On the evening of November 15, the elite of the UK manufacturing community gathered for a glittering gala dinner to celebrate The Manufacturer MX Awards 2018.
Celebrating the best of British: Inspiring, recognising, rewarding UK manufacturing.
The much revered and largest annual awards programme in the UK Manufacturing calendar is delivered by The Manufacturer in partnership with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
This year, the event was the culmination of an intense four-month judging period, where hand-picked, experienced judges, collectively travelled thousands of miles to benchmark the companies.
Supported by leading industry sponsors, headline sponsor Santander and judging partner High Value Manufacturing Catapult plus category sponsors Autodesk, Boyden, Cranfield University, Dell Technologies, EDGE Digital, Innovate UK, Institute for Manufacturing, LCR4.0, UK Export Finance and Sage.
There was an incredible atmosphere with the room in high spirits as the finalists eagerly waited to hear if they had been crowned winner in one of the 11 award categories, but this was not before a delightful three-course (curry!) banquet.
See all of the pictures from the night here!
And the winners of The Manufacturer MX Awards 2018 are…
The announcement of the successful finalists culminated in the reveal of the winners of the prestigious Manufacturer of the Year Award 2018, which was picked up by Accolade Wines.
Accolade Wines’ manufacturing facility in the UK, Accolade Park, is a multi-award-winning bottling facility which employs more than 500 people and produces 25 million 9L case equivalents of wine each year.
Located in the Bristol suburb of Avonmouth, Accolade Park is the only dedicated wine bottling facility in the UK, with the ability to package every format, from 187ml to 75cl in glass bottles and 1.5Ltr to 10Ltr casks.
At an impressive 82,000 sqm, Accolade Park is Europe’s largest wine warehouse and distribution centre, and in less than a decade has become renowned for setting new standards in wine production and packaging.
Accolade Wines also picked up two other categories at The Manufacturer MX Awards 2018 – Achieving Customer Value, and Sustainable Manufacturing.
Full list of The Manufacturer MX Award 2018 winners!
Manufacturer of the Year – sponsored by Santander
Accolade Wines
Lifetime Achievement Award – sponsored by The Manufacturer
Bernard Molloy (Unipart Logistics)
Achieving Customer Value – sponsored by LCR4.0
Accolade Wines
Export – sponsored by UKEF
A-SAFE
Innovation & Design – sponsored by Autodesk
McLaren Automotive
Leadership & Strategy – sponsored by IfM
Lander Automotive
Manufacturing in Action – sponsored by IMechE
Renishaw
Operational Excellence – sponsored by Cranfield
Domino Printing Sciences
People & Skills – sponsored by Boyden
Gripple Limited
Progressive SMEs – sponsored by Innovate UK
Agrimech
Heald
Tharsus
Smart Factory – sponsored by Dell Technologies
BMW Group MINI Plant Oxford Assembly
Supply Chain Excellence – sponsored by HVM Catapult
Joint Winners: Jaguar Land Rover, and ZF Lemforder Solihull Plant
Sustainable Manufacturing – sponsored by EDGE Digital
Accolade Wines
Young Manufacturer of the Year – sponsored by Sage Enterprise Management
Morven Burden (Pladis Global)
A fantastic evening was enjoyed by all, with Hennik Group CEO, Nick Hussey commenting: “Being shortlisted in The Manufacturer MX Awards is an incredible achievement in its own right – to then be further acknowledged as the winner, among such an elite group of organisations is truly exceptional.
“All winning companies should be incredibly proud of their achievement, in what is without doubt, the toughest and most rigorous awards programme in the manufacturing sector. I wish them every success in the future”.
Matt Rooney, Engineering Policy Adviser at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The Institution of Mechanical Engineers are delighted to maintain our partnership with the The Manufacturer MX Awards, which recognise excellence across UK manufacturing.
He added: “Manufacturing is one of the major drivers of our economy and in order to remain so, the sector will need to adapt to a fast-changing technological landscape. Congratulations to the winners. Everyone who took part is a great credit to the manufacturing industry and the UK engineering profession.”