Hardide plc (LON:HDD) Chief Executive Officer Philip Kirkham caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, what this means for the company and what next for them internationally.
Q1: First off, congratulations on winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for outstanding growth in your international sales over the last three years. Phil, can you tell us more about that?
A1: We’re absolutely delighted to have won our first Queen’s Award for Enterprise, this award recognises our outstanding short term growth in overseas sales, amounting to 52% over the 3 years prior to the end of September 2018.
We’re also really proud that that growth continued into our last financial year where we achieved a record sales revenue which 67% of those sales were international ones.
As you know, we sell our coatings globally but our main international market is North America so we opened a new coatings facility in Martinsville, Virginia in 2016, for customers in that region, with parts used in severe service applications in the aerospace, oil and gas, pump and valve industries
This award is a positive event in the current situation, I think we need a bit of happiness at the moment.
Q2: What made you apply for a Queen’s Award?
A2: Well, we’ve been putting a huge amount of effort into developing Hardide’s international presence over the past few years in sales and marketing, it’s great for all of our staff to be recognised this way.
Winning a Queen’s Award is the highest official business award a company can achieve in the UK and we’re really honoured as a Great British company to have been awarded this accolade. It gives great recognition to the business and it’s an honour we’re very proud to receive.
Q3: Finally, what’s next for Hardide internationally?
A3: Well, we continue to develop and strengthen our business in North America but we’re also starting to explore other longer term opportunities in other overseas markets such as South-East Asia and mainland Europe.
It’s early days at the moment but the feedback we’ve had so far has been very encouraging so we intend to start pursuing in more detail the potential opportunities for us for long term.
