Queen's Awards celebrate best of British innovation

Her Majesty The Queen celebrated not only 80th birthday on 21 April, but also the best in UK business, with the announcement of the winners of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2006.

The awards, which have been running since the Queen’s Awards to Industry started in 1966, this year recognised 90 companies for their achievements in International Trade, 48 in Innovation and seven in Sustainable Development.

Speaking at a celebration for award winners, HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, said, ”This year’s awards celebrate a quite astonishing variety of products and companies, but always reflecting the people and the success of their efforts. Today will be an opportunity to look further and see how the Queen’s Awards will help you, as well as being a celebration. A total of 145 business awards are being made this year, and that’s the highest since 1995. The standards are demanding, so the standards shown by the companies represented here have been outstanding.”