The Duke of Gloucester has presented the boss of a Shipley electronics firm with its Queen’s Award for Innovation.

Eric Hawthorn, managing director of Radio Design Limited, was presented with the award on Friday, which it won earlier this year at the 2011 Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

The company, which only started four years ago, received the innovation award for its universal combiner unit, which enables up to three mobile phone operators to lower network costs by sharing antenna equipment without losing performance.

Mr Hawthorn said: “The award is a symbol that is internationally recognised – a symbol of quality and excellence.

“We have got an operation running in India, for example, and people really understand what a Queen’s Award means there.

“For a relatively young company, it is a real privilege to receive one and real recognition of what we have achieved in a short space of time.”

Radio Design was one of 11 Queens Award winners in Yorkshire this year along with Skipton-based Trio Healthcare Group, which won the Queen's Awards for International Trade for build-ing exports of innovative skin care products to around 65 per cent of its £2.5 million turnover since its launch in 2006.