RYSE 3D CEO Mitchell Barnes has received his second King's Award in three years.
Barnes, who picked up a King's Award for Innovation in 2024, was recently awarded the equivalent recognition for Enterprise.
He founded RYSE 3D in 2017 in his early 20s and, with his brother Cameron, has built the company up to become a key supplier of high-performance 3D printed parts to 23 hypercar projects, while also supplying components to customers via aerospace, defence and energy contracts.
These orders have taken the Shipston-on-Stour firm to nearly £5m in annual turnover, with nearly half of that emanating from international orders to the US, Denmark and Latvia.
“To win one King’s Award is special, to win a second for our efforts in growing the business overseas is mind-blowing. I still can’t quite believe it,” said Barnes. “When I first started in additive manufacturing, I wanted to prove that we could go from prototyping into series production and that’s exactly what we’ve done, supplying the most complex automotive, aerospace and renewables components in batches of a few thousand and, in some cases, tens of thousands.”
He continued: “Importantly, we wanted to demonstrate that we could take UK technology and export it as something international firms want. The last three years have proved this was the right approach, with global sales up 2,322% since 2023. We have also expanded our reach. The US used to be our only destination and, whilst this will always be a primary market, we are now supplying clients in Denmark, France and Latvia.”
The growth in exports for RYSE 3D has allowed it to reinvest more than £1m into new printers, R&D, lighter materials and the launch of its own UK-engineered 3D ‘LANDR’ printer. Its team has also expanded to 18, and the company is printing four million components every year.
Mitchell added: “This is what makes all the hard work worthwhile. There is no greater sense of achievement, for our workforce and senior management team, than seeing a part carefully engineered in Shipston-on-Stour entering production overseas for a high-profile global brand.”
