The chemical sector is a clear winner among this year's Queen's Awards for Enterprise, announced at the end of April.

The chemical sector is a clear winner among this year’s Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, announced at the end of April.

The awards represent an endorsement of commercial success and are much loved by marketing departments up and down the country. Winners are entitled to use the Queen’s Award emblem on goods, packaging and marketing materials for five years to signify their business achievements.

The 2005 winners include specialist chemical and mineral processing company Colin Stewart Minchem. The company was set up in the industrial minerals industry in 1913, but its activities now extend from cementitious materials to cosmetic materials to desiccants.

Alongside this comes Genesys International, supplier of goods and services to the membrane industry. It markets a range of antiscalants; cleaners, including advanced membrane cleaners and membrane compatible microbicides; and flocculants.

These two are joined by an illustrious and varied list of UK companies, including: Millbrook Instruments, which designs scientific instruments to analyse the surface chemistry of advanced materials; Molecular Products, a supplier of chemical filtration products for air purification; Noahs Ark Chemicals, a small exporter of bulk and specialist chemicals; Varn Products Company, a supplier of chemicals and solvents for the graphic arts industry; and Apollo Chemicals, which has developed a new fast-track solvent-free contact adhesive.

In all, 88 Queen’s awards were announced for achievements in international trade, 41 for innovation and eight for sustainable development.

Winners range in size from a small firm with only two employees to an international giant employing nearly 4 500. 47 per cent of this year’s winners employ less than 50 people, and 30 per cent are from the service sector.

Bea Perks