An animal preservation specialist, a job-specific soap manufacturer and a cashback reward firm are among the West Midlands businesses to receive a Queen's Award for Enterprise this year.
Stallion AI Services, Little Soap Company and TopCashback are among 24 companies from across the region announced today to have won the coveted accolade (see full list below).
Now in its 56th year, The Queen's Awards recognise business excellence across four different categories - international trade, innovation, sustainable development and promoting opportunity - with recipients permitted to fly the Queen's Awards flag at their main office and use the emblem on their marketing material for five years.
Across the UK, 232 businesses have received the honour this year.
Queen's Awards for Enterprise - All you need to know
Her Majesty's Lord Lieutenants will be presenting the awards to businesses locally throughout the year.
Small Business Minister Paul Scully MP said: "This country is renowned for its entrepreneurial achievements and there is no greater showcase for it than The Queen's Awards.
"It's vital we celebrate the success of our businesses and recognise the contributions they make to communities across the country.
"I congratulate this year's winners for their hard work and commitment over the last year and I wish them every success for the future."
The West Midlands recipients of a Queen's Award for Enterprise 2022
Innovation
Biocomposites, Keele
Biocomposites manufactures specialist medical products for use in hip and knee replacements which aim to reduce infection rates - click through here to read more about the company's story.
i2r Packaging Solutions, Telford
i2r Packaging Solutions manufactures a comprehensive range of aluminium foil wrinklewall and smoothwall containers used throughout the food industry.
KPM Marine, Birmingham
KPM Marine specialises in designing and manufacturing safety critical products for the marine and automotive industries such as affordable, shock-mitigating seating to protect mariners from spinal and brain injuries while improving passenger comfort.
Little Soap Company, Broadway, Worcestershire
Little Soap Company has identified a gap in the market for job-specific soaps to replace the generic soaps currently available and has developed a range of bars that are entirely plastic free, ocean friendly and biodegradable.
Proteus Instruments, Stoke Prior, Worcestershire
Proteus Instruments was set up in 2018 after developing, in conjunction with the University of Birmingham, a measuring device that detects harmful bacterial coliforms and biochemical oxygen demand, among a range of other contaminants, in real time.
Staeger Clear Packaging, Coventry
Staeger Clear Packaging manufactures food-grade packaging for the retail industry, working with UK extruders of recycled PET to change their product to meet the standards required instead of using PVC.
Stallion AI Services, Whitchurch
Stallion AI Services has developed an endangered animal regenerative cryopreservation conservation tool to help prevent extinction, called Nature's SAFE.
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International Trade
Armac Martin, Birmingham
Armac Martin is a fourth-generation family business dating back to the 1920s which designs and manufactures brass fixtures and fittings for high-end interiors.
Biocomposites, Keele
Biocomposites manufactures specialist medical products for use in hip and knee replacements which aim to reduce infection rates.
Boxraw, Coventry
Boxraw produces sportswear and equipment for boxing and has developed the world's most comprehensive machine learning model for boxing training, based on the largest data set of boxers ever captured.
Coventry University
Coventry University is part of a dynamic and forward-thinking global education group which delivered undergraduate and postgraduate education to more than 38,000 students in 2019/2020, making it the fourth largest HE provider overall in the UK and the second largest provider of undergraduate education.
Excool, Stoke Prior, Worcestershire
Excool supplies cooling equipment to the emerging and rapidly growing data centre market which uses up to 50 per cent less energy and 65 per cent less water than comparable technologies.
Instarmac, Tamworth
Instarmac is a specialist, fast-growing manufacturer of cement and bitumen-based products for use in highway maintenance, urban regeneration, tilling, commercial flooring and internal finishing sectors.
Jesmonite, Bishop's Castle, Shropshire
Jesmonite develops and manufactures a versatile range of water-based composite materials ideally suited to the creation of moulded glass reinforced laminates and decorative mouldings.
Longvale, Burton-upon-Trent
Longvale manufactures hazardous and harsh area sensors which can be found in infrastructure projects and maintenance replacement within sectors such as energy, hydrogen, automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical and mining.
MNB Precision, Coventry
MNB Precision is a third-generation, family-owned business providing high-quality precision engineering products to customers in the oil and gas sectors and also working in a range of other sectors operating in safety-critical environments such as rail, power generation and defence.
Momentum-Pharma, Hereford
Momentum-Pharma provides outsourcing services to the clinical trial industry, with clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device sectors, focussing on oncology and rare, genetic diseases for adults and children.
Pharma Packaging Systems, Pershore, Worcestershire
Pharma Packaging Systems specialises in the custom design and manufacture of standalone or integrated turnkey pharmaceutical tablet counting machinery and provides high-tech, reliable packaging products.
Premier Health Products, Coventry
Premier Health Products manufactures and exports food supplements alongside order fulfilment and customer services for more than 70,000 e-commerce consignments worldwide annually.
TopCashback, Stafford
TopCashback operates cashback reward websites in the UK and internationally with registered users making purchases from a particular brand for which they can then receive cash back.
Whitefurze, Coventry
Whitefurze supplies high-quality injection moulded plastic consumer goods for storage, housewares, food storage and garden products and has established product ranges with large enterprises that have European and global offices so each range has potential to reach multiple countries.
Promoting Opportunity
Clean Sheet, Coventry
Clean Sheet provides employment support to broaden job opportunities for people with convictions across the UK by putting members in touch with a list of employers prepared to open up their vacancies to people with convictions.
Derwen College and Derwen College Charity, Oswestry, Shropshire
Derwen College provides education and vocational training for young people aged 16 to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities and operates several businesses at its on-site 'marketplace' where students learn skills in a garden centre, café, restaurant, print shop, charity shop and a small hotel developed in conjunction with Premier Inn.
DRP, Hartlebury, Worcestershire
DRPG is an integrated communication and production firm, creating internal, external and experiential communications products and services and running award-winning campaigns.
Sustainable Development
Woolcool, Stone, Staffordshire
Woolcool is an award-winning, design-led, manufacturing business based around the creation of a ground-breaking and innovative insulated packaging, using 100 per cent sheep's wool.
Armac Martin's commercial director Richard McGrail said: "We are thrilled...as the most renowned British business award a company can receive, this is an incredible accolade for the whole team and is a real testament to the skilled work and dedication of each and every individual.
"Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, we are delighted to have successfully scaled the business to now ship over 50 per cent of our orders overseas.
"Having developed our international trade significantly over the past few years and we feel both humbled and proud to be recognised for this sustained growth and commercial success."
DRP's chief executive Dale Parmenter said: "Winning the award means so much to everyone here. We have been on an incredible sustainability journey for over 15 years and have collected many awards and accreditations for our approach so being awarded with the Queen's Award is the icing on the cake.
"To say we do it is one thing, to be officially recognised is something else. It's the only award that takes a holistic view of sustainability across an organisation and this is why it's so important to us."
Premier Health Products' commercial director Adam Petros said: "We are very proud to have achieved the Queen's Award for Enterprise for the second time running. It means we have grown our exports every year for a decade which is testament to the whole team and the work we've done for the past ten years.
"It feels like an enormous achievement to now be back-to-back winners of the most prestigious business award in the United Kingdom. It truly is a dream come true."
Coventry University' vice-chancellor Professor John Latham said: "The Queen's Award is a fantastic achievement for Coventry University, particularly as it recognises the enormous efforts we have made to form positive collaborations worldwide.
"This international focus not only offers great benefits to our students, opening up unique opportunities, but also the city which benefits from students from more than 100 nations, enabling us to share knowledge and best practices, ultimately helping to ensure our research is of the highest standard."
