Seven North East companies have been recognised for their work with Queen鈥檚 Awards for Enterprise - the region鈥檚 largest haul of awards in six years.
Six of the firms - County Durham鈥檚 Kromek, Prima Cheese and Crafter鈥檚 Companion, plus Sunderland company Workcast Corporation, Teesside firm Absolute Antibody and D-Line, from North Shields - have received awards for international trade. Newcastle鈥檚 Shared Interest won its award in the sustainable development category.
The award for Shared Interest, which helps people invest fairly in the developing world, is the third in its history and comes just days before its 30th anniversary.
Managing director Patricia Alexander said: 鈥淏eing approved for a Queen鈥檚 Award in our 30th year, and so close to our anniversary on April 25, makes this a very special honour.
鈥淪ince winning the award for the second time in 2013, we have increased our 海角视频 investment total by over 拢15m. Our investors are incredibly loyal, and stay with Shared Interest for an average of 14 years.
鈥淭he award is a symbol of the hard work and dedication of every single person involved in the organisation. Their commitment made it possible for our financial services to impact almost 400,000 people last year alone.鈥
The award for Prima Cheese recognises continuous growth in overseas sales over the last six years, going from just under 拢3m to 拢16.7m.
Commercial director Nagma Ebanks Beni said: 鈥淚t is an honor for our company to receive such a prestigious award, it is an exceptional achievement that reflects the hard work and tenacity of all our teams here at Prima Cheese.
鈥淲e consider all our staff as family here and are extremely proud to bring it to our community and region as this award reflects the entire companies efforts in achieving a first class product and service.鈥
Cable management experts D-Line, based in North Tyneside, have doubled sales over the last three years to 拢10m annually, with 44% coming from overseas.
Company founder Paul Ruddick said: 鈥淲e are delighted to win this Queens Award, being testament to all D-Line stakeholders - including a 海角视频 supply chain, long-term investors, brilliant staff that make a great team, and our customers at home and abroad. In most export markets, in our category D-Line is usually the only 海角视频 brand on offer.
鈥淲e are proud that the product loads leaving our HQ in North Shields are being used in territories stretching from USA across to Japan, Australia up to Scandinavia, and many exciting markets in between.鈥
The award for Crafter鈥檚 Companion is the latest accolade for the firm led by Sara Davies, now best known for her role on BBC TV programme Dragons鈥 Den.
Ms Davies said: 鈥淭he Queen鈥檚 Awards for Enterprise are extremely coveted, prestigious accolades. Only a small selection of businesses are fortunate enough to receive a Queen鈥檚 Award, so to be awarded one for international trade is incredible and is testament to the hard work of our team.
鈥淐rafter鈥檚 Companion has grown on a phenomenal scale throughout the past few years and we have made exceptional developments when it comes to international trade, so much so that our international sales have now overtaken that of our 海角视频 business.鈥
Fellow County Durham firm Kromek, whose products use technology first developed at Durham University, has been honoured for outstanding growth in overseas sales.
CEO Dr Arnab Basu said: "It is an honour to receive this prestigious award following a period of significant international growth for Kromek. We have secured contracts worth millions of pounds through our deepened relationships with governments and companies worldwide.
"This has been made possible by the fantastic achievements of our team based on their hard work, innovative skills and commercial focus. It is also recognition of the strength of our market-leading radiation detection products and technologies, which enable us to continue to successfully expand our footprint around the globe.鈥
Absolute Antibody, which provides recombinant antibody products and services, was founded in Oxford and opened a manufacturing facility at the Wilton Centre near Redcar in 2014, moving its HQ to the site last year.
Founder Dr Nicholas Hutchings said: 鈥淭he Absolute Antibody team is honoured and excited to receive a Queen鈥檚 Award for Enterprise.
鈥淥ur company has been at the forefront of the movement to make recombinant antibodies more readily available to researchers, and we鈥檝e grown rapidly as the demand for recombinant antibody technology increases. We look forward to continuing our rapid global growth in the years to come.鈥
WorkCast, an online events platform, was founded in Sunderland with offices in Edinburgh and Seattle, with much of its growth having come from its US operations.
CEO Stewart Kibby said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 an honour for WorkCast to be recognised as a leader in international trade. WorkCast was a great company with an outstanding product even before our US expansion.鈥
