Congratulations to all the Hertfordshire businesses that have won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2020. The Queen’s Awards celebrate exemplary businesses across the country in the fields of Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development, and Promoting Opportunity.
This year, eight outstanding Hertfordshire businesses have been honoured with awards for International Trade. These include: Brogan Group Holdings (Welwyn Garden City), Buddi Limited (Rickmansworth), Peerless-AV Limited (Watford), QHi Group Ltd (Harpenden), SA Designer Parfums Limited (Watford), Silent Sentinel Limited (Ware), Prop Store (Rickmansworth) and Innovative Trials (Letchworth Garden City).
For the full list of winners from across the country, download the Gazette’s Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2020 Press Book
Meet the Hertfordshire winners below:
Brogan Group Holdings (Welwyn Garden City)
About the company:
Established in 2015, Brogan Group Holdings employs 215 staff and provides a range of access services to large-scale projects including Hoists & Common User Towers; design hire, installation and maintenance of goods and passenger/goods hoists; supported by in-house fabrication facilities enabling the design of bespoke solutions for complex projects.
They started contracting internationally in 2015 with a strategy of establishing their own companies in each new territory. Within the UAE they introduced a one stop solution and sales for 2016-18 have grown there from £4.9m - £12.6m.
The company's major markets are now in the UK, Republic of Ireland and United Arab Emirates. Over the last three years overseas sales have grown by 158% across the last three years with the percentage exported also rising from 20% to 37%. The company wins the Queen's Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Website: www.brogangroup.com
Twitter: @BroganGroup
Contact: Wayne Smith, wsmith@brogangroup.com
Buddi Limited (Rickmansworth)
About the company:
Buddi Limited is part of Big Technologies Limited. It started trading in 2004 and employs 67 staff. It is an integrated products and services company, with established remote health and location electronic monitoring offerings for criminal justice and healthcare customers and major Governments.
It focuses on a small number of key high potential geographic markets and are socially responsible as well as commercial, investing heavily to develop cutting-edge products that meet market demands. There is strong competition. However, it is successful due to the strength of its products, reputation for innovation and flexible service offering.
Buddi has demonstrated very steep year-on-year growth in overseas sales rising by 306% overall across the three year period, with Australia and the United States as major markets. The company wins the Queen's Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Website: www.buddi.uk
Contact: Rowena Murray, ro@buddi.co.uk
Peerless-AV Limited (Watford)
About the company:
Established in 1992 and employing 34 staff, Peerless-AV Ltd is a manufacturer and distributor of professional audio-visual products; primarily flat panel display mounts used in many indoor and outdoor areas such as hotels, ships, airports, railway stations, stadiums, and shopping malls.
Major clients include L'Oreal, Red Bull, HSBC, BBC, Burberry, Jaguar Land Rover, Mastercard, RBS, Liverpool City FC, Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport, Silent Night, Mercedes Benz World, and Tottenham Hotspur FC. It is now in 22 countries and with at least one distributor in nearly every EU country, and some, such as Germany and France with three or four. New markets recently entered include the Middle East & Africa.
Overseas sales have grown by 176% across the last six years and the percentage exported has risen from 26% to 42%. Its top markets are: France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, and Austria. The company wins the Queen's Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
Website: www.peerless-av.com
Twitter: @PeerlessAVEU
Contact: Beky Cann, bcann@peerless-av.eu.com
QHi Group Ltd (Harpenden)
About the company:
Established in 1988, QHi-Group is based in Harpenden and has a U.S. subsidiary in Pennsylvania. It is a rapidly expanding international company, providing technology based products and solutions. It is a small firm of 15 people that has changed global industry monitoring with its main product Exertherm which provides thermal condition monitoring of electrical infrastructure to prevent explosions and avoid costly downtime.
The group has achieved global sales and deployment of products across a variety of fast-growing industrial sectors: from data centres to the oil and gas, healthcare, banking and utilities industries. The company's overseas sales have grown by 144% in the last three years with export sales now making up over 99% of all sales.
It has exported products to 34 different countries with the main ones being the USA, France, Italy, Mexico, and Singapore. The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Website: www.qhigroup.com
Contact: Daniel Thomas, dan.thomas@qhigroup.com
SA Designer Parfums Limited (Watford)
About the company:
SA Designer Parfums Ltd. was founded in 2001 and employs 81 staff, and has grown to be an innovative force in the world of fine fragrance. It is a subsidiary of Shaneel Enterprises and specialises in the manufacturing and distribution of fragrances either owned or operated under license.
The current brands in the company portfolio include a variety of prestige, masstige & mass brands. They include; Jennifer Lopez, Formula 1, Ghost Fragrances, Playboy, Naomi Campbell & Cerruti 1881. It supplies many of the main high-street retailers such as Boots, Superdrug, The Perfume Shop and The Fragrance Shop.
The business exports to 6 of the 7 world continents including Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, South America and Africa. Over the last six years its overseas sales have grown by 299% and exports now make up 55% of all sales. The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
Website: www.designerparfums.com
Instagram: @designerparfums
Contact: Krishna Panthula, info@shaneel.com
Silent Sentinel Limited (Ware)
About the company:
Established in 2002 and employing 31 staff, Silent Sentinel Limited designs, builds, and manufactures imaging systems for the Defence and Homeland Security sectors. Since its establishment it has built over 30,000 systems which have been shipped to over 50 countries across six continents.
Its client base covers a wide range of sectors, including Homeland Security, Border Control, Maritime Security, Aviation and Counter Drone Applications, and it can create bespoke camera platforms for many of their clients. Over the last six years new overseas markets include the Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt etc.), Australia and Canada.
Overseas sales have grown by 2,644% with exporting becoming central with the percentage exported growing from 10% to 83%. Its top overseas markets are USA, Canada, Denmark, Croatia, and the UAE. The company wins the Queen's Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.
Website: www.silentsentinel.com
Twitter: @_silentsentinel
Contact: Madeleine Lewis, madeliene@silentsentinel.com
Prop Store (Rickmansworth)
About the company:
Established in 1998 and incorporated in 2012, Prop Store Ltd employs 19 staff and provides movie fans and collectors with artefacts; props, costumes and other ephemera used to create motion pictures and television shows, from cult favourites to major studio blockbusters.
It also sells to institutions, museums and archives to ensure items seen as waste and a by-product of the film making process are archived and displayed as artefacts with intrinsic value. Recently, the company started to offer other collectable items like vintage cinema posters and toys.
Overseas sales have increased over three years from £3.5 million to £7.4 million, arise of 109.5% and now overseas sales account for 86.7% of total sales. The company sells worldwide and to 42 countries. The USA is its top market with an office in Los Angeles. Top five markets are USA, Germany, Poland, Australia and Hong Kong. The company wins the Queens Awards for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Website: www.propstore.com
Twitter: @propstore_com
Contact: Felicity Beardshaw, felicity@propstore.com
Innovative Trials (Letchworth Garden City)
About the company:
Established in 2010 and employing 26 staff, Innovative Trials Ltd is a specialist patient recruitment and retention company working with pharmaceutical, biotech, and clinical research organisations to ensure that patients are recruited into their clinical trials. The company builds a comprehensive picture of it's clients recruitment needs, defines key areas and proposes bespoke solutions.
A high percentage of Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials are conducted globally, and the company works with doctors and nurses globally to recruit patients across the world. Overseas sales have substantially increased over 3 years from £2.2m to £4.9m; a total growth of 114.4%. Currently overseas sales account for 87.7% of total sales.
The company has patient recruitment staff in over 40 countries. The biggest markets where clinical trials take place are USA, China, Japan, Germany and France. The company wins the Queen's Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.
Website: www.innovativetrials.co.uk
Contact: Suellen Morris, suellen.morris@innovativetrials.co.uk