Specialist logistics company Seafast was yesterday presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Felixstowe-based Seafast was the only firm in Suffolk to be honoured in this year’s Queen’s Awards, which are announced annually in April to coincide with Her Majesty’s birthday.

Yesterday’s presentation was carried by the Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Clare, Countess of Euston, during a ceremony held at Kesgrave Hall, near Ipswich.

Seafast, which was honoured in the International Trade category of the awards, started out as a bolt-on to an existing freight forwarding company, Grange Shipping, in Felixstowe in 2000 and in its early years provided shipping and logistics services for the Ministry of Defence in the Middle East.

Current managing director David Halliday first bought into the business in 2007 since when the company has built up a substantial commercial business, drawing on its experience with the military.

It has invested in a temperature-controlled handling facility and diversified from its MoD work into specialist shipping involving out-of-the way or challenging locations, including countries such as Afghanistan, Southern Sudan, Iraq and the Falkland Islands.

The Queen’s Award recognises Seafast’s oustanding rate of growth in sales over the past three years, and will remain valid for five years.