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PRIVACY
Enterprise

Yorkshire's finest innovators and exporters named by the Queen

From a shed start-up to a corporate comms agency and many more - our Queen's Award winners for 2020

The 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise winners have been revealed, with OTB Agency and Auto Electrical Supplies Ltd among Yorkshire's phenomenal 15.

Fifteen Yorkshire firms have today received regal recognition for their exemplary performance.

Innovation and international trade has been acknowledged in the most prestigious of annual awards, with the Buckingham Palace list showing plenty of bloom and boom in the white rose county.

Leeds-based financial services-focused creative marketing agency OTB has been honoured in the international trade category. The past three years have seen a 560 per cent increase in export sales from 22 per cent to 52 per cent of the overall business within three years, having launched in 2006.

Mark Davies, chairman, said: “We see the award as recognition of our team’s hard work and we are truly delighted, but these are exceptional times and our thoughts are with everyone, here in the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ and around the world.”

“Our passion is innovation and we provide an invaluable resource for some of the largest financial organisations in the world as their businesses go through the biggest change in the industry’s history. We are extremely proud of our overseas work especially in the finance sector, and it is a real privilege to receive this award which recognises our work in this fast-paced global marketplace.”

Jo Waddington and Mark Davies of OTB Agency - a 2020 Queen's Award winner.(Image: Matt Davis )

According to managing partner, Jo Waddington, the company brings a “unique blend of creative expertise and cutting edge communication strategies”.  OTB works with global teams for clients who manage activity relevant to all regions across the world. “We are absolutely delighted to be recognised for our international work and it will be an honour to accept the award this summer,” she added.

Joining them is Wakefield-based AES Limited, headed by James Fawkes. Launched in his garden shed in 1992. It supplies products that protect critical electrical and electronic wiring assemblies in the automotive industry. An 11-strong team serves 37 international markets, with a US office opened in 2016.    

“For a small business from Wakefield to share such an achievement with the giants of British industry is staggering, and we are just thrilled to have won this award,” he said. “I started this business in my 10ft by 8ft garden shed and spotted ‘a gap in the market’ to distribute conduit systems and connector interfaces that protect critical wiring in commercial and off-highway vehicles.