ABERDEEN manufacturing firm, Woollard & Henry Ltd (W&H), has been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
The Dyce-based business was given the accolade for outstanding achievement in the field of International Trade.
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The 2020 award is the second time the employee-owned business has picked up the accolade following its win in 2009.
The company, founded in 1873, began as a family business manufacturing dandy rolls for the paper industry; the dandy roll is the mechanism that inserts watermark into paper.
Fred Bowden, W&H managing director, said: “There has been a lot of hard work over a number of years which have gone into winning this award.
“It comes off the back of some exceptional growth in international trade with acquisitions such as the PAMA Paper Machinery in Dresden, Germany and Lipex Engineering GmbH in Munich, which specialises in the glass and basalt fibre industry.
“Needless to say we are delighted with this achievement, and it is testament to the continual hard work our team puts in each day.
“We now employ 53 members of staff at our HQ, and have a sales office in Manchester, machine shops in Germany and Poland, and an engineering service and design centre in Munich and Frankfurt.
“These acquisitions might not have been possible if it weren’t for the investment in employee ownership and the model being designed for allowing long term decision making and investment.
“We can look to the future, and have the ability to make these longer term decisions, which positively affect the company.”
