Queen's Awards for Black Country businesses

A pair of Black Country businesses are among more than 100 in Britain unveiled by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as winners of Queen's Awards.

Smethwick-based DPD is celebrating after winning a Queen's Award for innovation and Matrix Housing Partnership in West Bromwich has won for sustainable development.

Jaguar Land Rover has also received the award for sustainable development for reducing the environmental impact of its products and operations. It opened its new £500 million engine plant at the i54 on the outskirts of Wolverhampton last year.

Parcels delivery business DPD, which is part of GeoPost UK, employs 1,120 at Roebuck Lane, Smethwick and another 1,411 at its other major site in the West Midlands at Oldbury.

Its award marks its development of the 'Predict' service which provides internet shoppers with a dependable one-hour window in which doorstep deliveries are made.

Matrix, which has its headquarters in Birmingham Road, is a not-for-profit co-operative of housing associations providing affordable housing and social care.

It completed more than 800 new homes over the last year.

The partnership, which is led by the Accord Group, is one of the most successful partnerships in the region.

More than 35 new urban and rural developments have now been completed, many of which have been manufactured at the Accord Group's timber homes factory in Walsall, demonstrating the Group's commitment to offsite, low carbon manufacturing.

The new homes have been built in Birmingham and the Black Country and other parts of the region, including Wychavon, Redditch, Gloucester, Stroud and East Staffordshire.

Nicola Inchbald, chairman of the Matrix Housing Partnership, said: "Matrix has an enviable reputation for exceeding its delivery targets with a proven ability to provide top quality housing with our funding body the Homes and Communities Agency which has provided over £30m of funding to support our development programme.

"Our new homes include a range of affordable developments across the West Midlands to meet a variety of housing needs from young families to more vulnerable people who require specialist housing."

Chris Handy, chief executive of the Accord Group, added: "We are actively addressing the housing crisis whilst at the same time adding to the wider economic growth within local communities which is a strong part of our delivery. So not only have we built £120million of homes in the last year, we have also created jobs, apprenticeships and support for local businesses."

The Matrix Housing Partnership is made up of the Accord Group, Rooftop, Trent and Dove, Trident Social Investment Group as well as WATMOS Community Homes and Black Country Housing Group. Together the partnership manages more than 29,000 homes and provides a range of services to people across the West Midlands.

The 41 winners of the Queen's Awards for Enterprise include 105 for international trade, 24 for innovation and 12 for sustainable development.

The Queen's Awards scheme is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The winners will be visited by a Royal representative and presented with a crystal bowl as a mark of their achievement. They are also invited to attend a reception at Buckingham Palace in July and are also able to use the Queen's Award emblem in advertising, marketing and on packaging for five years.