A LOCAL firm has won recognition for a major export drive over the last six years.

NGF Europe Ltd, of Lea Green, manufacture rubber impregnated glass fibre cord, which is used mainly for the reinforcement of car timing belts.

Now, it has won the Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2001. The company says if all the glass cord manufactured and sold from their plant in St Helens over the last year was joined end to end, it would reach to the moon and back twice, or wind round the Earth's equator 35 times.

NGF was formed in 1991, when it became a member of Nippon Sheet Glass Group of Japan. With a strong technical emphasis on product and manufacturing development, NGF Europe has become a world leader in its field.

Managing Director David Monk said: "We are very proud and pleased to receive recognition for our efforts with a Queen's Award in the tenth anniversary of NGF Europe.

"All employees, both past and present, have made tremendous efforts to achieve our leadership of a challenging and demanding market.

"We are also delighted to show the world through the Queen's Award that we are part of a new confident vitality that is flourishing in the town of St Helens."