Dorset Chamber Urges Businesses to Enter the Queens Awards for Enterprise in Platinum Jubilee Year
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards for UK businesses recognising outstanding achievement.
Winning an Award offers a business multiple benefits including global recognition, increasing growth and boosting staff morale.
In recent years, Dorset has been under-represented at the Awards – which are free to enter – despite many companies across the County being widely acknowledged as outstanding in the categories of: Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development, and Promoting Opportunity Through Social Mobility.
Dorset Chamber is therefore working with the Lord Lieutenant’s office in Dorset to promote the Awards, which will be announced next April on the Queen’s Birthday – next year also is Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Year.
The deadline to enter the Awards is midday Wednesday 8th September 2021.
Ian Girling, Chief Executive at Dorset Chamber said: “The Queens Awards for Enterprise are highly prized and are valid for five years, during which time recipients have the opportunity to benefit from improved opportunities to break into new markets, attracting investment offers and development interests, raised awareness of their brand and increased demand for products, enhanced ability to attract the best talent to their team and board’ and raised morale amongst employees and increased productivity.
“We are urging business to enter the Awards for 2022 and celebrate Dorset’s excellence in all the categories.”
Winners also have the prestige of being invited to a Royal reception; having one of The Queen’s representatives, the Lord-Lieutenant, present the award at the company; the right to fly The Queen’s Awards flag at their main office, and use the emblem on marketing materials (for example, on packaging, advertisements, stationery and website); and being given a Grant of Appointment (an official certificate) and a commemorative crystal trophy.
To apply for the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise an organisation must:
– Be based in the UK (incl. the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man)
– File its Company Tax Returns with HM Revenue and Customs
– Be a self-contained enterprise that markets its own products or services and is under its own management
– Have at least 2 full-time UK employees or part-time equivalents
– Demonstrate strong corporate social responsibility
– Organisations can be a business or non-profit
Each category also has its own criteria:
International Trade
To apply for the International Trade award, organisations must also:
– Have made a minimum of £100,000 in overseas sales in the first year of entry and show year-on-year growth
– Prove that the organisation has achieved outstanding growth in overseas earnings relative to business size and sector
– Prove steep year-on-year growth (without dips) in overseas sales over 3 years – or substantial year-on-year growth (without dips) over 6 years
Innovation
To apply for the Innovation award, organisations must also:
– Have an innovation that has not been sold before
– Have had the innovation available on the market for at least 2 years
– Have recovered all the investments made in the innovation or show that the innovation will recover its full costs in future
– Show outstanding commercial success as a result of innovation over 2 years – or continuous commercial success over 5 years
– The innovation should be in one of the following categories:
o Invention, design or production of goods
o Performance of services
o Marketing and distribution
o After-sale support of goods or services
Sustainable Development
To apply for the Sustainable Development award, an organisation must also:
– Show how they have achieved outstanding sustainable development for more than 2 years
– Provide evidence of the benefits or positive outcomes of their actions or interventions
Promoting Opportunity Through Social Mobility
To apply for the Promoting Opportunity award, an organisation must also:
– Provide work experience or careers advice Mentoring
– Offer interview and job-related training
– Make sure your recruitment process is open to everyone
– You’ll need to prove the benefits for:
– The people you’ve supported
– Your organisation
– Your employees
– The wider community
Applications are online via the Government’s web site: https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise/how-to-apply
See last year’s winners by region here
