Queen's Awards for Enterprise
2008

Lancashire Queen's Award 2008 Winner

This year's 43rd annual Queen's Awards for Enterprise saw the total number granted across the UK increase to 139 after an unusually low number of 119 in the previous year. By category, 85 companies won an award in the international trade division, up from 71 in the previous year, 42 won for innovation, up from 40, whilst there were 12 winners in the sustainable development category, up from eight last year. Lancashire companies have garnered an unusually large number of these awards over recent years (see below) but in 2008 just one local company was successful, within the International Trade category: Fort Vale Engineering.

FORT VALE ENGINEERING LTD

Established for over 40 years, Fort Vale Engineering is an award winner in International Trade. It has grown into a world leader in the precision manufacture of a full range of components required for the safe transport, storage and process of hazardous liquids, foodstuffs, powders and compressed liquefied gases. The company's product range includes manways and hatches, airline valves, safety release devices, discharge valves and associated ancillaries and fittings. The company is equipped with state of-the-art manufacturing facilities providing total control over all processes from research and design, manufacture and assembly to final testing and certification. Fort Vale exports 85% of its products to over 65 countries and was a previous International Trade winner in both 1981 and 1986. Nelson-based Fort Vale employs about 240 people in its UK operations but also has wholly owned subsidiaries in the USA, Netherlands, Russian Federation, PR China and Singapore.
www.fortvale.com

Introduction

Instituted by Royal Warrant in 1966, the Queen's Awards for Enterprise are given annually in recognition of commercial success. The Awards are open to every business unit, of any size and in any sector, having a substantial presence in the UK: they are not restricted to businesses which are UK-owned. The Awards are made each year by the Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister, who is assisted by an Advisory Committee that includes representatives of Government, industry and commerce, and the trade unions. They are announced annually on 21 April, The Queen's birthday.

The Queen's Awards cover three categories: International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development Achievement. The Award for International Trade recognises export achievement and also outstanding performance in other forms of international trading. The Award for Innovation recognises outstanding performance in all forms of innovation, including those based on technology, design or managerial or marketing initiative. The Award for Sustainable Development Achievement recognises all forms of outstanding performance on the part of businesses in this field, including technological development of products or processes, the management of resources, and other advances which impact on the environment.

Since the award scheme was inaugurated some 5,320 awards have been granted out of some 52,190 applicants. Lancashire companies have won or shared in 114 of these prestigious awards, 91 being given for outstanding international trade achievement and 23 for innovation achievement. There has as yet, been no local winners of the sustainable development achievement award, first introduced in 1993. A full listing of the local firms which have shared in these awards is given below.

One of the informal aims determining the selection of award winners is to represent a broad spread of industrial and commercial activity with a balanced representation of different company sizes and geographical locations. To a large extent as well, the applicants are self-selected. The list of winners cannot therefore realistically be used as an economic indicator of an area's exporting propensity or innovative capacity. The companies do, however, strongly reflect the structure of the Lancashire economy and the way in which this structure and the composition of businesses have changed over time.

Lancashire Award Winners

Despite the fact that the award scheme has steadily been broadened in scope to include all sectors of industrial and commercial activity and that over the past few years an increasing share of national awards have gone to service companies particularly in the business and financial service activities, all but one of the local awards have been made to firms in manufacturing industry, mirroring the traditional strengths of this sector in the County (Table 1). It might be noted, however, that over recent years it has become ever more difficult to simply classify firms as manufacturing or services. Increasingly, the orientation of firms is subtly changing as increasingly "manufacturing" companies are embodying higher levels of service support within their activities.

Those industrial groups, which have traditionally had a strong weighting in the local economy - Other Machinery & Equipment and Transport Equipment - have accounted for more than 27% of the County's international trade and innovation awards between 1966 and 2008 (though the bulk of these were in the earlier years). Within these two groups, two disparate sectors have dominated - textile machinery and aerospace.

Textile machinery international trade awards came thick and fast in the late 1960s and early 1970s with Lancashire made equipment well respected in world markets. However, proof that such awards do not guarantee continual commercial success is amply demonstrated by the fact that the Lancashire textile machinery industry, once of world-class stature and providing jobs for 15,000 people, has now virtually disappeared as a major local employer.

The aerospace awards have been dominated by BAE Systems (formerly British Aircraft Corporation/British Aerospace), now the County's largest industrial employer, and Rolls Royce. The BAE Systems Military Aircraft Division, either alone or jointly with other BAE divisions, has been granted the Queen's Award for International Trade on no less than ten occasions, most recently in 1995. BAE Military Aircraft in Lancashire has won some of the biggest single export orders ever obtained by the UK, from the early Saudi Arabian Support Contract and the deal to supply Jaguar fighters to India to the more recent Al Yamamah ("Dove of Peace") Agreement. This agreement, administered from the company's Warton site, gives BAE Systems overall responsibility for delivering a complete defence package to Saudi Arabia including the supply of aircraft, associated hardware, radar and communications through to training and logistics support, skilled manpower and a comprehensive construction programme of new facilities on Saudi airbases. Well in excess of £45bn has been allocated to Al Yamamah to-date with an open-ended commitment to a continuation of the programme - a sum vastly in excess of the actual value of the aircraft supplied themselves. The award to this company undoubtedly also reflects on the many local engineering companies who are suppliers to BAE Military Aircraft. Indeed, a number of local companies who are part of the aerospace supply chain but are not themselves officially classified to "aerospace", have been award winners in their own right.

Whilst big name companies, including several who are foreign owned, continue to appear regularly amongst the recipients of the Queen's Awards, over recent years the local winners have been spread over a much wider range of sectors, with companies in chemicals and rubber & plastic products in particular having a strong showing under both the International Trade and Innovation categories. Many more small companies have also appeared in the winners' lists providing a refreshing reminder of the depth and breadth of today's business environment. In part, this accurately reflects the greater diversity of today's industrial base in the county with a myriad of often relatively small companies selling specialised products in niche - and often global - markets. Thus, the range of recent winners include companies manufacturing industrial and furnishing fabrics, engineering plastics, cosmetics and toiletries, food products, scientific equipment, inks, energy drinks and animal bedding materials.

The importance of innovation to longer term success in the market is undoubtedly increasing and is highlighted by the fact that several of the 23 companies which have won awards for technical achievement have subsequently also won awards for international trade based, presumably, partly on the competitive advantage offered by their newly introduced product or process.

This page was compiled by Peter Kivell.

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