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Pharmaceutical temperature-controlled specialist Tower Cold Chain has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the UK’s highest accolade for business success. The company won its award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in export sales made over the last three years.

Tower has been recognised for its robust, reliable, reusable thermal containers, that transport temperature sensitive pharmaceutical, life-science and biotech products. In the last 18 months overseas sales and the proportion of total sales exporting have increased significantly.

The company has seen particular success in the United States, Germany, Belgium, South Africa and China, coinciding with its on-going expansion of its global hub networks to maximise proximity and availability to Tower customers in all regions.

“We are tremendously proud to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade, which is a tribute to the expertise and hard work of the entire Tower team,” commented Tower Cold Chain’s CEO Niall Balfour. “Recognising our international growth shows how we are focused on meeting our customers’ global supply chain needs and will continue to invest and collaborate to deliver this.”

Tower has recently played a key role in ensuring the critical delivery of Covid-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic. In addition, the launch of both the KTM42D for ultra-cold temperature critical pharmaceuticals, and the KTEvolution, a lightweight, manually handleable solution ideal for smaller shipments such as direct-to-patient and last-mile deliveries have helped to meet the latest cold-chain needs.

The company has continued to invest to drive its growth strategy, with UK staff numbers doubling over the last three years. As well as its global hub expansion, Tower also opened its new 26,000 sq ft UK headquarters and centre of excellence in Theale, Reading, including the addition of an Innovation Centre to enhance its design and laboratory testing capabilities in the development of the latest temperature-controlled solutions.

Niall Balfour added; “It is our vision to become the number-one cold-chain shipping facility of choice worldwide. Winning the prestigious Queen’s Award recognises this journey, acknowledges our customers’ trust, and above all marks the tremendous efforts of all our team at Tower. I would like to thank and congratulate every one of them for their contribution– this award is a real testament to their support and our continued international growth.”

Now in their 56th year, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queen’s Awards emblem for the next five years. The Awards recognise British businesses who excel in specific areas, including international trade, innovation and sustainable development.