Ricardo wins prestigious Russian business award

The continued and substantial growth of Ricardo’s business in Russia has been recognised by the award of ‘best newcomer of 2008’ to the country’s automotive industry.

The award was made at the Adam Smith Conferences’ annual forum on the Russian Automotive Industry, which is widely recognised as one of the most important events in the country’s automotive calendar. The forum brings together the leading international, domestic and joint venture OEM’s, component and system suppliers, distributors and engineering service partners such as Ricardo, who are active in the Russian market. The award to Ricardo comes at a time when the company’s services are increasingly demanded by Russian customers and follows the significant expansion of Ricardo’s Moscow operations over the past year. Fellow award category winners included automakers Volkswagen and AvtoVAZ, respectively for best foreign and Russian vehicle launches, and Vadim Shvestov of Sollers for best Russian automotive executive.

Accepting the award on behalf of Ricardo, Raul Meyer, Ricardo group business development and marketing director, said: “We are pleased to accept this award as best newcomer to the Russian market in recognition of the significant business that we have been able to achieve very rapidly in Russia through our commitment to providing the latest globally competitive technology coupled with local delivery of services. The emerging markets of Russia as well as of countries including China and India have played an increasingly important role in the success of Ricardo. In Russia in particular, we now have numerous major engineering programmes in place with the leading domestic and international manufacturers across all sectors from automotive to commercial vehicles. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners in Russia to deliver globally competitive products and technology in one of the world’s most exciting and rapidly developing markets.”