Husqvarna UK’ s award-winning journey of innovation and people power
A CUT ABOVE
PICTURES: CHRIS BOOTH WORDS: MARTIN WALKER
Delight – Husqvarna UK’ s team celebrated a double win at the 2025 Make Your Mark Awards.
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globally recognised name in outdoor power products, Husqvarna UK is redefining manufacturing excellence from the heart of the North-East of England.
As part of the Swedish-founded Husqvarna Group, the firm is embracing the future with confidence – and its efforts were recently honoured in style at a prestigious regional business awards ceremony.
The company’ s site at Aycliffe Business Park – the largest business park in the North-East – is a cornerstone of Husqvarna’ s European manufacturing operations.
Specialising in robotic mowers, the Aycliffe facility serves both professional landscapers and domestic users.
And it’ s not just the technology that’ s cutting-edge – the business is winning plaudits for the way it’ s evolving, innovating and investing in its people.
At the 2025 Make Your Mark Awards, Husqvarna UK was named Company of the Year, while also picking up the Engineering and Manufacturing Award – a double accolade that reflects both high-tech capability and a culture of collaboration.
For manufacturing director Caraline Robinson, the recognition marks a particularly special milestone. Having started her career at the site 45 years ago – when it was still part of Flymo – she has seen the business evolve dramatically.
“ It’ s an absolute team effort,” said Caraline.“ People work so hard to deliver what we deliver as a business. We got two awards last year and we’ ve got two this year, which is wonderful.
“ It’ s all about cooperation – our people really support each other. We get new people coming in and they always say it’ s been so nice to be welcomed and helped when they needed something or have questions.
“ It’ s from that‘ day one’ experience that lets people understand what our culture is like.”
That culture has been critical as Husqvarna UK has adapted to multiple challenges in recent years – from navigating the pandemic to industrialising new products and switching from Flymo hover mowers to significantly more complex robotic technologies.
“ We’ re thrilled and proud to win Company of the Year,” said Caraline.“ We’ ve overcome so many challenges – we care for and support each other, and that gives us the foundation for great teamwork.”
Husqvarna’ s pivot to robotic mowers is a textbook example of product transformation.
Today, the Aycliffe site is home to trailblazing engineering and advanced semiautomated processes.
And behind that transformation lies an ambitious workforce that shares the
Honour – Husqvarna UK new products engineer Simon Thompson( right) received the Engineering and Manufacturing award from Chris Boughen, volume operations manager at category sponsor GEM Partnership.
company’ s vision for the future.
“ A lot of our success is down to recruiting the right people in the first place,” Caraline explained.
“ We often ask people to demonstrate a caring thing they’ ve done, or an example of where they’ ve supported someone or gone above and beyond to help colleagues. That’ s the type of thing we look for – it’ s not always about skills. Skills can be trained, but attitude is everything.”
The firm’ s Engineering and Manufacturing Award win was thanks in part to the industrialisation of several pioneering new robotic mowers: the 560 EPOS / 580 EPOS / 580L EPOS models, designed for professional green spaces such as golf courses and sports pitches; the 410iQ / 420iQ / 440iQ,
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