A glowing example of British manufacturing, Norbar Torque Tools in Banbury, has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade for its contribution to UK manufacturing exports.  The family-owned business has become the world’s top specialist manufacturer of torque tools and this year celebrates 67 successful years. The award highlights a success story in a sector that has generally experienced decline.

Norbar equipment is used in diverse industries including manufacturing, sub-sea, aerospace, energy, mining, and oil & gas.  In the past six years the Company has almost doubled overseas earnings from its worldwide markets and now exports more than 73% of its output.  Norbar has distributors in over 60 countries as well as nine of its own sales and service branches around the world.

Philip Brodey, Sales & Marketing Director of Norbar said: ‘At a time when all we seem to hear about is doom and gloom this award will be a real boost to our staff and also hopefully send a message out to other manufacturers that business is out there to be won.’  And, the award is not the only good news from Norbar.  The £20m turnover firm is continuing to invest in production equipment, new business systems, sales channels and people.

Human Resources Manager, Wanda Stewart-Lee explained. ‘A number of education opportunities were identified in our six-monthly review process. One of those was that people wanted to understand the business better – so we have organised a programme that uses presenters from all around the company, educating others in the way their department fits into the output of the company as a whole. We feel that investments we are making will help us to make improvements to the bottom line.’

She added that Norbar is working closely with Warwickshire College to promote engineering as a career, and also to recruit at least one additional engineering apprentice by the summer.

Norbar Torque Tools is a third generation family business that has been trading since 1942 and is a national finalist in the 2009 Coutts Family Business Awards. The Company’s success is driven by a lean, agile culture together with continuous investment in equipment and people. This leads to consistently high quality and superior service, which is clearly appreciated throughout the World.

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