ENTEK International Ltd has won its third Queen's Award for International trade with sales surging 51% in 2010.
The firm, based in Killingworth, manufactures a polyethylene-based separator used for enveloping the plates in lead-acid car and truck batteries.
It is the only manufacturer of its kind in the UK.
From start-up in 1990, ENTEK International and its sister company in the USA has grown to become the world’s number one supplier of automotive battery separators, with a global market share of 48%.
At the height of the recession in 2008-2009, the company invested £26m to double the size of its Newcastle upon Tyne facility, allowing it to increase sales from £31m in 2009 to £47m in 2010.
All this was achieved at a time when the global automotive industry experienced one of its worst economic downturns in history.
Through intense customer-focused market share expansion, the company was able to grow its market share at a time when the overall market suffered a catastrophic drop. This enabled the company to leverage its cost leadership position from its most recent investments and secure significant volume share from the world’s number one and number two car battery manufacturers.
The company has been awarded the Queen’s Award for International Trade 2010 for its commitment to invest in uncertain economic times resulting in substantial and consistent year on year sales growth with almost 100% being exported to 34 countries worldwide. It was also praised for its ethical and environmental rigor and its passionate embrace of world-class manufacturing ethos.
Dr Graeme Fraser-Bell, vice president, international sales, said: “The level of commitment from our workforce to lean initiatives and the substantial investment in state-of-the-art manufacturing technology in the UK has allowed us to manufacture world-class automotive separators from a cost leadership platform which has generated a compelling value proposition for our worldwide customer base.
“This award affirms our unrivalled value proposition and confirms our status as one of the elite British manufacturing exporters.”
The awards follow two previous Queen’s Awards for Export in 1993 and 1995.
Managing director Martin Lee added: “We’re really proud to receive this award. The team has worked hard over recent years on a world-class manufacturing journey and the company’s performance reflects well on our people.
“We have invested heavily in new production lines and ancillary equipment, along with environmental improvements to build an export-led, sustainable manufacturing company here in the North East. It’s been a great team effort all round and sets a milestone in our factories development.”
In a separate announcement ENTEK International also confirmed a capacity investment at its US facility with the addition of a new line in 2012.
This new line will provide an additional capacity of 60m2 of ENTEK’s RhinoHide® separator material and is expected to be commissioned in July 2012. It just goes to show that some Newcastle-based teams do win trophies.