A DRIVE to win new export markets has won a Dartford engineering firm a Government award.

Beck & Pollitzer was presented with a Trade Partners UK Interantional Business Award in London at an event attended by the Duke of York.

Beck & Pollitzer turns over £40 million a year with its specialist engineering, and has operations worldwide. It is one of Europe's leading suppliers of outsourced engineering services, installing new and secondhand production line machinery, providing on-site maintenance and installing control systems.

The judges said it had won the award in the face of very stiff competition.

The company now does 30 per cent of its business with Japan. Its customers include Nissan, Toyota and Sony.

Elsewhere it has increased business in the former Iron Curtain countries from £200,000 turnover to £4 million in a year.