Four Bucks businesses have this week been handed a prestigious royal award for their achievements.

The four businesses - Origin Frames Ltd in High Wycombe, Hypnos Beds in Princes Risborough, Dage Precision Industries in Aylesbury and International Dance Shoes Ltd in Milton Keynes - have been awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise (QAE) to coincide with the monarch's 94th birthday.

The QAE is the most prestigious award for UK businesses and are designed to recognise and encourage outstanding achievements in the fields of innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity.

The 2020 award winners in Buckinghamshire were successful in two categories - International Trade and Sustainable Development.

Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said: “I would like to congratulate all four companies on receiving their awards. The Queen’s Awards differ from personal honours such as OBEs and MBEs, in that they are given to an industrial or business unit as a whole and recognize management and employees working as a team, benefiting not only the enterprise but also their local community and country by their achievement.

“The awards are testimony to the ambitions of business and to the skills and commitment of those of you who work in these successful enterprises. The four winning companies are an example to us all as they add to the prosperity and vitality of Buckinghamshire, considered the Entrepreneurial Heart of Britain.

“During my time as Lord-Lieutenant over the past 15 years, the county will have received a total of 62 Queen’s Awards and I am looking forward very much to visiting the four companies later this year to present each of them with their award.”

The Queen’s Awards scheme was instituted by Royal Warrant in 1965 and the first awards were made in 1966.

More about the winning companies in south Bucks:

Founded in 2002, Origin Frames Limited is based in High Wycombe and is the UK’s leading manufacturer of bespoke aluminium doors and windows making up the Origin Home Range.

It is a family run business that has achieved turnover of over £38 million, with operations in America, Dubai and Europe, and now employs over 277 people.

Its overseas sales have grown by 142 per cent over the last three years with exports now making up over 10 per cent of all sales.

The company uses a network of partners to sell its products direct to consumers, and the USA is at the forefront of the company's export development over the next five years.

The company wins the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in overseas sales over the last three years.

Keen & Toms Holdings Ltd, trading as Hypnos Beds, is a family-owned business employing 530 people across Princes Risborough and Castle Donington.

It is the third largest UK-based bed manufacturer by sales. It has been Carbon Neutral (PAS 2060) since 2011.

The company was losing money 10 years ago and sending 1,000 mattresses a year to landfill.

Its decision to be the UK’s leading sustainable mattress manufacturer means the company is now financially viable and stable.

The company sells 100 per cent recyclable products and sends nothing to landfill.

This family company that has turned the business around in the last decade by a focus on sustainable development.

In 2017, the company was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

The company is awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development because they have a "clear strategy to deliver sustainability objectives through innovation and working with the supply chain, demonstrating excellent results created by collaboration with partners".