Ancon Building’s innovation recognised with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise

The Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire, David Moody, presented the Sheffield-based construction component company with the award on behalf of HM The Queen.

Ancon, which designs and manufactures high integrity steel products for the construction industry, said the award is the highest accolade an organisation can achieve for product development and innovation.

The company is one of the longest established steel fabrication companies in Sheffield and 2012 marks its 130th year of continuous operation in the city.

At a presentation at the group’s Sheffield head office, attended by 30 of the company’s longest serving employees, despatch supervisor Colin Beecher, the longest serving employee present with 33 years’ service, accepted the award. The accompanying ceremonial scroll, which was read aloud at the presentation, was accepted by John Gilsenan, works manager at Ancon’s Deeside factory in North Wales who has been with the company for 30 years.

Ancon won the 2012 Award for its groundbreaking Lockable Dowel, a component that is used to accommodate shrinkage and transfer load at joints in long-span concrete floors.

The engineered product has changed the way in which many concrete buildings are constructed, simplifying design, improving safety and reducing costs.

Since its launch, Ancon said the system has proved very successful, achieving strong sales across Europe, Australia and North America. During a tour of the Sheffield factory, accompanied by managing director, Stuart Maxwell, and operations director, Peter McDermott, the Lord Lieutenant was introduced to employ-ees.

Mr Maxwell said: “To achieve this prestigious award we demonstrated that Ancon is not only innovative in its approach to solving problems for our customers, but that we have made significant advances in performance and commercial success over a number of years.

“It is confirmation that we are a world-class business in every sense.”

The Queen’s Award represents the pinnacle of achievement for the company, which now has operations in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

Ancon’s marketing manager Annabelle Wilson said: “Like many of the world’s most successful inventions, the concept behind the lockable dowel is very simple.”