GTR is calling for entries to the UK National Awards for Export Excellence.

According to the British Chambers of Commerce, the UK is 14 years behind meeting the target of £1tn in annual exports. Despite this, there are countless standout performances by a great many individual UK companies currently exporting their goods and services abroad. With this in mind, GTR and The Manufacturer have launched the UK National Awards for Export Excellence to celebrate and commemorate the achievements of those UK exporters that are already making a difference. Up for grabs are a number of prestigious awards, recognising export excellence across a range of sectors and geographic regions.

Who is eligible?
Entries are open to all UK-based exporting companies of any size and from any sector. If your organisation is leading the way in export initiatives or has various export success stories to tell, take a moment to review the categories in further detail and submit your entries before the deadline of March 24. We want to hear from you!

What’s on offer?
With awards covering the breadth of the industry, there really is a category to highlight every company’s successes:

  • Best first-time export
  • Largest UK export
  • Supply chain excellence
  • Excellence in exporting to Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Excellence in exporting to Mena
  • Excellence in exporting to Asia
  • Excellence in exporting to Europe
  • Excellence in exporting to the Americas

“The manufacturing sector is rightly the pride of UK industry and in light of the government’s ongoing export drive, more and more manufacturers are looking to export as a means of growing their business,” says Peter Gubbins, managing director of GTR. “These awards will recognise the achievements of those companies leading the way in the UK’s
export activities, highlighting their international strategies, business models and use of the financial services sector in driving growth.”

The steps to a successful entry
You can submit your entries in just a few steps.
Simply download the entry pack, review the categories, download the entry template and submit by March 24!
Think about areas of the business where you have recently improved and choose your category based on the areas you are most proud of and would like recognition for. The awards encourage you to support your entry with extra materials to enhance your case. To take advantage of this, consider including testimonials from clients, diagrams/charts, press cuttings and so on.

The judges
A panel of experts from some of the UK’s leading institutions will form the judging team. This panel
will be made up of:

  • Gabriel Buck, Cole Commission/BBA
  • Margaret Eyres, UKEF
  • Lesley Batchelor, Institute of Export
  • Guto Davies, GE Capital/BExA
  • Will Clark, AIG
  • Julian Hucker, Open To Export
  • Geoffrey de Mowbray, Dints/BExA
  • Ed Harkins, Fieldstone
  • Adam Marshall, British Chambers of Commerce

The judging process
Stage One: The application
Judges will be allocated to the award category specific to their field and each entry will be assessed by a minimum of two independent, unconnected judges. The judges will evaluate your entry and supporting material and score it against the category judging criteria, giving credit to effective projects, innovative practices and creative ideas rather than big budgets. Each judge will then provide a score for the entry with the total of these scores determining the shortlist and the companies progressing to the second round of judging.

Stage Two: The judging day
Following the announcement in April of a shortlist for each category, the judges will meet face to face for the final judging day. Here, each set of category judges will discuss the shortlisted entries and then choose the winner of their category.
Winners will then be announced at the UK National Awards for Export Excellence 2016 ceremony, a black tie gala dinner to be held on June 15 in Liverpool.
In addition, all entrants to the UK National Awards for Export Excellence 2016 will receive two complimentary passes to the UK Trade & Export Finance Conference 2016, GTR’s annual gathering for the UK trade and export finance market, now in its fourth year. Both the awards ceremony and conference feature as part of the International Festival for Business 2016.

Visit www.exportexcellenceawards.co.uk for more information. We look forward to receiving your entries.