A County Durham tech company which is making waves in the space sector has triumphed as the Business of the Year at the grand final of the North East Business Awards.
The win tops a stellar trading period for Filtronic, which is enjoying a transformative time on the back of its radio frequency technology – products which have grabbed the attention of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The company, which also has operations in Leeds and Cambridge, has seen its partnership with Mr Musk’s business expand, allowing deeper collaboration between the two companies having struck an initial ($60m) agreement over a year ago. Filtronic last month extended its agreement allowing SpaceX to buy shares in the company, having sealed its biggest order to date for its cover E-band GaN products– a contract topping $62.5m (£47.3m).
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The NETPark-based business won the final trophy of the night at the black tie event at Hardwick Hall – the 25th final of the North East Business Awards – where hundreds of its peers gathered for the largest awards night in the region’s business calendar.
It edged out fellow regional winners Advantex Network Solutions and CF Fertilisers 海角视频 Ltd to take the coveted award.
Director of engineering at Filtronic, Andy Tucker, said: “ To be able to have companies like SpaceX come to a company in the North East to design and manufacture key parts of their network infrastructure is a fantastic achievement. It’s fantastic recognition for the North East, the talent for the North East.
“This award is very motivational. It’s great for the individual individuals, recognising their efforts, their talents.”
The night saw judges hand out 11 awards to North East winners, having announced regional winners for Northumberland & Tyneside, Durham, Sunderland & South Tyneside and Teesside ahead of the grand final. Winners at the event included Opencast for Growth Award, Active Families North East for the Business for Good Award, Osbit for the Made in the North East Award, and the Best Place to Work Award winner CF Fertilisers 海角视频 Ltd.
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The Business Person of the Year was named as Darren Davidson, the vice president of Siemens Energy & Siemens Gamesa 海角视频 & Ireland, while the Rising Star Award went to Luke Allan Holmes of Holdham Rail Solutions Group.
The ceremony, hosted by presenter Kirsten O’Brien and Alfie Joey, was opened by Journal editor Graeme Whitfield, who highlighted the milestone the awards have now reached.
He said: “A lot has changed since the year 2000 but our commitment to the North East business community has not. To be recognising the best of the North East’s brilliant companies for a quarter of a century is cause for celebration in itself.
“Nobody here tonight needs telling that these are challenging times for businesses like yours. But that has been the case for one reason or another for some time, and yet the North East still punches well above its weight when it comes to innovative, resilient businesses that play a key role in their local communities.
“A few stories that we have covered in recent weeks illustrate that perfectly. Two weeks ago we wrote about a report from the Charities Aid Foundation, which found that businesses in the North East are the most likely to donate to charity. 41% of North East firms donated to charities compared to just 12% of companies in the South East. You won’t need me to tell you that there is more money down South, but it is the North East that was the most generous.
“And last week we reported on a number of areas where the North East is leading the way in some of the industries of the future. The North East mayoral area became the first area of the country to be named an AI Growth Zone and there are strong indications that the Tees Valley could be following close behind.
“There were major job announcements too on clean power at the Port of Tyne, and on nuclear power at Hartlepool. This region faces major challenges but it is stories like those which show that we are going in the right direction.”
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The night was rounded off by a very special award for Alan Ferguson, the prominent Northumberland businessman and philanthropist. Mr Ferguson, executive chairman of family-run haulage experts Fergusons Transport and co-founder of the Wooler whisky distillery and visitor attraction Ad Gefrin, won the Outstanding Contribution Award.
WINNERS LIST IN FULL
Growth Award, in partnership with Azets - Opencast
Business for Good Award - Active Families North East
Made in the North East Award, in partnership with Made Smarter - Osbit
Best Place to Work Award, in partnership with University of Sunderland - CF Fertilisers 海角视频 Ltd
Business Person of the Year - Darren Davidson, the vice president of Siemens Energy & Siemens Gamesa 海角视频 & Ireland.Innovation Award, in partnership with Newcastle University
Innovation Award - COG Legal
Start-up Award - The Digital Lighthouse
Small Business of the Year - Just Williams
Rising Star Award, in partnership with Northumbrian Water - Luke Allan Holmes - Holdham Rail Solutions Group
Business of the Year, in partnership with Sage 海角视频 - Filtronic
Outstanding Contribution Award - Alan Ferguson