The Queen has met just about everyone worth meeting during her long reign on the throne.

Her Majesty was able to add Kiddimoto to that list in 2015, when we were whisked off to Buckingham Palace to receive a prestigious award from the monarch herself.

Founder Simon Booth and Export Manager Will Masters (pictured above) travelled to London in July 2015 after Kiddimoto were announced as winners of the Queens Award for Enterprise. Here, Will explains why Kiddimoto won the award, and reflects on coming face-to-face with royalty…

What is the Queen’s Award?

Established in 1965, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are awarded to businesses for outstanding achievement in International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development. They are the highest official UK awards for British businesses. In 2015 there were a total of 141 award winners split between the three categories.

Why did Kiddimoto win?

“In 2015, Kiddimoto won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade. To achieve this, a company must show a substantial and sustained increase in export sales over three consecutive 12-month periods, to a level which is outstanding for the products and services concerned, and for the size of the organisation.”

What made it such a special award for the company?

“The reasons for companies to enter for a Queen’s Award are as many as there are companies – each has their own specific purposes in doing so and the great majority of them benefit from their success. Even those companies who do not achieve a win on their first attempt can find it a valuable experience, giving them targets to achieve and an additional focus for which to optimise their efforts in becoming one of the best UK companies in their field.”

Were you nervous about meeting the Queen?

“The Queen is arguably the most famous person alive today. She has met with pretty much every major politician, head of state and person of influence during her reign. I’m sure everyone was at least a little nervous but the Palace staff and Queen’s Award organisers made a fantastic job of making us feel very welcome.”

Tell us about your trip to Buckingham Palace?

“You might expect to enter through a tradesman’s entrance but we actually drove in through the main gates at the end of The Mall with hordes of tourists wondering who on earth we were! After a reception where all award winners were able to converse over canapés and champagne, everybody was filed through to shake hands with the Queen and Prince Philip. We were then ushered into a separate room along with certain other selected guests where the Queen and Prince Philip came to talk with us personally.”

Did the Queen say anything to you?

“We were lucky enough to be selected for a brief chat with Her Majesty. We showed her a photo of Prince William being presented with a personalised Kiddimoto Superbike for Prince George at the Motorcycle Live exhibition. She was genuinely interested to hear about our products and their benefits and wished us great success in the future.”