Insider Media Limited

Fourteen East Midlands companies have been named as Queen’s Award Winners for Enterprise this morning. Eight of the companies were commended for their success in international trade, five for their use of innovation and one for practices in sustainable development. Among the winners in the international category was Coalville-based Lastolite, which told Insider the export market has kept the company thriving throughout the downturn.

The Queen's Awards – which are presented on the monarch's birthday - are widely regarded as the UK’s highest accolade for business success.

International Trade award winners included: Altek, based in Castle Donington; Blackstar Amplification in Northampton; Bridgehead International in Melton Mowbray; Igloo Books in Sywell; Infrared Integrated Systems in Northampton; Lastolite in Coalville; Pandrol in Worksop; and The UK Carbon & Graphite Co in Belper.

Mark Langley, product and marketing director at Lastolite said the award highlights how the company has adapted to trading conditions. Lastolite manufactures and supplies photographic lighting and background accessories.

He told Insider: "This award will emphasise what good company we are to work for, and how we’ve grown. We’ve done our best to ride through the recession by looking at different ways of working, and we think this accolade is a great endorsement for everyone working here."

Langley said that expansion of its premises in Coalville is imminent.

"We’ve grown significantly in the last four years, and had to move after we outgrew our previous premises," he said. "We’re now full here and will be expanding soon. Ten new jobs have been created, with more to follow."

He added: "Our key market is still the UK, but this is closely followed by the US and Europe. We’ve also broken into the Australian, New Zealand and Russian markets over the last few years."

The company, which employs 64 people, won the award for increasing its overseas sales by 72 per cent to £5m per year.

In the category for innovation, award winners were: Datapath in Derby; Molecular Profiles in Nottingham; Payne Security in Nottingham; Peak NDT in Derby; and Zeeko in Coalville.

Blue Skies Holdings in Pitsford won a Queen's Award for sustainable development; while Paul Davies, voluntary chief executive and business coach at Clowne Enterprise, and Professor Susan Marlow, professor of entrepreneurship at De Montfort University took awards for enterprise promotion.

Blue Skies, a fruit supplier with factories in Ghana, Egypt, South Africa and Brazil, received the award for the second time in four years.

Founder and chairman Anthony Pile said "It is a great honour to receive this prestigious award for the second time. We aim to deliver the best quality prepared fruit in the world, and to do so in a way which is truly equitable. Receiving this award twice clearly demonstrates the progress we have made in the field of sustainable development."