Queen's Awards get Coronation Day launch

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise – the most prestigious business honours in the country – will be launched in Shropshire on Coronation Day. 

HM Lord-Lieutenant of Shropshire Mrs Anna Turner will officially launch the 2022 awards at a special live-streamed online event on June 2.

Businesses across the county are now being urged to register to watch the launch to find out how they could benefit from entering this year’s awards – and hear from previous winners about their success. A new website to promote this year’s event – http://www.qaeshropshire.co.uk/ – has also been launched.

The event, which gets under way at 3pm, is being hosted at Oswestry company Aico’s new state-of-the-art headquarters and compered by Shropshire Business editor Carl Jones and comes just weeks after Shropshire celebrated its best-ever year in the awards in 2021.

Four Telford-based organisations – Aviramp, Landau, Reconomy and Scanning Pens - were all successful and will talk about their achievements at this year’s launch, alongside 2020 winners Grainger and Worrall from Bridgnorth.

The Lord-Lieutenant said: “I can think of no more fitting a day to launch the Shropshire Queen’s Awards than Coronation Day. The success the county enjoyed in 2021 is testament to the excellent work which goes on right across Shropshire, and we know there are very many more companies and organisations with their own success stories to tell.

“We hope as many of them as possible will register to attend the launch and be inspired to enter this year’s awards and help raise both their own profile and that of the county as a whole.”

The Queen’s Awards showcase outstanding achievements in the fields of international trade, innovation, sustainable development and promoting opportunity (through social mobility).

The winners are invited to a Royal reception at Buckingham Palace, receive a crystal trophy and are entitled to fly the Queen's Award flag at their main office and use the emblem on their products and marketing materials for five years.

Mandy Thorn, chair of the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership which is helping promote the awards alongside Shropshire Chamber of Commerce and small business organisation The FSB, said the launch event would show off the very best that Shropshire businesses have to offer.

“We are delighted that our 2021 winners will be on hand to say what winning the award has meant to them and hope they will inspire a record number of businesses and organisations across the county to throw their hat into the ring this year.

“These awards are not just for the biggest companies – they are judged solely on merit so that winners can range from large international companies to small businesses with just a couple of employees.”

Other guest speakers at the launch include Neal Hooper (managing director of Aico). Marches LEP chief executive Gill Hamer, Richard Sheehan (chief executive of Shropshire Chamber of Commerce), Chloe Palser from the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise Office, and Hollie Whittles from the FSB.

The awards are also being supported by Newport-based PR consultancy Be Bold Media, Shrewsbury marketing specialists Reech, and events experts Yarrington of Shrewsbury.

To register for the free live event go to: https://www.shropshire-chamber.co.uk/events/businesses-invited-to-queens-awards-for-enterprise-launch-2/

Pictured: HM Lord-Lieutenant of Shropshire Anna Turner