Southport precision machinist Lattimer wins Queen’s Award for Enterprise

News
30/04/2018

Southport precision engineering business Lattimer has secured the UK’s most celebrated business accolade after winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.


The long-standing Merseyside firm manufacture complex component parts primarily for the glass container manufacturing industry. It exports to more than 56 countries worldwide with international orders amounting to 96% of total sales.


The £12.2million turnover business underwent a rigorous assessment from the Queen’s Award Office involving a 10,000-word submission and financial vetting to prove ‘steep’ year-on-year international sales growth over the past three years.


Senior management are now to attend a Royal reception at Buckingham Palace in June this year, hosted by The Prince of Wales, where they will receive a ‘Grant of Appointment’.


Lattimer Holdings CEO Stephen Waterhouse said the achievement was only possible due to the immense effort of the company’s 114-strong workforce as well as past generations who had all contributed significantly to the firm’s success.


“It is a huge privilege and honour to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise,”

he said.
“It truly doesn’t get any more high-profile or prestigious than an official endorsement from Her Majesty the Queen. There is an enormous sense of pride and satisfaction amongst our entire team, who thoroughly deserve this acknowledgement. It simply would not have been possible without the commitment, desire and dedication of our exceptional workforce, many of whom have come through internal apprenticeships and have been with us their entire careers.

“This award is the result of many decades of hard-work and determination. Lattimer has had to evolve and remain resilient since setting up in 1937. It took many years to build a reputation as a solid British manufacturer before a major breakthrough in the 1970s when we helped a local glass container company solve a problem in their production process. This innovation was so successful it inspired Lattimer to develop other products for the worldwide market. Following the early successes of the original Lattimer “Pusher” and “Belt Arm” in 1977, we grew to be a world leader in the design and supply of high quality ‘IS variable equipment’.

“We have remained at the forefront of the ‘design and build’ of components and assemblies for the glass container industry ever since. However, this has required energy, ambition and resource. We have always aimed to innovate and develop new and improved manufacturing techniques to stay ahead of competitors, while keeping an eye out for opportunities in other industrial sectors where our expertise is also relevant.

“Today we export to all four corners of the world, from Asia, Africa and Europe to the Americas and Australia. We manufacture more than 20,000 component parts, through a number of different machining processes including milling, turning, mill-turning and grinding. As a result, Lattimer is now in a stronger position than ever before in its 80-year history, with growing order books and a world-wide reputation for engineering excellence.”


The Queen's Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for British businesses and other organisations which excel at international trade, innovation or sustainable development. The scheme was established as The Queen's Award to Industry by a royal warrant on November 30, 1965. They are the highest official UK award for British businesses.


Lattimer UK Managing Director Mark Hailwood said the future looks bright for the firm with a new product development underpinning a 15-year growth plan.


“A key element of our expansion plan involves a multi-lingual sales force deployed to drive growth across mainland Europe. This follows recent success in Portugal and Spain where a trial model was rolled out and resulted in a major sales increase in the first year. It’s a significant shift in the way Lattimer has operated in this particular region, now directly employing a nimble in-house team and as well as language skills, they bring vital knowledge and understanding of cultures and working practices to their target markets.

“In order to maintain our reputation as a world-leading engineering company we made a decision five years ago to invest in our own internal training academy. Our highly skilled engineers are the backbone of our business. The Lattimer Training Academy has enabled us to take the initiative and fully manage our own engineering resource development. We are passionate about local skills development and knowledge transfer from our most experienced team members. We deliver rigorous, high-level apprenticeship schemes, employing a minimum of three apprentices each year. The Training Academy is proving hugely successful in our mission to nurture the next generation of engineers, maintaining the highest levels of engineering skill and quality, guaranteeing our future and enabling us unleash our ambitious growth plans.”


For more information contact Mark Hailwood on +44 (0)1704 535040, email mark.hailwood@lattimer.com or visit the website www.lattimer.com