Ashtree Glass Are Winners Of This Years Queens Award For Enterprise For Exports

Ashtree Glass is delighted to have been awarded the Queens award for enterprise for exports. The official citation can be found below but the nuts and bolts of the award are a reflection of a long held company policy of developing a better business by looking to increase export sales in tandem with growth in domestic markets.

Ashtrees MD is Alan Roper, who founded the business in 1977, and he has been at the forefront of developing company policy. This policy has been taken up with enthusiasm by the 2nd generation of the Roper family to be involved in the business. Since export business was first sought in 1992, with a less than succesful debut at the Automechanika show in Frankfurt, Ashtree has developed a product range and export strategy that now see in excess of 40% of company turnover going overseas. As well as creating and securing jobs in the UK manufacturing sector these exports are also good for the UKs balance sheet as Ashtree export far more than they import.

It's ironic that on the day the Queens awards are announced Ashtree were overseas at yet another trade show looking to further increase export business.

The official citation is as follows:

Ashtree Glass Limited was established in 1977 and is concerned with the design and manufacture of commercial vehicle rear view mirrors, providing these to medium volume producers of vehicles such as buses, trucks, agricultural machinery, construction equipment and fork trucks. It wins the Award for the first time for its outstanding achievement in export sales growth, achieving an 86% growth in overseas earnings. Ashtree Glass maintains a competitive edge by cutting its own mirror glasses, instead of buying them in as most of its competitors do. As a niche manufacturer, Ashtree operates a strategy that concentrates on its strengths, which are supplying competitively priced high quality products and flexibility in designing and manufacturing what the customer requires, in order to open new markets and consolidate others.