Winners

A-SAFE invented the first industrial strength polymer safety barrier in 2001. A revolutionary contribution to industrial safety, the A-SAFE barrier can flex to absorb impact force, then reform to its original shape. This unique innovation saves the lives of industrial workers worldwide every day, as well as protecting customer budgets through incident prevention and reduced maintenance, repairs and downtime. Customers include airports like Heathrow and Singapore, manufacturing facilities such as BMW and Coca-Cola, and distribution centres and warehouses for DHL and Amazon. A-SAFE is the go-to safety solution for the world’s largest organisations.

The company won the Queen’s Awards for International Trade in 2014 and 2018. Now, with a continuous record of exporting industrial safety products worldwide to a multitude of overseas clients, this year sees it win the Queen’s Award for International Trade for the third time. Against the backdrop of Covid-19 and the global supply chain crisis, the 2022 award is perhaps the most hard-earned yet.

Rigorous testing regime
A-SAFE has 17 wholly owned subsidiaries in 16countries, and an additional 35 ‘trusted partner’ distributers around the world, with key markets in America and Europe. The company’s growth strategy is to open new subsidiaries, appoint distributors and increase penetration of existing markets.

In responding to the challenges presented by Covid-19, A-SAFE concentrated on existing customers and territories and focused on sectors that were booming. Overseas sales have grown by 102% over the three-year application period, and the proportion of sales exported has increased to 89% of total sales.

Its world-leading facilities in Halifax are fully equipped to drive industrial safety standards ever higher. With a designated R&D sister company,Fathom3, A-SAFE recruits polymer physicists, design engineers and electronics engineers: a team striving to improve life for industrial workers worldwide.

A-SAFE invests millions of pounds in custom-built machinery to ensure its quality and attention to detail is inherent throughout every element of the manufacturing process. Independent testing is vital for safety products, and A-SAFE ensures that by complying with industry-leading standardised PAS 13 criteria, independently verified by TÜV Nord, its testing regime is the most rigorous of any safety barrier on the market. From research and development to design, testing and manufacture, the entire end-to-end process is owned and controlled at its HQ in the UK, before the final product is exported around the world.

Further innovation
A proud UK manufacturer, A-SAFE has moved forward again with the global release of its RackEye system. This latest innovation integrates patented electronics and industry 4.0 IoT software into its product range. These new systems go beyond protection, designed to detect, monitor and record, with advanced analytics dashboards allowing safety professionals to predict and prevent incidents in their facilities.