Home Business Awards & Achievements A-SAFE recognised for outstanding achievement in international trade

A-SAFE recognised for outstanding achievement in international trade

As part of the Queen’s Birthday celebrations, A-SAFE, one of the world’s leading safety barrier manufacturers, has been awarded with the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category for the second time. This highly sought-after award is a mark of quality for British businesses and a seal of approval that speaks volumes about the company.

The Queen’s Award for International Trade cements A-SAFE’s outstanding record of exporting to a multitude of overseas markets and steep year-on-year growth in the sector. The business’s overseas sales have grown by 113% over the last three years and the proportion of sales exported has increased to 76% of total sales.

Since last winning the Queen’s Award in 2014, A-SAFE has gone from strength to strength, increasing its number of global subsidiaries by 200%, and now boasting a footprint in the USA, UAE, Mexico, Russia and Japan as well as many other countries within mainland Europe.

As well as investing in new wholly owned subsidiaries around the globe, A-SAFE’s UK employees have increased by 172% since 2014, and its innovative product portfolio has also continued to evolve.


In 2015 A-SAFE launched the iFlex barrier range, providing the ultimate solution in the market. This innovation marked the arrival of a new generation of safety barrier, offering the greatest performance, impact resistance and energy absorption, along with hygiene seals, no ingress points, water resistance, and ease of use through in-built modularity and multi-directional capabilities.

James Smith, co-owner of A-SAFE, said: “At A-SAFE we’re immensely proud of the work that we do, and it’s extremely humbling to receive a Queen’s Award for the second time. We strongly believe that our commitment to innovation and our ‘global yet local’ export strategy, giving international brands access to A-SAFE products locally, is why we’ve achieved such strong oversees growth.

“It’s this strategy that helps us to maintain the spirit of a local business, whilst achieving the far-reaching impact of a global presence. It’s absolutely fantastic that this work has been given a royal seal of approval and we are confident that we will continue to grow in this sector for years to come.”

Based in Halifax in the North of England, the family-run business invests heavily in research and development to ensure that its safety solutions are at the cutting-edge of innovation within the advanced workplace safety sector. The company’s knowledge is respected to such a great extent that it is the technical author of the world’s first and only official code of practice for workplace safety barriers; partnering with the BSI to create PAS 13.

James Smith added: “We are passionate about workplace safety and actively share that passion and experience worldwide, striving to create better safety conditions for ordinary workers in every workplace, in every industry, on every continent. People spend a large portion of their lives at work, it is only right that they are kept safe from harm, with proper effective protection.”