The Glass Focus Awards organised by British Glass took place last week in Sheffield, UK with Allied Glass taking home the Company of the Year award.

Held at the Mercure St Paul’s Hotel in the city centre, the awards aim to show the best of what the UK glass sector has to offer over the past 12 months.

This included ground-breaking innovations to the fresh faces of the industry already making a difference.

Saint-Gobain Glass UK also won big taking home three awards while Encirc claimed two prizes.

Knottingley-based Allied Glass won the top award for having shown “excellence across the year in terms of its own business performance while also representing and strengthening the glass sector as a whole.”

It had invested in a new decoration line and office space that allowed Allied to continue to manufacture high-quality, innovative designs for a number of customers in the spirits sector.

Allied Glass has also strengthened its ties with the local area through a number of community initiatives, including the refurbishment of a local school library.

Dave Dalton, CEO of British Glass said: “Each year the entries we receive for the Glass Focus awards showcase excellent examples of what our industry can do, from serving our customers, investing in our workforce, reducing our environmental impact and beyond.

“British Glass is proud of the achievements of all those who entered the awards and, of course, our winners and we look forward to seeing what the industry is capable of in the next 12 months.”

The full list of winners at Glass Focus 2019 were:

  • Company of the Year: Allied Glass
  • Design of the Year – container: The Ardagh Group with its Glenfiddich whisky bottle
  • Design of the Year – flat: Saint-Gobain Glass UK for its work on the Macallan Distillery and visitor centre
  • Innovative Solution: Encric’s state of the art virtual reality training room
  • Health and Safety Action: Joint winners - Encirc and Socabelec for their hot end Swabbing Robots
  • Sustainable Practice: Saint-Gobain Glass UK with its ‘Glass Forever’ post-consumer flat glass recovery and recycling initiative
  • Strengthening Business Through People: O-I’s ‘Career Ready’ community programme
  • Apprentice of the Year: Joe Boyd of Saint-Gobain Glass UK

A full review of the Glass Focus conference and awards will be in the December/January issue of the magazine.