Tower Cold Chain, pharmaceutical container specialist, has been awarded the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise, in the Innovation category – adding to the Queen’s Award for International Trade the company won in 2022.

The Berkshire-based business, which develops and manufactures temperature-controlled containers for the transportation of life-science and biotech products, has earned the King’s Award for Innovation in recognition of its KTM container – a thermally insulated passive pallet shipping system, with a patented modular construction design.

To win the King’s Award for Innovation, Tower had to demonstrate outstanding commercial success over two years, attributable to the KTM.  Extensive investment enabled Tower to scale production of the KTM at the beginning of the decade, a period that also coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the KTM was widely used by pharmaceutical manufacturers to ship vaccines globally.

A revolutionary contributor to the pharmaceutical logistics market, Tower’s passive systems consists of phase change materials (PCMs) and/or dry ice, intended to maintain the internal contents of the container within a specific temperature range for 120 hours, without any requirement for active control, electricity, or manual intervention. The standard controlled temperatures are ambient (15 to 25°C), chilled (2 to 8°C), frozen (-15 to -25°C) and deep frozen (-60 to -80°C).

The KTM has filled a gap in the cold chain shipping market, with its design striking the optimum balance between volumetric efficiency, durability, and optimised weight. Employing a modular construction of roto-moulded parts, this produced a lighter, more robust and cost-effective option – between 5% – 30% lighter than competitor products. This further improves the KTM’s sustainability credentials across all transport supply chains, offering a fully reusable, space-efficient solution.

“To win any King or Queen’s Award requires the highest standards, so for Tower Cold Chain to receive awards in two consecutive years is a fantastic achievement,” commented Niall Balfour, Tower Cold Chain’s CEO.

“With our industry-leading product, it is an incredible honour to receive such recognition for the KTM range as we continue to work with global pharmaceutical manufacturers, airlines and third-party logistics customers to deliver products to patients in a robust, reliable, reusable method.”

Renamed to reflect King Charles III’s Accession, following Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, the King’s Award for Enterprise remains to be the most prestigious business awards in the UK, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed award emblem for the next five years. The Awards recognise British businesses who excel in specific areas, including international trade, innovation, and sustainable development – two of which Tower has been endowed.