Winkworth, the UK’s largest industrial mixer manufacturer, is pleased to announce the winner and runners-up of their 2010 Always Mixing All Ways Award.

The competition attracted a great response and the entries revealed an accumulation of hundreds of years of Winkworth mixing expertise throughout the UK.

The overall winner of the search to find the longest-serving Winkworth mixer still in use in the UK today is a global leader in its field, and a recent recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Winner: HVR International Ltd, Jarrow, Tyne & Wear

HVR International Ltd, based in Jarrow, Tyne & Wear, is a world leader in the manufacture of high voltage ceramic carbon linear resistors.

In September 1979, HVR International invested in a Winkworth Laboratory Z blade (LABZ) with a 10-litre working volume and it’s still in regular use for evaluating formulations and characteristics of new raw materials.

The first prize of a luxury weekend for two and a commemorative Winkworth Mixer trophy were handed over to Company Technical Director, Kevin McLaughlin by Winkworth’s Managing Director, Grant Jamieson.

Afterwards Mr McLaughlin said they were delighted to win the Award and commented: “The market is driving us to use Winkworth Z blades in order to give us control over the properties we require for production.

“I strongly feel that we have had excellent service from Winkworth over the years.  They are like us in our marketplace – they believe in very good customer service.”

Four runners-up were selected to each receive restaurant meals for two.  They were the following companies:

	Runner up: Fox’s Confectionery, of Braunstone, Leicestershire
	Runner up: Christeyns UK Ltd, of Bradford, West Yorkshire
	Runner up: CeramTec UK, of Colyton, Devon
	Runner up: Sylmasta UK, of Scaynes Hill, West Sussex

Winkworth were delighted with the level of interest that competing companies showed, and Grant Jamieson clocked up more than 1500 miles by personally handing over the awards and seeing the various mixers in situ.

“It was inspiring and encouraging to journey the length and breadth of the country and see these Winkworth mixers still delivering unbeatable results in a variety of applications. There's no doubt that mixing in our Winkworth mixers has become a strategic component of their success. With very low whole life cost of ownership they have a compelling competitive advantage, which they continue to exploit.

“When making investments in capital equipment we recognize initial price is always a factor and often it's difficult for companies’ accountingsystems to allow the 'whole life cost arguments'; however what we can see here is, those who do, are successful and here at Winkworth we're very proud to be a part of their success.”