SINGAPORE, OCT 1 – DORTEK and Rolls-Royce are the joint winners of the inaugural UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Award for Innovation. This award recognises a company or an individual who has made a significant contribution to strengthening the excellence in innovation and creativity for which the UK is well known.

Representatives from these two companies will be receiving the award from His Royal Highness The Duke of York at tonight’s British Business Awards, an annual event of the British Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Paul Madden, the British High Commissioner to Singapore, will also grace the event, which will be attended by over 400 business representatives in Singapore.

Dortek is a market leader in the manufacture, installation and project management of hygienic door solutions to the international pharmaceutical, healthcare and food sectors. Their Singapore office opened in 2006. Since then, they have won almost S$5 million worth of major projects in South East Asia. This includes contracts with GSK Biologicals, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the Duke Graduate Medical School.

Dortek won because their comprehensive, value-added proposition has increased employment in its two manufacturing plants in the UK and Ireland, and enabled knowledge transfer and sharing of best practices in Singapore and South East Asian markets.

His Excellency Paul Madden, British High Commissioner to Singapore, said: “Dortek embodies the strong innovative spirit of many of the UK’s small and medium enterprises. It has strategically positioned itself as a comprehensive market leader in hygienic door solutions and its successful expansion out of the UK into South East Asia will see it assisting in the safe manufacture of major vaccines and other products.”

Rolls-Royce impressed the judges by the incorporation of the innovative automated engine flow line concept in its future assembly plant for gas turbine aero-engines at Seletar. The technology was developed in the UK, in conjunction with Germany’s University of Aachen. This is Rolls-Royce's first application of moving flow line technology in the assembly of gas turbine engines, incorporating the latest thinking in lean aero-engine assembly processes, designed to deliver significant increases in productivity.

Mr Madden commented: “Rolls-Royce, one of Britain's most innovative high tech companies,  is an excellent example of the strong business relationship between the UK and Singapore. Rolls-Royce has built on its long-standing, successful relationship with Singapore as a supplier of engines to SIA, to establish an increasingly important presence here in research, manufacturing and regional headquarters functions.”

In previous years, UKTI presented the UKTI International Business Award and the winners include SembCorp Utilities (2005), ComfortDelGro (2006), Singapore Food Industries (2007) and CSE Global (2008).

Notes for Editors

UKTI Award for Innovation

This award, in its inaugural year, recognises a company or an individual who has made a significant contribution to strengthening the excellence in innovation and creativity for which the UK is well known.

In particular, the judges are looking for organisations that have either:

• Introduced an innovative British technology, product or service into Singapore or the South East Asian market via Singapore, or;
• Partnered a UK organisation to establish an innovative technology, product or service in the UK, or;
• Set up an R&D project in the UK, or;
• Won business in the Creative Industries sector in Singapore or the South East Asian market via Singapore

The finalists for this award are:

- Diageo Asia Pacific
- Dortek Hygienic Door Systems (winner)
- The Open University
- Perform Group
- Rolls-Royce (winner)

Media contacts:

Esther Au Yong
Director of Communications
British High Commission Singapore
Tel.: 6424 4271
Mobile: 9739 4503
esther.auyong@fco.gov.uk

Ng Si Jia
Communications Officer
British High Commission Singapore
Tel.: 6424 4255
ng.sijia@fco.gov.uk

 

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