The King's Award for Enterprise
North Yorkshire Recipients - 2020 & 2021

Winners in the International Trade category, C-Kore Systems Ltd was founded to bring modern testing technology to the subsea industry.

They have a team of dedicated designers and engineers who are passionate about making life easier for subsea engineers by bringing fast, modern and reliable testing techniques to the offshore industry.

Winners in the International Trade category, Primeast listen, understand and develop customised training and development solutions for our clients, working with them to create outstanding organisational cultures with high performance leadership and teamworking, strategically aligned and engaged people, equipped to succeed in the face of change and challenge.

Absolute Antibody Limited was established in 2012, and is based in Redcar, although the business was founded in Oxford to serve scientists involved in medical research. The company offers antibody sequencing, engineering and recombinant production as a service and a catalogue of recombinant antibodies, engineered into new formats. USA was identified as the biggest market and the company acquired Kerafast Inc in 2018 to focus on this market.

It has built a network of 30 distributors worldwide to serve customers in 62 different countries. These include 14 of the top 15 pharmaceutical companies by revenue as well as academic researchers. Overseas sales have grown by 100% over the three-year application period and the proportion of sales exported has increased to 81% of total sales.

The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short-Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.

A common challenge in Safeguarding practice within schools has been that information or communication about an incident is "lost in the gaps" as staff often had a raft of methods to record instances and access information relating to a huge number of children, spread between a range of locations.

Skipton based SME CPOMS Systems Ltd were first to recognise that there was a need for a system which could be used by all within the school bringing disparate information systems together. The company developed a unique online system where all staff in a school can log concerns relating to safeguarding, child protection, and virtually anything pastorally that can impact the wellbeing of a child. The flexible system allows the choice to monitor special educational needs, behaviour, medical and Mental Health issues, or even reward systems alongside Safeguarding - enabling the school to see how all of the above and more can affect each other.

The company wins the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.

GBUK Banana, a division of GBUK Group Ltd, a small company based in North Yorkshire has developed a safer way of re-positioning or transferring patients. Every year in the UK, thousands of people working in healthcare injure them-selves moving patients. Versal replaces the need for multiple flat or tubular slide sheets. Its unique design can be used in every clinical situation, facilitating a full range of patient movement, with the functionality and versatility of both flat and tubular slide sheets.

This minimises inventory, simplifies training requirements and helps to ensure universal compliance. The patented design includes extra-long distal and proximal flaps of material that reduces the risk of the patient being inadvertently pulled off the slide sheet onto the bed linen. Versal improves patient safety by ensuring all bony prominences of the patient are protected by two layers of slide sheet. This improves patient comfort and efficiency of care and reduces nursing time and the hidden costs of pressure ulcers or a musculoskeletal injury.

The company wins the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.

John King Chains Ltd is a family enterprise with two of the fifth generation currently working in a modern production facility based at Sherburn in Elmet, North Yorkshire. Their principle activity is the manufacture of heavy series and be-spoke conveyor chains used in the mechanical handling of bulk materials.

The business has grown to approximately 100 employees with subsidiary, but standalone businesses, in Africa, South America, North America and Central Europe with plans to open in Australia in 2020. A new overseas market established recently was Iraq. Today their satellite businesses trade regionally, e.g. John King based in Poland covers Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltics. Otherwise the UK headquarters manages markets direct. Over the last three years overseas sales have grown by 77% and their top clients include: Kronspan Group; China Light and Power Hong Kong; and Sunds Fibretech Sweden.

The company wins the Queen's Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.

Founded in 2005 and based in Harrogate, Techbuyer Ltd specialises in buying new and redundant IT equipment from companies, restoring it to factory specifications, where necessary securely erasing data, and then shipping to new customers with a manufacturer comparable three year warranty

The company stocks new equipment as well as refurbishing equipment and offers hybrid solutions to clients as well as solely refurbished products. Overseas sales have in-creased over six years from £4.2 million to £19.2 million, total growth of 355% and now account for 63.4% of total sales. The company has acquired a subsidiary in the USA, has built technical facilities in France and Australia and has opened sales offices in Germany, USA and New Zealand. It now sells in 80 markets worldwide and its top five markets are Germany, USA, Denmark, Netherlands and Hong Kong.

The company wins the Queens Award for International Trade for Outstanding Continuous Growth in overseas sales over the last six years.