NRI wins Queen's Award for Enterprise 2005

NRI entrepreneur Nadeem Ahmed's Global Tea and Commodities Ltd has been conferred Queen's Award for Enterprise 2005.

NRI entrepreneur Nadeem Ahmed's Global Tea and Commodities Ltd has been conferred Queen's Award for Enterprise 2005, one of Britain's most prestigious awards for business performance.

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At a glittering function held at the Whitehall Palace last night, Ahmed was presented the hand-made crystal bowl and a certificate on behalf of the Queen amid applause from dignitaries including Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Sir G K Noon.

The Queen's Award for Enterprise is one of UK's most prestigious awards for business performance and recognizes the consistent progress in Sustainable Development achieved by the Global Tea over the last decade.

Starting in 1992 with just two employees, the Global Tea now employs 13,500 people with an annual turnover of 132 million US dollars.

Accepting the Award, Ahmed, founder and Managing Director of the Global Tea and Commodities said the company has been having a rollercoaster ride during the last eight years when it effected 12 acquisitions, 11 of which were making profit now.

"We are poised to double our business in the next two years," he said. Ahmed, whose parents hailed from Kolkatta, said the company has a number of schemes with a social dimension which serve to improve the livelihoods of employees in developing countries.

The schemes include a fair wage programme, a monthly Works Council, free creche facilities for working mothers, free schooling for workers' children, and free health education training for staff and their families.

The company is also in the process of attaining full certification to the Ethical Tea Partnership for all of its plantations, he said.