Royal date for enterprising Shropshire pair
The owners of a Shropshire business which has landed one of the top accolades in British industry had a face-to-face encounter with the Queen to celebrate their triumph.
Cooking Marvellous will be formally handed the Queen's Award for Enterprise next week, after being named among this year's winners of the prestigious awards earlier this year.
And owner Joan Woulfe and her daughter Katie Smith were invited to a reception for winners Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and Prince Phillip.
"Katie and I were very excited and honoured to go to Buckingham Palace to attend the reception for the Queen's Award winners," said Ms Woulfe.
"We spent more than three hours at the Palace, meeting the Queen, Prince Phillip and several other members of the royal household.
"It was such a privilege to meet , and chat to the Royal Family, and fantastic to get such wonderful recognition for our overseas trade."
Shropshire's Lord Lieutenant, Sir Algernon Heber-Percy will be visit Cooking Marvellous's brand new offices in Shrewsbury next Tuesday, when he will confer on the company the right to be able to use the Queen's crest for the next five years on all its documents and premises.
Set up in 2005, the company Cooking Marvellous sells cookware and food to the consumer and professional sectors.
It won the Queen's Award for International Trade for outstanding overseas sales growth over the last three years.
The company has grown from a single retail outlet to exporting to customers in 90 countries.