Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Two companies – Inca Digital Printers in Cambridge and Lowestoft firm Pipeshield International – have each won Queen’s Awards in two categories.

A new accolade, honouring individuals, has been awarded to only 10 people in the whole of Britain – and Professor Alan Barrell of Cambridge is the sole East of England winner.

The 2005 Awards hold extra significance as this is their 40th anniversary year and the milestone has been marked by the highest total of winners – 137 – for 10 years.

The Queen’s Awards were launched the year England won football’s World Cup for the one and only time.

Cambridge had its own champions in the very first shake-out through Pye – then one of the region’s industrial giants. Pye’s dominance faded in the intervening years as the local industrial landscape changed to be ruled by hi-tech and biotech.

While technology and Life Sciences are represented in the 2005 Queen’s Awards, broader industry is the predominant force.

East of England winners this year include an Essex company, over 100-years-old, that trades in the recycling and recovery of precious metals, a Cambridge-based printing company and two small companies from Peterborough and Hertfordshire – specialists in diesel engine generating sets and structural foundations – that are advancing in their fields despite having only 19 employees between them.

East of England winners are:

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• Abcam Ltd of Cambridge: produces and supplies antibodies and related reagents for use in bioscience research.

• Aromco Ltd of Royston, Herts: manufacture flavourings for use in food, drink, pharmaceuticals, animal feed, pet foods and tobacco.

• F.J. Church & Sons Ltd, Rainham, Essex: recycling of non-ferrous metals and a range of other products including catalytic converters which are exported for the recovery of the precious metals.

• Diomed Ltd, Waterbeach, Cambs: manufactures solid state laser equipment for medical use.

• Fonebak Plc, Grays, Essex: mobile phone re-use and re-cycling.

• GigaSat Ltd, Dunstable: design and manufacture mobile and “flyaway” satellite earth station antennas and associated electronics.

• Inca Digital Printers Ltd, Cambridge: designs and manufactures industrial digital flatbed inkjet printing machines (also winners in the Innovation category).

• Indamex Ltd, Peterbor-ough: a sales, marketing and market support organisation selling diesel engine driven generating sets for base line or standby applications.

• Molecular Products Ltd, Dunmow, Essex: supplies chemical technologies that remove carbon dioxide and other harmful contaminants from breathable atmospheres.

• Noahs Ark Chemicals Ltd, Cambridge: exports bulk and speciality chemicals.

• Perkins Shibaura Engines Ltd, Peterborough: manufacture compact diesel engines.

• Pipeshield International Ltd, Lowestoft, Suffolk: designs, manufactures and supplies specialised protection and support systems for marine/offshore structures and pipelines (also winners in the Innovation category).

• Sat-Comm Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: develops and integrates Satellite News Gathering (SNG) vehicles, and for use as portable “flyaway” systems.

• Silver Fox Ltd, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire: develop and manufacture specialist labelling and identification solutions.

• University of Essex, Colchester: offers undergraduate, post-graduate masters and doctoral level degrees across the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.

INNOVATION

• Avent, the Baby Products Division of Cannon Avent Group Plc, Sudbury, Suffolk: products for feeding babies.

• Inca Digital Printers, Cambridge.

• Pipeshield International Ltd, Lowestoft

• ScrewFast Foundations Ltd, St Albans, Herts: screw piles and anchors for supporting buildings, masts and road and rail side structures.

• Selenia Communications Ltd, Chelmsford, Essex: personal radio communications systems.

• Xaar Plc, Cambridge: printers and similar products.

SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT

• Adnams Plc, Southwold, Suffolk: brewers, wine merchants and hoteliers.

• Renewable Energy Systems Group, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire: renewable energy generation projects.

QUEEN’S AWARDS

FOR ENTERPRISE

PROMOTION

• Professor Alan Barrell, Cambridge.