Kestrel is a liner agency, representing shipping lines from around the world and offering global cargo shipping solutions and logistics on an international basis. Kestrel is extremely rare in that it caters for all types of cargo from less than container loads, and full containers, to all out of gauge and breakbulk cargo.  Basically we can ship anything at all, no matter how unusual, to anywhere in the world, no matter how difficult.  It is this niche service that meant that Kestrel was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise, International Trade, in 2010 and hasn't looked back since this recognition. 
The boost to Kestrel business has been manifold - geographical expansion to the areas we serve, and taking on additional principles (the shipping lines we work for as agents) thereby increasing our portfolio and turnover, as well as many additional projects and business developments.
Since receiving the Queen's Award Kestrel has opened offices in Panama, Trinidad, Belgium and a new Breakbulk division covering Humber & the North East and at time of going to press has just opened a new office with a full team in Manchester. This has increased our staff by 25%.
The company has expanded to cover additional areas around the globe such as the islands off Far East Russia, Far East Russia itself, Mongolia and the Pacific islands - for any type of cargo. Bolstering up our existing out of gauge services and breakbulk services we opened a specific division to work solely on Breakbulk, Heavy Lift and Project cargo on a global basis. This is in addition to our pre-existing Oil & Gas division based in Aberdeen, and the new division is working on many projects globally for the power generation industry, oil and gas, wind turbines, construction, complete project management for large cargo going to difficult to access locations, as well as chartering solutions and specialist ships agency work.
Kestrel has added to the principles it represents in the UK and is now working with Cargo Levant  offering regular breakbulk and conventional service with weekly sailings from the North European continent and Italy to the major ports in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Also Empros Lines, sailing from Europe to Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Greece, and most recently Onego Lines operating regular Breakbulk & Heavylift Services from Scandinavia, United Kingdom, Northern Europe & Spain, to the US East Coast, US Gulf, Central America, North Coast of South America, and the Caribbean and vice versa. Onego Lines is part of the Onego Group which operates a fleet of approximately 30 vessels.  Breaking news as I write is that Kestrel has entered into a Joint Venture with Van Uden Lines who are launching a brand new service In collaboration with partner Glovis, Van Uden Maritime offers a bi-weekly Ro-Ro service under the name Van Uden Navigation from Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Le Havre and Southampton to the destination ports Aqaba, Jeddah, Port Sultan Qaboos, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Dammam, Kuwait and Chennai, which Kestrel will represent as Van Uden UK.
This is all incremental business that has seen Kestrel grow and expand from its original basis Kestrel began as a two-person operation 16 years ago, opening its first office on April 30, 1994. Nearly exactly 16 years on, the company celebrated the Queen's Award at a stunning reception at the House of Commons where we were delighted to receive the Award from Bruce Houlder QC DL with an audience of customers, principals, High Commissioners and Ambassadors from around the world.
Kestrel's owner and Chairman, Andy Thorne, has always remained Hands On in the business and is now almost a regular at Westminster having been invited to work with the Parliamentary Select Committee for the Caribbean, and working on such issues as Air Passenger Duty to the Caribbean, as well as assisting with representing the commercial case when dealing with areas such as the Turks & Caicos Islands in relation to government funding from the UK.  A recent visiting delegation from Trinidad led by their new Prime Minister was hosted by Kestrel, who were sponsors for the 2011 Caribbean Council Annual celeb-
ration held in the House of Lords. 
As the Kestrel brand and reputation grows stronger and stronger, we can truly say that we are the fastest growing Liner Agency in the UK.  We offer specialist shipping from around the globe, whilst still concentrating on our original niche markets of the Caribbean and Latin America. Our mission statement of "Global Reach with Local Focus" is part of every day life at Kestrel from our superlative Customer Service to our belief in and empathy with the customers we serve.
Launched at the beginning of 2011 our new charity campaign - Kisses from Kestrel  - is just one of the ways that we put something back into the areas where we ply our trade. Still working with the major aid agencies such as the United Nations, Unicef and Samaritans Purse for shipping into third world and disaster zones, often in difficult conditions, Kisses from Kestrel is a new charity platform running alongside the Aid work we do.  The ethos is to bring together companies from around the world and enable them to help each other. The very first donation is from Kestrel itself to the support the new Prime Minister of Trinidad, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, with her newly launched "Children's Life Fund" to ensure that all children in Trinidad and Tobago are able to access any medical care they require. The aim is for this to become a Pan-Caribbean charity, which is much in line with Kestrel's own strategy for aid. Kestrel has made an initial donation and will also be supporting the charity through each shipment to Trinidad during 2011.
Hopefully this has given you a flavour of Kestrel, the company and its people. It is our strong belief that leaders rise to the top and an Award of such a high accolade as this is truly a great testament to our company and its people, and the results are shown in the strong growth and the success that Kestrel has achieved since receiving the Award.