Queen’s Award cure for Heyford firm
It may have poured down on a special day to accept an important award but staff at Upper Heyford firm, Integration Technology were undaunted in celebrating the official presentation on Tuesday (July 21st) of the 2009 Queens’s Award for International Trade by Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Tim Stevenson OBE.
Mr Stevenson took a tour to meet some 40 staff working on the development of curing systems for the printing industry at the company’s design and assembly facility on the historic former air base.
After presenting the Queen’s Award to Integration Technology managing director Adrian Lockwood at a reception on the company site attended by staff and special guests from local community and global industry, he congratulated the company on its achievement.
“Winning the Queen’s Award is by no means small beer,” said Mr Stevenson.
“The award is not given lightly. It’s made on merit and given its prestigious nature, there is very strong competition for it. So this is a wonderful opportunity for Integration Technology to capitalise on its undoubted strengths.”
Mr Stevenson cited the record of the business over the last six years as worthy of a Harvard Business School case study, with the company scoring a compound rate of growth in turnover over the last six years not less than 43% of its net profit compound rate of growth of 58%.
“The record of this company is impressive,” he said. “An enormous amount of hard work and effort needs to go into what you have achieved and it’s founded on quality, relentless focus on customer service and a determined approach to the international marketplace.”
Guest speaker Tony Baldry, Conservative MP for Banbury, spoke for the local community in congratulating the company.
“Around ninety-eight percent of its products are exported and that’s a phenomenal achievement given the competition in the global marketplace,” he said.
“We in the Cherwell Valley and district of Oxfordshire are very proud of this company.”
Mr Baldry added: “We look forward to returning to see Integration Technology win its next Queen’s Award and by then hopefully installed in the first of a number of brand new buildings planned here at Heyford.
“Having world-beating businesses at Heyford is important for our commerce and our community.”
Tony Crabbe, Chairman of Oxfordshire County Council, Diane Edwards, Chairman of Cherwell District Council and Mayor of Bicester, James Porter were amongst local dignatories joining over 100 guests.
Founded in 2000, Information Technology is a pioneering designer and developer of ultra-violet (UV) curing products.
The company’s staff at Upper Heyford designs and assembles compact, lightweight, modular UV systems for a variety of inkjet and industrial applications.
The Oxfordshire headquarters is complemented by regional offices in Chicago, USA, Shanghai, China and Seoul, Korea while the company also has a presence in the important Japanese market.
Integration Technology products enable printing onto a variety of surfaces including glass, plastics, ceramics and metals.
“Ink jet printing is expected to grow substantially over the next 3-5 years” says Adrian Lockwood, who is upbeat on the future prospects for his dynamic company.
“We are a bright star in a dull economy,” he says. “Upper Heyford is developing more powerful, smaller, and technically advanced UV curing systems all the time.
“This is opening up opportunity for our products in other industries, notably automotive, medical devices and electronics.”
July 2009 and is filed under Awards