The Licensing Awards 2008 were presented last night, 17 September 2008, during a black tie event at the Royal Lancaster Hotel hosted by comedian and TV personality Rob Brydon. Haynes won the most prestigious award of the ceremony for “best brand” .Haynes is one of few publishing companies to have global brand awareness, thanks initially to worldwide sales of manuals totalling more than 150 million. Three years ago, the company initiated a new licensing and brand extension programme and Haynes licensed products are now well established and available through a wide variety of high street retailers.For three years, Haynes has worked with gift company, Half Moon Bay, to produce a wide range of popular gifts. This was complemented by a successful boys clothing range with NEXT. An agreement with the British jeans company, Lee Cooper, swiftly followed. Haynes has also enjoyed considerable success when it launched the combustion engine box set and kit range.Speaking on receipt of the award, J. Haynes, managing director of Haynes Publishing UK and Europe said: 'We have long recognised that Haynes is a global brand with universal appeal to men and women. Now our licensing strategy is bringing the Haynes brand to the attention of a much larger and younger audience. We are extremely pleased to have gained this award against such strong competition and I believe that the award is not just a reflection of the success of our licensing programme, but also the integrity and loyalty of the brand which has been built over many years”.Haynes also has a successful licensed publishing range, which includes Formula 1 (in association with Haymarket), MotoGP, the RAF, and Top Trumps. The Haynes Spitfire Manual and The Haynes Lancaster Manual, (in association with the RAF) are some of the recent publishing highlightforHaynes. November sees the launch of the Haynes Rugby Union Manual (an official RFU product) and more licensed products are in the pipeline.