LORD Lieutenant for County Durham Sue Snowdon has heaped praise on a family business in Barnard Castle which is having a significant impact on the global pharmaceutical industry.
Honeyman Group, based at Harmire Enterprise Park, earned the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the innovation category earlier this year.
Mrs Snowdon visited the site on Friday, November 16, to hand over the award and witness first hand the work being down there.
The award recognises Honeyman’s self-developed HydroGienic system which distributes bulk purified water around a pharmaceutical facility in an efficient way, and can be adjusted or changed without hindering production.
The firm’s founder Trevor Honeyman said: “It took eight years – from 2001 to 2009 – from conception to get to the first installation.
Since then five installations have been made in England, Scotland and Ireland, in a variety of facilities ranging from animal medicines development to HIV treatments.
Mr Honeyman said: “It is a very niche sector we work in, very specialised, but very important I think.”
Mrs Snowdon was impressed by what the group had achieved and confirmed that achieving the Queen’s Award was no mean feat.
She said: “The Queen’s Award recognises the quality of you are doing. It is wonderful to see all the innovative things you are doing here. This is so specialised. It is fascinating to see what you are doing from animal products to HIV. Well done.”
As for the award, she added: “This is a toughie to get. It is not easy to get at all – it is the innovativeness of what you are doing.”
Chief of operations John Backes said the award would go a long way towards finding the company new markets around the globe.
The visit ended with the presentation of the award.
