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DEC: Winner of Golden Bridge Export Award 2007

The prestigious ‘GOLDEN BRIDGE EXPORT AWARD 2007’ presented by the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain for achievements in exporting to the UK has been won by Deme Environmental Contractors (DEC).

The winner of the eleventh consecutive Golden Bridge Award is DEC. The result was announced during a Gala Diner at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London on 22th November by H.E. Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet, Ambassador of the King of the Belgians in Great Britain. MobileXpense is this year’s ‘Best Small and Medium Entreprise’ exporter to the UK.

DEC or Deme Environmental Contractors, an environmental contracting company, beat strong competition after a neck-to-neck race to become the 11th Belgian company to receive the prestigious ‘Golden Bridge’
Award.

BLCC Chairman Michel Vanhoonacker said: ‘Unlike the last 2 years, the competitors were mainly traditional manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and contractors which have to pull out all stops to achieve their excellent results in a very competitive UK market. As usual the jury had to choose between the crème de la crème of Belux companies. Eventually, DEC beat the strong competition of the 2 other finalists, Brantano, the Out of Town shoe retailer and Alliance International - Ipso, the industrial laundry equipment manufacturer. The jury was impressed by the overall performance of the company, by its ability to change the mentality of a whole industry and local governments, by imposing mainly Belgian solutions to a pressing problem and by the tremendous efforts of its UK managing director Guy Pomphrey who fought a long and exhausting battle to reach his ultimate goal.’

During the ceremony H.E. Mr. Hubert Wurth, Ambassador of Luxembourg in the UK announced the winner of the ‘Best Small and Medium Entreprise’ category which was won by MobileXpense. The jury was impressed by their excellent export growth figures over the last 3 years, their ability to adapt the company’s products to the legislative demands in the UK and the passion for innovation of co-founder Patrick Billiet to keep the company ahead of global competitors.

Michel Vanhoonacker commented: ‘Year after year, the jury is impressed by these small companies who successfully vie for world domination in their specialist field. In a globalised world there are many opportunities but they are usually matched by as many threats. Due to the continuous development of their product, MobileXpense stays ahead in the game and that deserves tremendous recognition.’

The other finalist for the ‘Best Small and Medium Entreprise’ was Beltrami, wholesalers of natural stones with a highly successful subsidiary in Dudley (West-Midlands).

DEC

DEC or Deme Environmental Contractors is an environmental contracting company specialising in the treatment of contaminated soils and sediments by means of in-situ and ex-situ treatment techniques.

When DEC turned its eye on the UK in 2000, most remediation jobs where executed as dig and dump jobs. However, slowly but steadily, DEC and its UK Managing Director Guy Pomphrey, have convinced the
government, the consultants and the clients that sustainable and affordable techniques to deal with contaminated soil, exist. And although currently there still is a lot of confusion on when waste ceases to be a waste, DEC decided already in 2005 to set up a soil treatment centre in the UK, ahead of expected changes in legislation.
In March 2006, DEC was selected for the remediation of one of the most polluted sites of Europe, the former Avenue Coking Works in Chesterfield, a contract worth over £50million. DEC has also been awarded the remediation of the southern half of the Olympic site in the Lower Lea Valley ahead of the London 2012 Games, worth anywhere between £10-30million.
DEC has been very successful in exporting not only its in-house expertise and experience but also the Belgian view on how contaminated sites can be handled in an environmentally sustainable way.

MobileXpense

MobileXpense, a young and dynamic company created in July 2000 by Xavier Deleval and Patrick Billiet offers an innovative web-based solution in the field of expense management, which has been adopted by a number of large multinational companies as well as by many smaller businesses.
MobileXpense gives you simple, transparent and more effective control of your expenses. It is an open system, easy to set up and to integrate in your existing system. Effective expense management has a tremendous impact on reducing travel and entertainment xpenditures and delivering efficiency gains. Companies using the system save up to 65% on their travel and expense processing costs and up to 5% on their travel and entertainment budget.
Thanks to its flexible system and organisation, MobileXpense is able to deploy their expense management solution across Europe and the rest of the world. Today, MobileXpense is implemented in over 22 European countries, the USA and Russia.

In the UK the company has 2 types of customers:

  • Direct customers who look to automate the expenses process within the company such as Ferro, Canon Europe & UK Ltd, Terumo, Belden and AirPlus.
  • And Partnerships with Ceridian for example who offers the MobileXpense service through their XpenseCentre-brand.

Export represents 70% of MobileXpense’s turnover, of which almost half is realised in the UK. Moreover exports to the UK have increased by 130% over the last 3 years.

Golden Bridge Export Awards

The 'Golden Bridge Award' is an annual award that is won by the most successful Belgian or Luxembourg company exporting to the United Kingdom, in both the service and manufacturing sector.

The award was created by the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain in 1997 to acknowledge exporting efforts from Belgium and Luxembourg to the UK.

Former winners and finalists have confirmed that the award has enhanced their image in both the home and UK market and is an incentive for their staff.

There are currently 2 categories:

  • The Golden Bridge Award: to reward the best exporting company overall.
  • The Best Small and Medium Entreprise: to reward a company that employs less than 25 people and has a turnover under £10 million per annum.

In both categories, the Jury is considering the companies’ vision in new niche markets, their daring innovation to embark on new opportunities, perseverance in the conquest of the market, adaptation
of the products and services to the British taste and standards, originality of approach (protection, health & safety, design, research,…), the visibility on the UK market, the evolution of the market share and the environmental and ethical approach to exporting.

The previous winners are:

  • 2006 EVS BROADCASTING SA: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 2005 OPTION NV: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 2004 PLUMA NV: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 2003 VLM: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 2002 ECOVER BELGIUM NV: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 2001 ARDO: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 2000 ALPRO: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 1999 FORD MOTOR COMPANY NV: Joint Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 1999 UNILIN DECOR NV: Joint Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 1998 XEIKON N.V: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award
  • 1997 J.LEGENDRE N.V: Winner of the Golden Bridge Award

The Jury Committee

  • H.E. Mr. Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet, Ambassador of H.M. the King of the Belgians to the Court of St. James’s
  • H.E. Mr Hubert Wurth, Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to the Court of St James’s
  • Mr. Michel Vanhoonacker, Chairman of the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Great-Britain in the Chair
  • Ms. Catherine Stuyck, Marketing Director, VLM Airlines
  • Mr. Wim Leemen, Head of Corporate Banking, KBC Bank London
  • Mr. Paul Cardoen, Managing Director Corporate Banking, Fortis Bank London
  • Mr. Ben De Smit, Economic Attaché of Flanders Investment & Trade Agency London
  • Mr. Didier Denayer, Economic Attaché of AWEX London
  • Mr. Christian Mouvet, Economic Attaché of Brussels Capital Region London
  • Mr. Frederick Feyten, Partner of Oostvogels Pfister Feyten Solicitors in Luxembourg and London

For all additional information, please contact:
Michel Vanhoonacker
The Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain
Tel: +44 (0)870 246 1610
Fax: +44 (0)870 429 2148
Email: info@blcc.co.uk

London, 22 November 2007



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