Bosses at Blaze Manufacturing Solutions said they were “absolutely blown away” after winning a trio of prestigious industry awards in one night.
The Laurencekirk-based firm picked up the diversification, export and company of the year accolades at the Energy Industries Council (EIC) awards ceremony in London.
Over the past three years, Blaze has increased the export side of the business, which now accounts for 70% of total revenue, with clients in Europe and Africa.
Before the downturn, the mainstay of Blaze’s business was the provision of fire alarm and fire extinguishing systems to the oil and gas sector.
But the drop-off in oil prices convinced directors Howard and Ann Johnson, who are husband and wife, to diversify into markets including renewables, mining and the public sector.
This now accounts for around 75% of Blaze’s turnover.
Blaze managing director Howard Johnson said: “We are absolutely blown away to win not one but three EIC awards.
“This is testament to our tenacity in the face of adversity. We’ve been through hard times and come through the other side and to receive these awards from our industry is high praise indeed.”
EIC chief executive Stuart Broadley said: ‘Blaze has done incredibly well to not only win work in a new country but also a new sector, having successfully expanded into the Republic of Congo’s mining industry, a challenging but ultimately very lucrative move.
“Landing both the EIC Diversification and Export awards is an amazing feat and rightly sees them crowned as the EIC Company of the Year 2018.’
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