poland, Canada, Yemen and Pakistan. Established in 2004, overseas sales growth was 276%, with exports accounting for around 75% of turnover over the last three years.
After dinner speaker, German comedian Henning Wehn, who has appeared on TV programmes such as ‘Would I Lie to You’, ‘QI’ and ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’, finished the evening on a high note, by entertaining guests in his own hilariously unique Germanic style.
IOE Director General Lesley Batchelor, who is on the judging panel in the International Trade category of the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise said: “Year on year, the event continues to grow in magnitude. The sheer level of talent demonstrated by our award winners was truly inspirational and the acknowledgment of their success with the presentation of the awards was undeniably well deserved.
“Along with my fellow judges, I will shortly begin the process of reviewing this year’s award submissions – a task which I am looking forward to immensely.”
Entries for the Queen’s Awards for Enterprises should be submitted online between 21 April and the last working day of September each year. To download an application form visit https://queensawards.bis.gov.uk
For more information on the Institute of Export visit www.export.org,uk or call 01733 404400.
