Queen's Awards: Percell Group able to count its double gains

Counting money has proved doubly profitable for the Percell Group with Queen's Awards for both export and technology. The company, which employs 60 people in Newport, South Wales, has joined an elite for those organisations winning two awards in the same year. It also won an award in 1996.

Percell's success is based on its range of Tellermate products, electronic counters for bank notes and coins. The company exports to 25 countries and its products are used in banks and in large retailers. The machine, developed by Percell's founder Edgar Biss, allows fast counting of notes by weight and can take account of differences of currency and even the fluctuations caused by the amount of water in the atmosphere.

Mr Biss said he was looking for further growth with the development of new product ranges for Tellermate. He says: "We have an excellent customer base with blue chip organisations which are rapidly expanding their retail operations. We are proud that such a small company can provide these giants with the answer to their own cash management problems."

European Gas Turbines combines exports and environmental achievement for its two successes. The large turbine generators - mainly for industrial and offshore markets - cost around pounds 1m each and are exported from the company's Lincoln factory to 79 countries around the world.

EGT's environmental award is for the development of a new low emission combustor unit for its range of turbines which can reduced the output of Nitrogen Oxide by up to 85 per cent. The design can also be retrofitted to existing machines.

Winning a double award has happened four times for JCB, the Staffordshire- based manufacturer of earth moving equipment. The company has won a total of 13 awards since 1969.

This year's awards are to the Wheeled Loader and Backhoe Loader Divisions. The Wheeled Loader division makes large loading shovels and has seen exports treble to more than pounds 20m between 1994 and 1996. Exports from the Backhoe Division - producing machines for the construction industry - have risen to pounds 180 m.

Multiple winners in telecommunications are GPT which has achieved success in both the export and technology categories. The company, Britain's biggest manufacturer of telecommunications systems, also won an export award in 1996 for its family of voice and data transmission equipment.

The technology award is for the advances with "black boxes" which are at the centre of information technology. New silicon chips developed by GPT mean equipment that used to take up 8,000 shelves in the 1970s, now only takes up two shelf spaces.

The quality of electronic engineering developed by Snell & Wilcox is demonstrated by two technology awards, one shared with Electrocraft Laboratories. Both companies are based in Hampshire and work in commercial television and video.

"Supervisor", a new system, allows the use of large video displays without loss of screen quality. The system allows the use of computer graphics as well as video film. The joint win with Electrocraft involves the introduction of a new test pattern generators for television broadcasters. More compact, the equipment allows unlimited scope and accuracy for test signals.