A round-up of all those who won big at The Manufacturer MX Awards 2019 – the only peer-reviewed and judged programme of its kind.
What an evening! More than 800 manufacturers and their friends enjoying the biggest and best celebration in the manufacturing calendar.
Joining the winners on stage to present the awards was one of the UK’s greatest athletes, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill DBE, who charmed the audience during an on-stage interview with The Manufacturer’s Editorial Director Nick Peters.
With her during the awards ceremony was the evening’s guest speaker Alastair McGowan and The Manufacturer’s own Henry Anson.
There is no greater accolade for a manufacturer than emerging a winner after having been judged by the rigorous process that The Manufacturer and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers put nominees through. Here they are at their moment of triumph.
The Manufacturer of the Year 2019 – BMW Group Plants Oxford and Swindon
What does winning the Manufacturer of the Year award mean to your business?
What does winning the Manufacturer of the Year award mean to your business? This is really important for us as an organisation because it demonstrates our commitment to the UK manufacturing sector.
Despite Brexit, we are still a superlative manufacturer of fine automobiles and we supply them around the world.
Congratulations to the whole team for making this award possible this evening – thank you!
Martin Koch, General Manager of Assembly
Leadership & Strategy – JJ Churchill
What does winning this award mean to your business?
We are delighted. This award is a massive reflection, not just on the senior team, but on the cascade of strategy throughout our company, and the ability for the whole group of 148 people to come together and deliver the same aims.
What separated you from the competition?
Our ability to articulate a vision and strategy through the business and I want everyone at JJ Churchill to understand they have a key part to play in delivering that as a group, because if we’re all pointing in the same direction it’s amazing what can be achieved.
That’s why tonight, on our table, we’ve got Reception, Apprentices, Engineers, Accounts, a cross-section of the whole company because that’s what makes the company successful.
What does the future hold?
It will give us a lift. That’s what it’s all about, celebrating success, recognising that we have a selection of people here tonight, but a whole group of people back home who have won this.
I’m here talking to The Manufacturer, but they are the ones who have won tonight, not me.
Andrew Churchill, Executive Chairman
Young Manufacturer of the Year – Calvin Wakeford, Tharsus
What does winning the Young Manufacturer of the Year award mean to you?
I never would have thought this would happen. I’m just really, really shocked and winning this has made my year.
I’m really passionate about what I do, I’ve got a great story to tell and that’s been to set up a function at Tharsus that didn’t exist. It’s been a challenging and rewarding journey and a game-changer for the business, so I’ve been told.
What does your future hold?
It’s really given me more confidence in myself because I am naturally very self-critical. For Tharsus, we’re a growing business so it’s been really good exposure for us.
What we do with robots and machines is very niche, so this experience has really elevated Tharsus.
Calvin Wakeford, Pilot Manufacturing Manager
Supply Chain Excellence – Domino Printing Sciences
What does winning this award mean to your business?
This is the second time we’ve entered and the second time we’ve won – we won in 2017 as well. It’s a huge achievement.
What separated you from the competition?
It’s the prestige and I think this is recognition of the quality of people that we have working in our supply chain, not just in Domino, but all across our global supply network.
Our purchasing teams work together, and with our global supply chain network, this is a testament to how good they are.
What does the future hold?
It’s a huge symbol for us tonight and the wider company. Our parent company is Brother Industries, so we can use this to market our product and to demonstrate to our customers that we have a quality supply chain.
Ian Whitehead, Purchasing Manager
Smart Factory – BMW Group Plants Oxford and Swindon
What does winning this award mean to your business?
This is our second time winning this award; we also had the pleasure last year of winning it. I think it pays off that we put continuous effort into our digitalisation and Industry 4.0 project.
This award helps our good reputation, it shows us setting a benchmark even outside the company, so it means a lot to us and we are really proud of it.
We have really shown what digitalisation means: we really live it in serious production processes, we use all the new technology in building over 1,000 cars a day and not just showcasing what it could be.
Martin Koch, General Manager of Assembly with Stefan Huelsenberg, Director of Assembly
International Trade – MPE
What does winning this award mean to you?
We’re a small company, we’re an SME, we do really good things at MPE and to be recognised with this award tonight is amazing. We were not expecting it at all.
What separated you from the competition?
A very good question – I think it’s the people we have at MPE that really differentiate us from the crowd and it’s not just us here tonight, it’s those people who aren’t here that have made us the candidates we are and the successful winners of this award.
David Seabury, Managing Director
Sustainable Manufacturer of the Year – Accolade Wines
What does winning this award mean to your business?
Absolutely everything. We’ve worked very hard as an organisation this last year – we’ve put up a wind turbine, which is perhaps the most prominent feature.
But that’s not the most important thing. We’ve done everything from packaging, all the way to waste and energy efficiency as well, and that’s the key thing.
What does the future hold?
We’ve also just signed up to PAS 2016 to become carbon neutral. That’s our next goal, and we are half-way there and we need to keep going. By signing up to PAS 2016, it means as a baseline Accolade Wines needs to keep continuously improving every single year.
Akshan Jirasinha, Renewable Projects Engineer
Product Innovation & Design – BMW Group Plants Oxford and Swindon
What does winning this award mean to your business?
It just gives us absolute credibility – a huge success. Despite Brexit, we can make things happen. We’re an exciting brand and we’re fighting all the time for that status – but we’re MINI above all!
What does the future hold for you?
We’ve just launched our MINI Electric range, the first of its kind in our range, and we made that happen because of some of the innovative work happening in Oxford.
Tom Festa, New Model Project Manager
Achieving Customer Value – Protolabs
What does winning this award mean to your business?
We are super excited to win this award and really proud to receive this on behalf of the whole team at Protolabs.
As a business we’ve grown our whole presence in the UK over the last 12 years and we came in as a disruptor to the industry. We’re now a bit more of a mainstream presence.
What does the future hold?
To achieve this recognition in a customer-driven prototyping environment, as a national winner, really pays tribute to the whole team. It backs up what we do and our whole ethos; we are a team organisation and we always will be.
Jonathan Firnberg, Sales Director (Also International Trade award finalists)
People & Skills (SME) – Lander Automotive
What does winning this award mean to your business?
This is a big award for us, the one we’ve been looking for. We’ve won seven MX awards over recent years, but this is the one we really wanted to win and we’re absolutely delighted
What does the future hold for you?
This wonderful award is great a platform for us to build on in terms of our people, skills and our development – and a great advertisement for what we do best.
Anita Davenport-Brooks, HR Director
People & Skills (Large Enterprise) – Domino Printing Sciences
What does winning this award mean to you?
It’s the award we really wanted as an organisation and we worked very hard to achieve it. It means the world to us because this is recognition for what we care about.
We will be celebrating our success with all of our wonderful team at Domino Printing Services and working to be better every year.
Belinda Pryor, Manufacturing Manager
Operational Excellence – IMI Precision Engineering Poole (Thompson Valves Ltd)
What does winning this award award mean to your business?
We are just over the moon to receive this award this evening. We’re really proud of all our people, their commitment and dedication. I personally feel overjoyed.
We have a strong ethos within the team, we work closely together and we’ve demonstrated that we are capable of great things.
What does the future hold?
This is something we will build on. We certainly won’t rest on this. As a team, we are dedicated to improving, we’ve got a long way to go, we are not the best and we want to get better.
Gary Clapcott, Operations Director
Manufacturing in Action – Siemens Congleton
What does winning this award mean to your business?
We are enormously proud to have received this award, and especially proud of everyone working so hard together in our factory.
Everyone has worked so hard to build the right culture, to work on productivity and competitiveness, and we just think the whole team is awesome.
What does the future hold?
We’re on to bigger things every day and that’s what has contributed to our survival for the past 48 years and we’ll be there for the next 48 years.
Andrea Jones, Finance Director
Manufacturer of the Year Runner Up – Domino Printing Sciences
What does this recognition mean to your business?
This award is an incredible achievement given the competition that we’ve faced this evening, so we’re all absolutely delighted. It really compliments all the hard work all of our team have done back at base.
What separated you from the competition?
Our people, it’s all about the people. All the competitive advantages we have, from design, to our processes and products are essential factors, but it’s the people that make that happen overall and that competitive innovation takes years and years to develop.
We’re going to take this award back and celebrate with all of the people who have really earned this and really look to the future.
Carl Haycock, Operations Director
Young Manufacturer of the Year Runner Up – Corrie Mayne, Honda UK
What does this recognition mean to you?
It’s amazing. I just feel a lot of gratitude for everyone who has contributed so that I could even apply for this award.
Hopefully, my son will look back at this one day and be inspired to do even better.
He’s so young now – just 16 months – but I want to tell him to do better than me when he grows up. Thank you.
Corrie Mayne, Section Manager of Quality
