Messages of praise and congratulation from across the world have been pouring in to an Ashburton based Francis Clark client, following news that the company has been awarded a royal accolade.
 
A prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of Innovation was formally presented to family owned surgical equipment manufacturer, SRA Developments on June 24 by the Lord Lieutenant of Devon, Eric Dancer.
 
The Lotus shears are the focus for the award, a ground-breaking ultrasonic tissue cutting and sealing device used by surgeons in 20 countries across the world.
 
One of the key driving forces behind Lotus and SRA’s Technical Director, Dr Steve Young, said:  “We’ve had a brilliant reaction from our distributors across the world, including South Africa, Australia and India – congratulating us and praising Lotus on its performance.”
 
“We are hopeful that the award will give us a competitive edge. It is already a talking point and we have made sure that our literature and website are promoting it.  We are all very proud!
 
“We designed Lotus with the help of Derriford consultant gynaecologist, Jonathan Frappell, to cut and seal tissue very quickly, so it keeps blood loss to a minimum, crucial in keyhole surgery. The reduced trauma in turn, speeds up the recovery process.
 
"Our ‘eureka moment’ was realising that we could design a unique blade which focused all the energy onto the target area of tissue and which would out-perform existing technology. That innovative design is essentially what sets it apart from other ultrasonic scalpels.
 
“We then had to make sure that we secured world-wide patents to ensure that no-one copied the design.”
 
Lotus is used in many surgical specialties including upper and lower gastro-intestinal procedures and gynaecology.  It has been on the surgical market for seven years and is the latest design in a line of ultrasonic devices produced by SRA, including equipment used in hip revision surgery and physiotherapy.
 
Dr Mike Young said: "Achieving the Queen's Award is our greatest accolade and marks 20 years of medical instrument development at Bremridge. For a small family business with just 55 employees, competing with corporate giants in this technically demanding field, has been both challenging and rewarding.

"This award has been earned by the efforts of the whole team who are part of the broader ‘family’ at our Devon base.  I am sure I speak for everyone when I say we are proud of our achievement.

"The Queen's Award will encourage us to continue our work as we strive to expand our international markets and introduce new products including instruments for liver surgery."
 
Francis Clark Business services Manager, Sam Cook, added: “SRA Developments is in the unusual and challenging position of being a small family-run business, competing against multi-national giants with vast marketing budgets. 
 
“Their success is not only based on developing ground-breaking products and innovative marketing and distribution strategies but on the focus and commitment the entire team bring to their work. 
 
“We should all be very proud of SRA Developments, a company which is maintaining and enhancing the UK’s tradition of being world leaders in science, medicine and innovation.”