Queen’s Award for Hughes

Managing director Tony Hughes expressed his personal pride in winning such a prestigious award but emphasised that it had been a team effort. From 2003 to 2005, export sales increased by almost 150%. The growth in business came from countries where Hughes is already well established and from new markets targeted by the recently expanded sales team. The appointment of an export manager, technical manager and the company’s first marketing manager has introduced new skills and experience. The company’s Germany subsidiary, Hughes Notduschen GmbH, has played a pivotal role in expanding European business.

Opening offices in North America and the Middle East earlier this year has further strengthened the company’s position internationally.

“The choice of products has played a key role in our success”, says Tony Hughes. “We’ve developed a particularly wide range and created showers and eyebaths specifically for overseas customers. They can be dispatched as sub-assemblies to minimise shipping costs and then easily built on site. The export range also takes account of local conditions and includes emergency showers and eyebaths capable of operating in extreme climatic conditions – from the arctic to the desert.”

In addition to emergency safety showers and eyebath/facewash equipment, Hughes also supplies a wide range of decontamination systems to the military, fire service, ambulance and civil defence organisations.

The company has pioneered the development of compact, lightweight portable showers for decontaminating emergency services personnel and large transportable systems for the mass decontamination of the general public. A variant of the company’s CUPOLAdecon 2 is now the British Fire Service standard decontamination unit for use in case of chemical spillages or chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents.