South Yorkshire fish food manufacturer nets its first business award

New Era Aquaculture, the Thorne-based company revolutionising the fish food market, is celebrating its first business award, confident that it may not be its last!

The manufacturer of innovative fish diets, supplied to public aquariums and hobbyists across the globe, lifted the Excellence in Overseas Trade accolade in Doncaster Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Business Awards.

Established in 2005, with the aim of establishing the company as the world’s leading producer of diets for ornamental fish, New Era is enjoying annual growth rates of 50%, with export business representing 40% of turnover. New Era has 31 overseas distributors selling into 35 countries.

The judges were impressed by the company’s spectacular export sales growth and how the brand was conceived, produced and distributed from South Yorkshire in only a few years. Also noted were New Era’s understanding of overseas markets, innovative global sales and marketing strategies, seeing the company adapt its sales approach to suit varied markets, valuing face-to-face dealings with clients, overseas trade exhibitions and the use of foreign languages.

Managing director, Peter Kersh said: "For our efforts and success to be recognised by the business community in Yorkshire makes the whole team very proud. From the start it was clear that huge export potential existed for our products and a strategy was developed to attack the international market. Sales will continue to grow to even higher levels. Our plan is for 75% of our revenues to be from overseas by 2016, so perhaps New Era might net more awards in the future!”