Aluminium grain refiner MQP crowned best importer-exporter at the 2023 BizX Awards

Following a year of phenomenal development, MQP, the specialist in high-efficiency grain refiners, which lower costs and eradicate flaws like razor streaks in aluminium alloys, has won a worldwide business award.

At the 2023 BizX Awards at London's ExCel, TV sports commentator Gabby Logan gave the Best Import/Export award to Midlands-based MQP.

It's been a year of spectacular success for the family-run Solihull firm, which has raised tonnage by more than 30 per cent and earnings by more than 600 per cent in 2022.

The award was presented to MQP for the efficient way it transports its aluminium grain refiner, a crucial component necessary in casting sheets and billets for anything from kitchen foil to automobile roof panels in order to prevent cracks and flaws.

John Courtenay, the Chairman of MQP,  said: "To ensure customers have access to our products quickly and easily, we hold stock in warehouses across the world."

"These include a warehouse in Rotterdam to service Europe, and Kentucky, where there are a high number of aluminium processing plants, to service North America. The new supply chain has enabled us to hold stock in Shanghai, China.

"One of our biggest customers is in Kentucky, and they can pick up a pallet at short notice if needed. If a customer wants to place a replacement order a few months before they need the product, we will store it for them until they want it delivered, giving them that extra level of certainty that the stock is there. Our customers say that having access to inventory nearby is definitely a USP of ours and, often, they will buy from us instead of a US company, same with China.

"While it does mean we have to absorb changes in price on the London Metal Exchange at times. It's a USP that really benefits our customers. It's fantastic to be recognised for what is quite a unique shipping model in the industry."