On Thursday 27 October 2011, HRH The Duke of Kent visited the global headquarters of Malvern Instruments in Malvern, Worcestershire, UK, to present the company with the 2011 Queen's Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade.

During a tour of the Malvern Instruments' facility the Royal Party was briefed about the company, its history and future plans. They also met staff and saw examples of products and operations. This included a demonstration of the new award-winning Mastersizer 3000 particle size analyzer. His Royal Highness then made a formal presentation of the Queen's Award to Paul Walker, Managing Director of Malvern Instruments. 

Accepting the award, Paul Walker praised the Malvern teams everywhere, saying: "It is a great pleasure to receive this award and I am delighted for everyone in the company that Malvern Instruments is achieving such public recognition of our international trading success. This is our seventh Queen's Award and comes hard on the heels of last year's success in the Innovation category. It really is a tribute to the talent and dedication of Malvern teams throughout the world that even in challenging economic times we continue to grow our business both in our established and in emerging markets."

Since its foundation in the early 1970s, Malvern Instruments has been an integral part of the town in Worcestershire, England from which it takes its name. The company designs and manufactures scientific instruments that are used to measure the physical and chemical properties of materials. These are used in industries as diverse as minerals processing and pharmaceutical drug discovery, Malvern systems support the understanding, improvement and optimisation of a great many industrial processes. 

Today Malvern Instruments employs a workforce of around 200 at its global manufacturing and commercial headquarters in Malvern, and 600 people worldwide. More than 90 percent of production is destined for overseas markets. 

Malvern Instruments has subsidiary organizations in all major European markets, North America, China, Japan and Korea, a joint venture in India, a global distributor network and applications laboratories around the world.

For more information about Malvern Instruments visit www.malvern.com

Read the Malvern blog at www.materials-talks.com