IC publisher wins Queen's Award for Enterprise
28 April 2010
KHL Group has won the most prestigious British industry award in 2010, the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the highly competitive International Trade category.
International publishing company KHL Group won the award for continuous outstanding achievement, sustained over not less than six years. In that time KHL has generated more than UK£ 20 million (US$ 30.8 million) of export revenues, creating local jobs in and around Wadhurst in the south east of the UK.
"This award is a huge honour and testimony to KHL's outstanding team throughout the world, and just reward for their efforts over the past few years. More importantly, it reflects all their hard work and ingenuity during the recent global downturn," commented James King, KHL Group managing director.
"Two key reasons why we won the International Trade award have been pioneering initiatives into the two giant world markets of the USA and China. In North America, we now have a company that publishes two market-leading magazines, websites, newsletters and eight employees," King continued.
KHL Group has always generated more than 80% of its revenue from outside the UK. Its ten international magazines for the construction industry reach every country in the world. They are vehicles for global companies to reach their international target audience.
In China KHL has a joint venture publishing company that produces a Chinese language magazine and offers services for Chinese companies to help market their products worldwide. "China has gone from nothing five years ago, to KHL's third largest market this year. We have seen tremendous growth after employing an excellent team and opening an office in Beijing," King said.
Other key international markets for KHL are Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, France, South Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain, Belgium and Turkey, where KHL has another JV publishing company producing a Turkish language publication.
Winners of the 2010 awards were announced in late April on the Queen's birthday. The award lasts for five years and previous recipients include JCB, Liebherr UK, Du Pont, BBC Worldwide and British Airways. An official presentation will be made by the Queen's Lord Lieutenant in a ceremony at KHL Group UK headquarters later in the year.
