Destra Engineering Ltd has won two Ashford Business Awards – the Cobbs Wood based plastic injection moulder won the Small Business of the Year Award and Managing Director Sarah Williams won the Business Woman of the Year Award.
Competition for the 9 Award categories was keen with well over 100 entries from Ashford and the surrounding area including Hythe, Romney Marsh, Folkestone, Deal and Dover.
Production Director Kevin Hare said that he was “amazed when our company name was announced as winner of the Small Business Award and it’s great that the incredible team effort of everyone has been recognised.”
The success of the evening didn’t stop there though with Managing Director Sarah Williams receiving the Business Woman Award. “I am so proud of the achievements of everyone at Destra. I was absolutely delighted when I won the Business Woman Award. It’s particularly challenging as a woman in what is still a male dominated industry but I hope that other women can see this Award as testimony that we can succeed and even excel in engineering and manufacturing. ”
Kevin and Sarah successfully completed a Management Buyout 18 months ago and since then they have experienced a significant level of growth with sales up by over 25% in the past year. Destra have also increased their production staff by 5 people during that time to cope with demand for their plastic products. Specialising in producing electronics enclosures and components for industrial and consumer markets around the world, Destra have put some of their success down to offering their customers more than just mouldings and add value by printing on to plastics as well as product and kit assembly. They are interested in investing in an industrial 3D printing machine to enable them to offer not only product samples but also very low volume production runs to enhance the business further.
Destra were recently involved in the ‘Scale Up Ashford’ initiative supported by Ashford Borough Council and the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce to help local businesses grow and provide new jobs in the town. Destra received one to one business mentoring for 12 months which saw them become the most successful company on the programme.