Equipment manufacturers win Queen's award

The winners of The Queen's Award for Enterprise 2009 have been announced. The Queen's award is Britain's highest accolade for business success and among this year’s winners are companies with links to the separation science industry, including Thermo Fisher Scientific and SMI-Labhut.

Thermo Fisher Scientific's Cambridge facility was awarded a Queen's Award in the Innovation category for the iCAP 6000 Series ICP-OES instrument. The inductively coupled plasma, optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) instrument is used in laboratories to detect and accurately measure low levels of toxic or pollutant elements in a wide range of samples.

"The whole Cambridge team is delighted to be associated with a product which has been selected for this award," says Paul Gillyon, product group director, Trace Elemental Analysis, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "We work very hard to solve the technical challenges in developing complex instruments like the iCAP 6000. The Queen's Award recognizes all the expertise, hard work and commitment that has been contributed by all the members of the Cambridge team."

SMI-LabHut Ltd received a Queen's Award in the International Trade category. Supplying sampling devices, accessories and consumables for the chromatography and dissolution markets, the company achieved continuous growth over six years and generated over 80% of its sales overseas.

Commenting on their success, managing director Mark Wardle said that they were honoured to be recognized in this way and that their success was directly attributable to a talented and loyal team who recognised that support and communication was the number one issue for the majority of their customers.

Astech Projects won an Award in the Innovation category. This was awarded in recognition of the Xelair series of automated systems designed to perform automated dose content uniformity testing of batch production and R&D respiratory drug delivery devices.

Astech Projects' sales and marketing director, Anthony Moran commented, "We are honoured to have our technology recognized by such a prestigious award. The Xelair systems are designed to meet the rising demand for increased throughput and consistent data within the pharmaceutical industry and we are proud of their accomplishments so far."

UK Business Minister, Lord Mandelson, said "I heartily congratulate all today's winners of The Queen's Awards. These inspirational firms have proved they are amongst Britain's very best businesses."

A total of 194 Queen's Awards have been announced this year, the largest number awarded in 44 years of the scheme.

The full list of winners can be found on the Queen's Awards website, www.queensawards.org.uk