Peterborough Evening Telegraph

A specialist electricity meter manufacturer has won a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Ampy Automation Digilog Ltd received the award in recognition of its remarkable achievement of growing export sales by almost 350 per cent in three years.

The Queen’s Awards for enterprise are the UK’s most prestigious awards for business performance.

Representatives from Ampy, which is based in Frognall, Deeping St James, near Peterborough, will be invited to a winner’s reception at Buckingham Palace later in the year.

The award itself will be presented later in the year at the company’s headquarters by the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Hugh Duberty.

Ampy designs and manufactures intelligent electricity meters, which are used by utility companies to measure domestic electricity usage.

Its products are being rapidly adopted across the world because of their ability to combat fraud and streamline meter reading.

The company’s sales of products and services have grown from £5 million in 2001 to almost £17 million in 2003 at a time when much of the country’s manufacturing sector has been on the brink of recession.

Exports now represent almost 50 per cent of the company’s turnover.

Jonathan Elmer, chief executive officer at Ampy, said, “Winning the Queen’s Award is a tremendous achievement. It recognises the immense work that staff at Ampy have put into designing and manufacturing world-class products and in setting up and supporting international sales channels. It positions us as one of the top performing businesses in the UK and we will continue to strengthen our resources to develop further international sales – there is still much to do.”

The growth of the company has led to it recently recruiting 57 more staff to satisfy demand.

It has also set up new distribution channels and joint ventures.

The company has had notable success in Italy, where it was chosen to design meters as part of a project for 2 billion Euros to upgrade 27 million homes across the country – the largest contract of its type ever awarded.

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