A MANUFACTURER near Malmesbury has picked up the most prestigious business accolade, the Queen's Award for Enterprise, for the third time.

Agricultural company Alvan Blanch, a manufacturer of post-harvest processing machinery and industrial drying systems, has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the ‘International Trade – Outstanding Achievement’ category.

The company, based in Chelworth just outside Malmesbury, won previously in 2005 and 2012, and is the only company, within the agricultural sector, to have received an award within the International Trade category this year.

With regular markets across the world, Alvan Blanch has focused on using its international trade to drive growth, while maintaining its established UK customer base.

In addition to a well-known grain drier business, Alvan Blanch also has dedicated engineering and design teams who are constantly working on product enhancement and R&D.

The last five years have seen a large expansion in global operations for the Wiltshire-based manufacturer. The company has opened sales offices and service centres in several markets in Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe.

Managing director, Andrew Blanch said: "We are very proud to have won this award for the third time; it represents a great achievement by everyone here. When we first won it 14 years ago we had managed £3million of export sales, the award in 2012 reflected sharp growth of exports to £8million, while now we have reached £12million.

"Over that period, we have doubled our workforce to 120 and we have recently invested very heavily in manufacturing automation and in expanding our factory. We now have a world-class manufacturing facility that enables us to compete in highly demanding global markets with our world beating products. But all of that has only been made possible by our 4-fold export sales growth over the 14 years between these awards."

The company will officially receive the award from the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire.