A Suffolk abattoir and meat wholesaler which exports more than 40% of its products has been presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Family-owned C&K Meats, which is based at Eye, was honoured for Outstanding Short Term Growth in the International Trade category of the awards, which are announced in April each year to coincide with the Queen’s birthday.

C&K Meats was recognised for is success in increasing its export sales by 325% over the last three years, including a major sales drive in Asia, where it now supplies supply specialist distributors in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and India.

The company’s trophy was presented at the weekend by the Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Clare, Countess of Euston – the Queen’s official representative in Suffolk – during a ceremony at the Oaksmere Hotel in Brome, near Eye.

Presenting the award, the Lord Lieutenant said: “The excellence that you have demonstrated in achieving Outstanding Short Term Growth, is essential to a thriving and dynamic economy here in Suffolk. This in turn, provides excellent jobs and all sorts of other benefits to all those who live here.”

She added: “You have very good reason to take pride in what you have achieved. This year only 176 awards have been made across the whole of the United Kingdom. It is hugely competitive and we are all very, very proud of you. It is quite remarkable what you have achieved in the three years since you first began your export assault on the Far East.

“At home, at Euston, we are well aware of the supreme excellence of the products you supply. High quality, welfare-driven meat is something all those of us involved in farming livestock and in the rural economy would like to aspire to.”

C&K Meats was launched by brothers Chris and Kevin Burrows at Earsham, near Bungay, in 1994 and relocated to a new start-of-the-art facility on the Mid Suffolk Business Park at Eye in 2010.

The company was also among the winners at the 2017 EADT Business Awards, claiming the Food and Farming Excellence trophy for the second year running and being placed second for the overall Business of the Year title.