McMenon Engineering Services has come through some challenging times to be named Best Large Business of the Year at this year’s in-Cumbria Business Awards.

Like many businesses, McMenon faced the dual challenges of pandemic and Brexit, but with strong leadership and a workforce who have embraced change the Workington-based company has come out of the past 12 months on a sound footing.

McMenon, under the leadership of CEO Anand Puthran and chief operations officer Shiby Bernard, has an ambitious growth strategy and Anand’s vision for the future sees his company diversifying into new markets including nuclear and renewables.

At the same time, McMenon decided to take an innovative approach to their nuclear aims and joined forces with fellow SME, TIS Cumbria, to create an unincorporated joint venture, the North-West Energy Coast (NWEC) Alliance.

This year the NWEC Alliance was named as part of the programme and projects partnership (PPP) framework to deliver fabricated and manufactured equipment packages for Sellafield, agreed for an initial three years and worth up to £20m.

Major export successes include landing a contract win in China to supply wedgemeters and other flow instruments manufactured in Workington, valued at nearly $1 million and beginning in 2021. McMenon also engineered, manufactured and delivered Delayed Coker Wedge Flow instruments, worth $500,000, for a major energy client in the USA - a testament to McMenon’s capability to engineer solutions.

In addition, McMenon has been selected as the preferred bidder to manufacture and badge an entirely new product line on behalf of a global client. This entails transferring their European manufacturing operations to McMenon’s Workington facility.

The in-Cumbria judges praised all three entrants for the category very highly but chose McMenon, saying: “McMenon have a strong leadership team, a clear vision for diversification and growth for the future longevity of the business.”

The award was collected by a team from the business, led by Anand Puthran and his wife and Chief Operating Officer Shiby Bernard. They praised their team for helping the business get where it is today. Shiby talked about getting more women into the company and the importance of the manufacturing/engineering legacy in West Cumbria. Anand said: “It’s a global business with a Cumbrian heart.”

Runners up:

Genesis Homes

The Cumberland Building Society