TWO Isle of Wight companies have won the UK's most prestigious business awards — the Queen's Award for Enterprise. 

InFlight Peripherals (IFPL) and Wight Shipyard Co. are among 205 businesses to have been announced winners of the award today (Thursday).

They have been recognised by the Queen as being among the best in the country.

This year's Queen's Awards are given for outstanding achievement in innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity through social mobility.

Winning the award for a third time, IFPL has been recognised for innovation — with Outstanding Performance Improvements in the last two years. 

Working in the in-flight entertainment and connectivity industry, the design and manufacture specialists of passenger interface solutions, with its headquarters in Calbourne, developed a contactless payment and personalisation device to be used in commercial aircraft.

The seat back payment system enables airlines to offer additional retail opportunities to customers as an addition to the inflight entertainment system, creating a revenue source.

The system needed to be lightweight and withstand being on an aircraft, with complexities like vibration frequency and electrical interference.

IFPL founder and CEO Geoff Underwood said: “The aviation sector has been through a tough period recently, so being recognised as a company that is consistently working hard to create innovative products that will help operators to recover post-pandemic is a real boost. 

"I’m so proud of the whole IFPL family for this fantastic achievement.”

Isle of Wight County Press:

East Cowes based, Wight Shipyard Co. has been awarded the Queen's Award for International Trade for outstanding short-term growth in overseas sales over the last three years. 

The specialist aluminium marine craft manufacturers have helped to revive British shipbuilding since it was formed in 2016 and has supplied high-speed passenger ferries, tourist boats and windfarm support vessels to Mexico, Malta and Austria.

Overseas sales have grown in the three years since it started, to September 2019, to £16 million.

Peter Morton, Wight Shipyard chief executive said they are delighted to receive the award and it will open doors around the world. 

He said: "The overarching ambition was always to see a revival in British shipbuilding to compete on an international stage. 

"To do so, we understood and drove the need for efficiencies while nurturing a completely new generation of shipbuilders in order to produce world beating products for both the domestic and international markets.

"It is testament and endorsement to everyone who works at the Wight Shipyard Company and for Sir Charles Dunstone [founder] who has been a committed supporter of British shipbuilding and enterprise."

Lord Lieutenants will be presenting the awards to businesses throughout the year.