A COMPANY which makes products to safely transport biological material around the world is celebrating 20 years in business.

In its anniversary year, Elvington-based DGP Intelsius is entering The Press Business Awards, hoping to make the shortlist in both the Large Business of the Year and Exporter of the Year categories.

Employing a team of 41, DGP Intelsius designs and manufactures specialist packaging products used in the life science, healthcare and pharmaceutical markets.

The business was in 1998 and celebrated its 20th anniversary in February this year.

Its breakthrough product was a system designed for the safe transport of BSE (commonly known as mad cow) disease samples in compliance with strict dangerous goods regulations.

The product received a patent and the business grew from there to offer a wide range of regulatory-compliant transport solutions for the life science and human and animal healthcare sectors.

More recently the business has developed further expertise and products in the temperature-controlled packaging sector, allowing customers to transport temperature sensitive payloads across the globe at temperatures such as low as -70°C.

Alastair Harries, chief operating officer said: “Our products are used for transporting payloads as diverse as blood samples for standard NHS or veterinary screening tests, Ebola samples from Sierra Leone to London for testing, expressed breast milk for nursing mothers who are travelling on business while their babies are at home, plant saplings for bio-banking and reforestation purposes, new drug development clinical trial samples, animal health & disease testing programmes and many more.

“The success of these in-house designed products means we are a recognised and accredited supplier to global pharmaceutical, transportation and healthcare customers.”

DGP Intelsius exhibits at leading global trade shows in Europe, USA and Asia with its exhibit offerings led from the UK and shaped to the local market needs.

Mr Harries said: “This drives export sales from the UK as well as sales from our regional businesses.

“We have developed an e-commerce offering from our USA business which has been very successful and we are about to relaunch our main website with a UK and European e-commerce solution as well.”

The business is one of the few independent suppliers in its market, which is mainly dominated by much larger USA or German competitors.

As it enters its 21st year its market is both growing organically and developing in new directions.