A Huddersfield textile firm took delivery of its fifth Queen’s Award – and pledged to win another one.
Camira Group was presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade by the Vice Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire Tim Hare in recognition of its sustained growth in export markets over the past six years.
The ceremony took place at Camira’s woollen yarn spinning plant in Birkby where Mr Hare presented a cut-glass rose bowl to director of sales for Asia Pacific Brigitte Heimrath and production manager Richard Hutchinson.
Ms Heimrath had earlier attended a reception at Buckingham Palace together with director of European sales Reiner Rupp.
Camira’s fifth Queen’s Award follows previous wins for Sustainable Development and Innovation.
Camira, which has manufacturing plant at Meltham Mills and headquarters in Mirfield, sells more than 8m metres of contract upholstery fabrics a year to about 80 countries. Its fabrics are used to upholster seats on buses and trains and in offices, universities and hotels.
Exports account for about 60% of its £80m turnover, with North America and the Eurozone being its largest overseas markets. Other significant sales revenues come from markets as diverse as Mexico, China, Australia and New Zealand.
The presentation was attended by about 100 of the company’s 700-strong workforce which is spread across sites in West Yorkshire, Nottingham and Lithuania.
The Camira Yarns spinning mill has been instrumental in helping the firm develop environmental yarns which go into fabrics made from innovative blends of wool, nettles, hemp and flax.
Group sales and marketing director Andrew Schofield said: “It was a really special occasion for us to be presented with the Queen’s Award by the Vice Lord Lieutenant.
“We’re continuing to strengthen our position in global sales territories, where we’re seen as environmental innovators, and we have ambitious sales plans up to 2020 and beyond. I’m sure there’ll be more Queen’s Awards in the future.”
Camira is a privately owned UK textile group formed originally in 1974 as Camborne Fabrics in Huddersfield. In its current guise, Camira came into being in April, 2006, following a management buy-out from former American parent company Interface Inc
The company has overseas offices in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Poland, USA, China and Australia, as well as an extensive network of agents and distributors
Clients include Swiss Rail, Transport for London, Manchester Arena, BBC MediaCityUK and the University of Huddersfield.
Its fabrics also find their way into the offices of major companies including HSBC, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook.
