Celebrating the Achievements of the UK Composites Industry
Every November, Composites UK hosts its Industry Awards Dinner to coincide with the Advanced Engineering Show.
Here, awards are given out for innovation in materials, manufacture, design, health and safety, environmental/sustainability projects as well as personnel awards celebrating employer, employee and trainee/apprentice of the year.
2026 Winners
- Apprentice of the Year: GKN Aerospace – Reece Legg
- Prof. Alan Banks Young Engineer of the Year: GKN Aerospace – Alicia Chin
- Employer of the Year: GKN Aerospace – Global Technology Centre Bristol
- Social Impact Award: CTG, a Safran Group company – Actuation Business Unit
- Sustainability Award – Net Zero: Jo Bird and Co – Net Zero by Design: Decarbonising the Manufacture of Lifesaving and Fire Safety Composite Equipment Enclosures
- Sustainability Award – Circularity: CEAMS – Prepreg Aerospace Demonstrator using 100% Recycled Continuous Carbon Fibre (rCCF)
- Innovation in Manufacture: iCOMAT – GENeration of Aerospace Fibre Steered COMposites – GENACOM
- Innovation in Design: Engineered Composites – World’s first GRP Handrail System Independently Verified to Exceed Public Assembly Structural Loading
- Innovation in Materials: HTMS Composites – HTMS Inorganic Matrix Composites, Revolutionising High Temperature Composite Materials
- Outstanding Contribution to the Composites Industry: Alun Reece – Loop Technology Limited
2026 Finalists
Apprentice of the Year
- GKN Aerospace – Achuthan Rajendram
- Syensqo – Riley Bannister
- Teledyne CML Composites – Euan Dolan
- Teledyne CML Composites – Tom Strother
Prof Alan Banks Young Engineer of the Year Award
- Cygnet Texkimp – Frazer Scott
- Cygnet Texkimp – Sophie Warburton
- GKN Aerospace – Vaishnavi Shankar
- Teledyne CML Composites – Beth Jones
- Teledyne CML Composites – Declan Wray
Sustainability Award: Net Zero
- Base Materials – Embedding Carbon Intelligence into Composite Tooling Solutions
- Marine and Boat Recycling – Transforming Marine Waste into Sustainable Resources
Sustainability Award – Circularity
- Airtech Advanced Materials – Sustainable Consumables: Breather Recycling
- CFP Composites – Fully Recyclable & Reusable Fireproof & EMI Shielding Composites
- Marine and Boat Recycling – Closing the Loop on Composite Boat Recycling with Innovative Zero-to-Landfill Solution
- Uplift360 – Uplift360 ChemR Scale-up
Innovation in Manufacture
- Plataine – Plataine AI Agents for Manufacturing: from Firefighting to data-driven Decision-Making in Composite Manufacturing
- Plyable – Tangible by Plyable – AI Powered Manufacturing Software
Innovation in Design
- M. Wright and Sons – From Weeks to Minutes: Intelligent Automation for Advanced 3D Woven Composite Design
Innovation in Materials
- Base Materials – Large Format 3D Printing for Composite Tooling
- James Cropper & Hexcel – UNIMAT™ Aligned Nonwovens: Delivering Performance and Sustainability at Scale
Outstanding Contribution to the Composites Industry
- Highly commended: Scott Tolson
Past Winner and Finalist Case Studies
Below are some case studies from our past winners showing their innovative work and how the accolade has helped their business.
2025 Winners
- Apprentice of the Year – Kurtis Russ – R-Tech Materials
- Prof Alan Banks Young Engineer of the Year – Guy Lawrence – Composite Braiding
- Social Impact – CTG – Safran Group
- Sustainability: Circularity – Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability (CEAMS)
- Sustainability: Net-Zero – Composite Braiding
- Innovation in Design – Composite Braiding
- Innovation in Materials – HyPStore Project
- Innovation in Manufacture – Cygnet Texkimp with McLaren Automotive
- Outstanding Contribution to the Composites Industry – John Davidson – Cygnet Texkimp
2025 Finalists
Apprentice of the Year
Prof. Alan Banks Young Engineer of the Year Award
Social Impact
Sustainability: Circularity
- AMRC with Longworth and NCC
- HyPStore Project
- Longworth with Scott Bader
- PRF Composite Materials
- Sm8rt
- Uplift360
Sustainability: Net-Zero Initiative
Innovation in Design
Innovation in Materials
Innovation in Materials
- Dream Big Composites
- HyPStore Project
- Plataine
- Rockwood Composites
- Scott and Fyfe
- TWI
- Williams Jet Tenders
- Zund
Outstanding Contribution to the Composites Industry Award
- Highly Commended: Grace Atkinson – Atlas Composite Technologies
- Highly Commended: Sam Turner – AMIC
2024 Winners
- Apprentice of the Year: James Coxon – McLaren
- Employer of the Year: Leybold UK Ltd
- Social Impact Award: Leybold UK Ltd
- Sustainability Award: Circularity: Composite Braiding
- Sustainability Award: Net-Zero Initiative: JLR & Partners – SOCA Project
- Innovation in Composite Design: Plyable
- Innovation in Composite Materials: Lineat & SHD Composite Materials
- Innovation in Composites Manufacture: Longworth (EMPHASIZING Project)
- Special Recognition Award: Graham Harrison
- Outstanding Contribution to the Composites Industry: Prof. Mike Hinton
2024 Shortlisted Entries
The other companies and individuals shortlisted in 2024 were:
Apprentice of the Year
Social Impact Award
Sustainability Award: Circularity
Sustainability Award: Net-Zero Initiative
Innovation in Composite Materials
Innovation in Composites Manufacture
2023 Winners
The 2023 Composites UK Industry Award winners were:
- Apprentice of the Year: Marcus Mullins
- Employer of the Year: Leybold
- Social Impact Award: GRP Solutions
- Sustainability Award – Circularity: Gen 2 Carbon
- Sustainability Award – Net-Zero Initiative: TISICS
- Innovation in Composites Design: FAC Technology
- Innovation in Composites Manufacture: Far UK
- Innovation in Composites Materials: TISICS
- Outstanding Contribution to the Composites Industry: Mona Jesri
2023 Shortlisted Entries
The other companies and individuals shortlisted in 2023 were:
Apprentice of the Year
Employer of the Year
Sustainability Award – Circularity
- Sustainability Award – Circularity: Longworth and Partners
- Sustainability Award – Circularity: Qube Buildings
Sustainability Award – Net-Zero Initiatives
- Sustainability Award – Net-Zero Initiative: Far UK
- Sustainability Award – Net-Zero Initiative: SHD Composite Materials
Innovation in Design
- Innovation in Composites Design: Carbon ThreeSixty
- Innovation in Composites Design: Chemical Processing Services
- Innovation in Composites Design: National Composites Centre
Innovation in Manufacture
Innovation in Materials
- Innovation in Composites Materials: PRF Composite Materials
- Innovation in Composites Materials: R-Tech Materials
Outstanding Contribution to the Composites Industry
2022 Winners and Shortlisted Entries
You can now download case studies of the 2022 winning and shortlisted entries:
Winners:
- Apprentice of the Year: Britoni Farrer-Williams, McLaren F1
- Employer of the Year: Cristex Composite Materials
- Social Impact Award: Leybold UK Ltd
- Sustainability Award: Circularity – Lineat Composites
- Sustainability Award: Net-Zero – Composite Braiding
- Innovation in Composite Design: Ford Motor Company
- Innovation in Composite Materials: Cygnet Texkimp/B&M Longworth/NCC
- Innovation in Composite Manufacture: Composite Integration
- Outstanding Contribution Award: Prof. Michael Wisnom
Shortlisted:
- Apprentice of the Year: Jasmine Moore, Fluency
- Employer of the Year: Prodrive
- Social Impact Award: Fluency
- Sustainability Award | Circularity: Prodrive Composites
- Sustainability Award | Net-Zero: Jo Bird and Co
- Innovation in Composite Design: iCOMAT
- Innovation in Composite Materials: Lineat Composites
- Innovation in Composite Manufacture: Taziker
- Innovation in Composite Manufacture: Zund UK
- Outstanding Contribution Award – Special Recognition: Robert Burnell
2021 Winners
The winners of the 2021 awards will be announced in November 2021.
- Innovation in Manufacture: Loop Technology
- Innovation in Materials: Composite Braiding
- Innovation in Design: Jaguar Land Rover
- Sustainability Award: B&M Longworth
- Employer of the Year: Leybold
2021 Runners Up
- Innovation in Manufacture: iCOMAT
- Innovation in Materials: Cecence
- Innovation ni Design: Network Rail
- Sustainability Awards: Prodrive Composites
- Employer of the Year: MPM
2020 Winners
- Innovation in Manufacture: Cygnet Texkimp
- Innovation in Materials: Bitrez
- Innovation in Design: Ford
- Health and Safety Award: Bitrez
- Sustainability Award: Prodrive Composites
- Start-Up Business of the Year: iCOMAT
- Employee of the Year: R-Tech Materials – Geraint Havard
- Trainee/Apprentice of the Year: Teledyne CML Composites – Thomas Wakefield
2020 Runners Up
- Innovation in Manufacture: CCP Gransden
- Innovation in Materials: Alvant
- Innovation in Design: Cecence
- Sustainability Award: Chemical Processing Services
- Employee of the Year: MPM – Nick Robinson
- Trainee/Apprentice of the Year: CCP Gransden – James Stewart