Peak UK named first Roland Hero

Peak UK, a kayaking apparel company based in the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, has won the inaugural Roland Hero Awards. A Judges’ Special Mention went to Gemanco Design, while Lieuwe Boards, Nutmeg Studio and In Your Face were Highly Commended.

The winner was selected by three judges: Christian Duyckaerts, president of Fespa; author and entrepreneur Beth Kempton; and Roland DG EMEA's head of marketing Gillian Montanaro. Each judge was asked to score 23 shortlisted entries on creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and inspiration. Duyckaerts said: "Pete at Peak UK is outstanding as a designer, a printer, and also a retailer, making him a very inspirational Roland Hero." His prize includes a trip of his choice to Thailand, Iceland or Florida. Former canoe slalom athlete Pete Astles founded Peak UK in order to improve the fit, colour, and technical performance of clothing products in this market and now sells internationally, using a Roland Texart dye-sublimation printer to brand technical garments for customers including Olympic medalists. Astles said of the award: "We're blown away! It's truly amazing that all our hard work is so well appreciated." Special mention went to Gemanco Design, an offshoot of a construction specialist and an expert in custom-printed wallpapers, wall stickers and tailor-made resin mosaics using a Roland VersaUV LEJ-640. Highly commended Lieuwe Boards is a custom kiteboard maker and VersaStudio BN-20 user from the Netherlands; UK-based Nutmeg Studio stood out for its development from the kitchen table to famous retailers, using a Roland Camm-1 GR-640 cutter and a Roland eco-solvent print and cut device to produce products for the home; and Roland printer/cutter user In Your Face from the Canary Islands, is a windsurfing graphics business that started from scratch following redundancy.