The Manufacturer magazine named Hozelock the 2009 UK Manufacturer of the Year at its awards banquet held last night in London.
Hosted by iconic racing legend, Sir Jackie Stewart and held in association with RBS, the event was attended by companies across all sectors of industry and highlighted the diversity and strength of UK manufacturing.
Birmingham-based Hozelock, a market-leading garden watering, spraying and aquatics company also scooped the awards for Design & Innovation and Supply Chain & Logistics at the glittering awards ceremony held at The Tower hotel in London.
“It has been a fantastic year for the company,” said Managing Director, Peter Rush, “and to cap it all by being voted Manufacturer of the Year is a tremendous result for everybody in the business. All of our employees have worked their socks off this year and it is a credit to them that we have received this wonderful accolade, in the face of stiff competition from some of Britain’s biggest and most successful companies.”
Hozelock has enjoyed a very strong period of growth despite the recession as a result of extensive marketing and promotional activity. Industry analysts, GfK reported that the garden watering business grew by 14.8% in 2009 with Hozelock increasing its market share to almost 70%.
Following a year where concern for the environment was second only to the recessionary issues, the competition for the sustainable manufacturer of the year was one of the most hotly contested competition. Global food manufacturer McCormick, who have a long history of sustainable practices, were the deserved winners of the award. As an agricultural-based business, the Company has been mindful of the environment and has taken considerable measures to ensure it is preserved and protected.
Mark Whalley, Plant Manager of McCormick in Haddenham, spoke of his delight at winning the Sustainable Manufacturer of the Year Award. “Whilst the topic of sustainability may be relatively new to many, our company has committed to these principles for many years and thanks to the dedication of all of our employees, we received ISO14001 certification in 2008 in recognition of our environmental achievements. We see sustainability as an integral part of our business and essential to our long term success – this award recognises the company’s long-term commitment to the future.”
Another important and hotly contested award was the manufacturing award for Aerospace and Defence which was collected by building exterior specialists, Alumet. The award particularly recognised the company’s development of the ABLE Façade System, an innovative bomb-blast resistant walling system with Director Dean Walton terming the prodcut as “the important innovation in Alumet’s 17 year history”. The success of the system has led to the company securing its largest order to date – a £6.2 million contract to design, manufacture and install the new system on a large Ministry of Defence project. |Following the award, Walton said: “This award recognises the hard work of our team and will certainly speak volumes when negotiating future orders.”
Overall, the event proved to be an incredible success and manufacturers were recognised for their achievements in a number of other important categories. Congratulations must also go to the following companies for their achievements.
• Morgan Motor Company – Automotive Manufacturer of the Year
• Ginsters – Food and Beverage Manufacturer or the Year; and the People and Skills award
• Elekta/e2v (shared) – World Class Manufacturing award
• Drallim Industries – the Leadership and Strategy award
• Sheffield Forgemasters – Export Manufacturer of the Year
• Seven Seas – Pharmaceutical Manufacturer of the Year
• Pentagon Chemicals – SME Manufacturer of the Year
• Linpac Packaging – the Operations and Maintenance award
• Renthal – the IT in Manufacturing award
• Johnston Sweepers – Manufacturing in Action award
