A 70 per cent growth in export sales has helped the AVX Corporation of Coleraine to win the Northern Ireland Exporter of the Year Award for 1996. The awards are organised by the IDB, and sponsored by British Airways and the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
AVX, a subsidiary of the Japanese group Kyocera, employs around 1,000 people making tiny electronic components called ceramic capacitors, which are used to store power in appliances from engine management systems and alarms to televisions and microwave ovens. Exports now account for 67 per cent of the company's turnover.
The company established its plant in Coleraine in 1979 and a second factory in Larne in 1991, which is now the main European distribution centre for all AVX and Kyocera ceramic products.
Among the other award winners were Randox Laboratories, of Crumlin, Co Antrim, which sells more than 80 per cent of its diagnostic kits over-seas in more than 120 countries, and the Coleraine company BKS Surveys, which employs more than 100 people in the production of digital maps.
BKS, now part of the German company Preussag AG, has offices in Germany and Dubai. Since 1993, it has increased its turnover by 44 per cent. Exports have doubled, and now account for around 70 per cent of total sales.
