Royal recognition for firm's overseas trade (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Company honoured with a Queen's Award

8:31am Tuesday 24th July 2012 in Business By Richard Garfield

AN INNOVATIVE provider of supply chain software has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Outstanding Performance in International Trade.

The Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire Dame Mary Fagan presented the award to Cirrus Logistics at the company’s Cedarwood offices, on Chineham Business Park. She was accompanied by Deputy Lieutenant Andrew Kent, who read the citation.

Employing about 50 people in Basingstoke, the company exports to 25 countries across five continents, providing easy-to-use decision support software used across various applications and industries, including logistics, oil and gas, retail and food.

The growing company boasts among its clients Gist, also based on Chineham Park, Sainsbury’s, which has a major distribution centre at Houndmills, and ExxonMobile, which operates the refinery at Fawley, on Southampton Water.

The important accolade is designed to honour exceptional companies across Britain for innovation, international trade and sustainable development.

Recent growth in sales of the company’s two main products, CLASS and SEABERTH, contributed to an overseas earnings growth of 148 per cent between 2009 and 2011, with total turnover increasing by 92 per cent.

In congratulating the team at Cirrus Logistics, Dame Mary said: “Something very special has been achieved by your company.

“And it’s lovely that you are a small company. I noticed that you are a small team, you are totally motivated and you work together, and I think that is probably one of your secrets.

“The Queen’s Award is a very good benchmark abroad. People recognise it and realise that you are a company of some standing to have achieved it.”

The company’s chief executive officer David Stanhope described Dame Mary’s visit as a special and prestigious occasion.

“We’ve got a very innovative business and we have a great team of people,” he said. “You don’t get into the organisations that we work with without having a great team behind you.”

Prior to formally presenting the award, Dame Mary was given a tour around the company’s office.

She was also given a presentation which outlined some of the company’s products, including CLASS, which is a leading warehouse layout design and simulation tool used extensively on the third party logistics, retails and manufacturing sectors.

She also learned about SEABERTH, which is an operational berth scheduling tool used for busy international ports all over the world and is particularly used in the oil and gas sectors, including Qatar’s Ras Laffan Port, which is one of the largest in the world.