HONOURS AND AWARDS
The King's Award for Enterprise - KAE

THE AWARD
The King’s Award for Enterprise (formerly the Queen’s Award) is for outstanding achievement by UK businesses in the categories of:
Innovation
International Trade
Sustainable Development
Promoting Opportunity Through Social Mobility
How to Apply
A company does not have to be nominated, it can apply itself. For more information on the award and how to apply please use the website link below:
Eligibility
To apply for the award your organisation must:
- Be based in the UK (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man)
- File its Company Tax Returns with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
- Be a self-contained enterprise that markets its own products or services and is under its own management
- Have at least 2 full-time UK employees or part-time equivalents
- Demonstrate strong corporate social responsibility
Your organisation can be a business or non-profit. Each of the award categories has additional entry criteria.
Innovation
To apply for the Innovation award, you must also:
- have an innovation that has not been sold before
- have had your innovation available on the market for at least 2 years
- have recovered all the investments made in your innovation or show that the innovation will recover its full costs in future
- show outstanding commercial success as a result of innovation over 2 years – or continuous commercial success over 5 years
Your innovation should be in one of the following categories:
- invention, design or production of goods
- performance of services
- marketing and distribution
- after-sale support of goods or services
International Trade
To apply for the International Trade award, you must also:
- have made a minimum of £100,000 in overseas sales in the first year of your entry and show year-on-year growth
- prove that your organisation has achieved outstanding growth in overseas earnings relative to your business size and sector
- prove steep year-on-year growth (without dips) in overseas sales over 3 years – or substantial year-on-year growth (without dips) over 6 years
Sustainable Development
To apply for the Sustainable Development award, you must also:
- show how you have achieved outstanding sustainable development for more than 2 years
- provide evidence of the benefits or positive outcomes of your actions or interventions
Promoting Opportunity through social mobility
To apply for the Promoting Opportunity award, you must also:
- have had a social mobility programme running for more than 2 years
- provide evidence of the programme’s benefits (for example, to your organisation and employees)
Your improvements should help socially disadvantaged individuals or groups and be in one of the following areas:
- work experience, careers advice or mentoring for young people
- offering non-graduate routes such as traineeships or changing recruitment practices
- giving equal support and progression opportunities to all employees
Recent winners of the KAE/QAE from County Antrim:
2023 (KAE) International Trade:
BLK BOX Ltd, Newtownabbey
2021 (QAE) International Trade:
Environmental Street Furniture, Newtownabbey
InspecVision Ltd, Mallusk
Texthelp Ltd, Antrim