GTR and The Manufacturer are pleased to announce the winners of the first-ever UK Export Excellence Awards.

Across all categories, the winners showed good knowledge of the export market and of the solutions the clients need. “You have to be passionate about the product you are selling, you then have to go to the market and identify the potential, look at what the market is asking for, then go back home, develop your product to meet the market requirements and then go back out there and sell it,” says Tony Capon, export director at Interfloor, a manufacturer of underlay and flooring accessories that won two awards for its exporting activities in Mena and for innovation in exporting.

Xtrac, a company from Berkshire that specialises in the design and manufacture of transmission systems, also won two awards, for export excellence in Europe and as overall exporter of the year. “We have a fantastic team, we export 75% of business, half of that to Europe. Winning this award speaks to the quality of our staff,” finance director Stephen Lane tells GTR.

Gabriel Buck, managing director at GKB Ventures and lead judge of the awards’ jury, explains what other factors favoured Xtrac in the judging: “[Xtrac] has shown four key factors. One, clear strategy in terms of their exports; two, in terms of their analytical work; three in terms of resilience and determination; and last, but by no means least, following through with their key customers.”

This is the full list of winners:

Export excellence in Sub-Saharan Africa: Tan Sales

Export excellence in Mena: Interfloor

Best first-time export: Goodordering

Export excellence in Europe: Xtrac

Innovation in exporting: Interfloor

Export excellence in Asia Pacific: Mabey Bridge

Supply chain excellence: MNB Precision

Best use of UK Export Finance: NMS International

Export excellence in the Americas: Durbin

Exporter of the year: Xtrac

The winners represent the best of British exporters. The awards were open to all UK-based exporting companies of any size and from any sector. They were judged by an independent panel of experts from some of the UK’s leading institutions.