DeVOL Kitchens was presented with the King's Award for Enterprise for International Trade at its Cotes Mill HQ in Leicestershire earlier this month. The company was honoured with the award for its outstanding continuous growth in overseas sales – the majority of its overseas sales are from the US but it has also received orders from over 35 other countries. DeVOL Kitchens founder Paul O'Leary and creative director Helen Parker were presented with the award by the Lord-Lieutenant of Leicester and Leicestershire Michael Kapur OBE, and Deputy Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hurwood.
At the time of the awards announcement in May, Paul O'Leary, said: "It’s such an honour to receive the King’s Award for Enterprise. After 35 years in business, I can’t believe that we now export our kitchens and homewares all around the world. What started as two friends making furniture in a garage, almost for fun, has grown into a business that employs 400 people, many of them design graduates from local universities. Together, we sketch, render, prototype, and fettle, with every design and craft discipline embraced; like a modern-day Bauhaus, we are never satisfied that a product for the home is good enough. Everything not created by nature can be improved."
