Eight Welsh firms have been recognised with the prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
The awards were first established in 1965 and celebrate the success of exciting and innovative businesses which are leading the way with pioneering products or services, delivering impressive social mobility programmes or showing their commitment to excellent sustainable development practices.
This year 220 海角视频 businesses have been recognised for their contribution to international trade, innovation, sustainable development and promoting opportunity (through social mobility).
This includes eight companies in Wales:
Ruth Lee, Corwen
Ruth Lee manufacture training manikins designed to provide realistic simulated casualties for rescue and safety training.
Founder Ruth Lee began producing the training manikins in the 1980s when a family friend who worked for Merseyside Fire Service asked if it could repair one of the brigade’s own manikins made from hessian sacking and old hose.
Ruth spotted the opportunity to create something better, leading to the first Ruth Lee training manikin.
The business now employs 30 people and has gone on to become a world leader in the design and manufacture of training manikins for industries such as the emergency services, armed forces, lifeguards, maritime and health and social care.
Exports represent 70% of the total business and this is growing over-proportionately year-on-year. Ruth Lee Ltd currently sells to more than 50 countries, through a network of more than 40 distributors and has sent manikins to every continent on the planet!
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Ruth Lee managing director Paul McDonnell said: "We are absolutely thrilled and proud to share this news during difficult times.
"Our export success is built upon strong foundations of quality and customer service – our international customers know and trust us to deliver the best possible products for rescue, safety and manual handling training.
"We work with a fantastic network of distributors across the world to supply manikins to organisations dedicated to improving their safety and training standards. We must thank them for their continued dedication to training.
"Most importantly, though, I must thank our outstanding team here in Corwen. I am proud of the hard-work and dedication shown by everyone – it is this which makes Ruth Lee Ltd the success it is today.
"We are over the moon to be awarded one of the highest business accolades in the country and will continue to work hard to prove that Wales is key player when it comes to international trade."
Wales Interactive, Pencoed
Wales Interactive is a multi-award winning video games and interactive movie publisher and developer.
They pride themselves on being an unshackled independent developer and producer creating and funding their own ideas exclusively from their Pencoed studio in South Wales.
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Internationally they have become known as one of main the driving forces behind the rebirth of the interactive movie genre with titles such as The Complex, Late Shift, The Bunker and The Shapeshifting Detective.
Owner Dr David Banner said: “The Wales Interactive team are extremely honoured to have won a Queen’s Award 2020.
"It is a fantastic achievement for our studio and highlights all the hard work we have put in over the last few years. We are proud to be flying the flag for Wales internationally and delighted to be recognised for creating video games and interactive movie titles that entertain the world."
Air Covers Ltd, Wrexham
Air Covers, headquartered in Wrexham, North Wales, is a world-leading specialist in the design of bespoke protective covers for the aerospace sector.
Directors John and Sasha Pattinson started Air Covers in Wrexham 14 years ago from their home while John was a projects manager for an aerospace company specialising in high-altitude balloons.
Using the highest quality materials and a skillset in advanced technology, the company has garnered a growing international customer base since its creation in 2006. In 2019 Air Covers exported to 29 countries.
Customers include military, emergency services, commercial and private aircraft, the off-shore industry and super yachts - from Ushuaia to Anchorage, Germany to Australia.
Managing director John Pattinson.“We are delighted that our extraordinary team has been selected by the Prime Minister for this prestigious award from HM The Queen. We thank everyone for their determination, commitment and professionalism which has earned us a worldwide reputation for excellence.
"The award recognises the talent, dedication and core values of our small team. Working closely with our customers, our attention is focused on quality, design and innovation, enabling us to compete globally.
"This award is especially welcome to us now, at a time of international uncertainty, and we hope it will further drive our business forward.
"We thank the Department for International Trade and the Welsh Government for their constant support. We continue to work closely with both. As an SME, with just 12 employees, we know we are the backbone of Great British business and proud to be in demand across the world."
Clynfyw Community Interest Company, Abercych, Pembrokeshire
Clynfyw Care Farm is a Community Interest Company which supports disabled and vulnerable people from across the local area.
Clynfyw Farm has been run by the Lewis-Bowen family since the 1750s, and it was in 1985 that holiday cottages on the site were made wheelchair accessible.
Due to their success and a growing local need, the care farm was launched in 2011. It runs six days a week, providing interesting, fun and educational projects and activities for vulnerable people.
Jim Bowen said: "We are delighted to win the Queens Award this year. It pays tribute to our hardworking staff team and the inspiring individuals who use our services. The value of care workers has never been more apparent and we are proud to have recognition for the value of our work in nature. As our nation works to rebuild communities post Covid19, and with the challenges we all face through the impending climate crisis and ecological emergency, care farms can play a huge part in supporting vulnerable people by keeping them at the heart of localised food production, community resilience and regional regeneration as a whole.
"We wanted to win this award to add credibility to the care farm movement, and also to give credit to those working on the front line of care provision, food production and environmental protection. We must all work hard to ensure there is a better future for our communities, nation and planet as a whole.
"We hope to use this award as a tool to start more conversations about the future of our rural communities for the benefit of all."
Dresd Limited , St Athan
Dresd specialises in working towards a sustainable future for the Creative Industries.
Dresd began its journey in providing sustainable solutions to the creative industries in 2012 at their base in Essex and expanded into Pinewood London.
It established itself as the first flm, TV and fashion salvage centre - working with leading production companies such as NBC Universal, Fox and the BBC on sustainable solutions for builds and derigs of sets as well as liasing closely with Bafta Albert and the BFI initiatives.
The firm relocated to St Athan and now has seven Welsh based staff carrying out various works on film and TV as well as building sustainable fashion and corporate events for well known brands.
A spokeswoman said: "We are very proud to have been recognised for our work in the Creative Industries and to have been awarded such a prestigious award at this time. We are looking forward to a brighter and greener future rooted in the Welsh Creative Industries."
Cyfle Building Skills Limited
Cyfle Building Skills Ltd is an innovative South West Wales initiative enabling young adults to gain sustainable employment within the construction industry through shared apprenticeship training, mentoring and meaningful work experience opportunities.
The Cyfle Shared Apprenticeship Scheme, which is supported by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and the Welsh Government, has transformed the training experiences of construction apprentices by promoting shared training through a consortium of employers.
Anthony Rees, Cyfle Building Skills regional manager, said: "Cyfle Building Skills are delighted and honoured to have won a Queens Award in 2020. This is our second Queens Award, the first being received in 2017 for Innovation. The award is a recognition for our Social Mobility programme in supporting and employing young Apprentices in the Construction Industry across the South West Wales Region."
CPR Global Tech Ltd, Swansea
CPR Global Tech Ltd has again been recognised for its excellence in International Trade after picking up the same prestigious award in 2018.
CPR Global Tech was established in 2010 to tackle the growing problem of nuisance calls and produce a range of stand-alone call blocking devices that plug in to landline phones and allow the user to cut off and permanently block nuisance and scam calls.
As the issue of nuisance calls has grown into a global problem, CPR has followed suit and moved into foreign markets including the USA, Australia and throughout countries in Europe.
Andrew Sandbrook, CEO of CPR Global Tech, said: “Being recognised in 2018 for our international trade was amazing. To be acknowledged again this year is a huge honour. We are extremely proud and excited to receive such a prestigious endorsement – twice - and it is a testament to all of the hard work we have put in as a company over the last eight years to tackle the problem of nuisance and scam calls.
“The issue of nuisance calls is not one that is going away and we will continue to work tirelessly to protect those people who are receiving them regularly, especially those who are amongst the most vulnerable in society.”
SPTS Technologies, Newport
SPTS Technologies, a KLA company, designs, manufactures, sells, and supports etch, PVD, CVD and MVD capital equipment, providing advanced wafer processing technologies and solutions for the semiconductor and microelectronics industry.
Formed in 2009, SPTS brings together over 40 years wafer processing experience from companies including Trikon Technologies, STS, and Aviza Technology.
SPTS Technologies has been recognized by leading industry experts, government agencies, and Her Majesty the Queen, having received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2013 and 2017 and for Innovation in 2018.