BQ2 International Trade for Business

SPECIAL REPORT:

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

POSITIVE SIGNS Sign-making suppliers write own success story AN IDEA WITH LEGS New product can put a spring back in your step PERFECT SCENTS Skin-friendly toiletries win fans overseas

Connected

Ambitious Prepared

What an international business should be John Carroll Head of International, Santander UK

Helping Businesses go Further

“International trade can unlock significant growth but is often complex. So, whatever your sector, our Trade Portal has been developed to help you identify the largest markets, understand local regulations and connect with potential customers and suppliers on the ground.

And with access to Trade Club, an exclusive online community for international businesses, we could give you the best chance of success overseas.”

GET CONNECTED WITH

MORE THAN ANY OTHER INTERNATIONAL BANK

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To see how far your business could go, visit santandercb.co.uk/tradeportal email maureen.armstrong@santander.co.uk or call 0191 490 2926* Simple Personal Fair What a bank should be

5 million customer source: Santander Group internal data.

You need to be an online banking customer of Santander Corporate & Commercial to gain full access to the Trade Portal and Trade Club. Santander Trade Portal is provided and managed by Export Entreprises S.A. Santander provides access to its client companies but is totally unrelated to the database contents, which are the responsibility of Export Entreprises S.A.

*Calls charged at national rates. Santander Corporate & Commercial is a brand name of Santander UK plc, Abbey National Treasury Services plc (which also uses the brand name Santander Global Banking and Markets) and Santander Asset Finance plc, all (with the exception of Santander Asset Finance plc) authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Our Financial Services Register numbers are 106054 and 146003 respectively. In Jersey, Santander UK plc is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission to carry on deposit-taking business under the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991. Registered offi ce: 2 Triton Square, Regent’s Place, London NW1 3AN. Company numbers: 2294747, 2338548 and 1533123 respectively. Registered in England. Santander and the flame logo are registered trademarks. Santander UK plc is a participant in the Jersey Banking Depositor Compensation Scheme. The Scheme offers protection for eligible deposits of up to £50,000. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any 5 year period. Full details of the Scheme and banking groups covered are available on the States of Jersey website (www.gov.je)or on request.

CCBB0454 JUL 14 HT

CONTENTS

CONTACTS

04 NEWS

ROOM501 LTD Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk

All the key export updates from around the region

16 POSITIVE SIGNS

EDITORIAL Peter Jackson e: p.jackson77@btinternet.com

The sign-making supply business that is writing its own success story

24 LIVE DEBATE How can North East Plc make its mark on the worldwide stage?

30 AN IDEA WITH LEGS New product could put a spring back in the step of the old and infirm

34 GOING FOR GOLD Three firms win ‘golden tickets’ to Dubai to explore export potential

38 PERFECT SCENTS Couple’s skin-friendly baby products are winning fans overseas

44 THE HEAT IS ON Firm’s paper drying lamps are in demand around the world

48 TOUGH CONDITIONS Firm’s products are used in the world’s most demanding environments

BATTLING BACK TO PRE-CASH LEVELS

10 INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT:

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

WELCOME Welcome to this edition of BQ2 in which we focus on international trade in the North East.

Our economic success depends on our ability to do business overseas. With the decline in the financial services industry since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the UK has suffered a significant blow to one of its principle exporting sectors, making it even more important that others step into the breach and seek business abroad. It is encouraging then that North East firms saw the total value of their exports in the last year up 2.32%, the highest of all English regions. Quarterly export figures released in June show that £3.102bn worth of goods were exported from the region, an increase of £273m, or up 9.66% compared to the same period last year. Big companies take to exporting naturally. The challenge is to get the smaller and medium sized businesses selling overseas. As David Coppock, head of UKTI in the North East, points out, if the UK’s 10,000 medium sized businesses could make just 2.5% of their turnover export, the country’s balance of payments problem would be solved. We look at exporters and importers, the challenges they have faced, and how they overcame them. What will strike you – as it struck us – is the rich variety of businesses involved in international trade.

DESIGN & PRODUCTION room501 e: studio@room501.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk SALES Heather Spacey Business Development Manager e: heather@room501.co.uk @Heather_BQ Rachael Laschke Business Development Manager e: rachael@room501.co.uk @Rachael_BQ or call 0191 426 6300

room501 Publishing Ltd, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT www.room501.co.uk room501 was formed from a partnership of directors who, combined, have many years of experience in contract publishing, print, marketing, sales and advertising and distribution. We are a passionate, dedicated company that strives to help you to meet your overall business needs and requirements.

All contents copyright © 2014 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved.

While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All information is correct at time of going to print, October 2014. room501 Publishing Ltd is part of BE Group, the UK’s market leading business improvement specialists. www.be-group.co.uk

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

NEWS

AUTUMN 14

Minister praises exporter, top businesswoman returns to her roots, 100plus jobs created as automotive giant expands, software sector flies flag for Sunderland, Northgate predicts growth, investors back Sevcon >> Export drive brings the world to the North East UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is bringing the world to the region for its sixth Export Week and it urges North East firms to join in.

Organised by UKTI in conjunction with partners and business organisations, Export Week (10 to 14 November) aims to encourage companies to take up the export challenge and it highlights the support and knowledge available to help them grow.

Previous Export Weeks have seen more than 17,000 companies across the UK attend events and UKTI’s flagship ExploreExport roadshow will be in the North East as part of a tour of the country, bringing more than 120 experts from across the world to share their expertise.

The ExploreExport roadshow will be in the North East on Tuesday 11 November offering local firms pre-bookable, one-to-one meetings with their chosen experts.

David Coppock, regional director for UK Trade & Investment in the North East, said: “We aim to bring the world to the region and we hope that the expertise and advice that is available both at ExploreExport and other events throughout Export Week will help businesses on the fast track to exporting success.”

He added: “We’re determined to ensure firms have the support they need. Evidence shows exporters do better with UKTI’s help – in the past year around £45m worth of business wins have been recorded by North East businesses assisted by UKTI. “Export Week is an ideal opportunity for companies to find out more about international trade opportunities and the support that is available to help companies achieve their exporting ambitions. I’d urge companies to sign up to join us.” Partners supporting Export Week include UK Export Finance, NECC and the Northern Design Centre. Export Week will feature a range of events across the region, including: Tuesday, 11 November – ExploreExport – Newcastle Racecourse, High Gosforth Park,

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

Heather Williams and business mentor at the BIC, Louise Hardy

>> Events manager says ‘si’ to Italy’s ‘City of Art’ An events manager is expanding her horizons and heading for Italy for two months on a cross border exchange programme. Heather Williams, from Stocksfield, is managing director of Talking Point Events and has joined the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme which will see her working in Florence to unlock new skills.

She is hoping that the experience in Florence between October and December, will enhance her own skills and enable her to offer more to her clients with her own business.

“I have always wanted to increase my awareness and knowledge of working in a foreign country and I am looking forward to seeing how their event planning differs,” she said.

The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) is the local contact point for the programme and has already seen five successful applicants develop working relationships with an EU business. Her business mentor at the BIC, Louise Hardy, said: “It is always exciting to see another client venture into the unknown to gain experiences that will ultimately help their own business.

I wish Heather all the best and I look forward to hearing all about her time in Florence.

“The programme is a win-win collaboration, acquiring knowledge about foreign markets not to mention the networking opportunities to be had with another country.

“Present funding is only available until 31 January, 2015, so please, if you think this could be for you, or if you just want more information, give me a call on 0191 516 6170.’’

Newcastle, 8.30am-4pm Wednesday, 12 November – De-risking your export finance – Aykley Heads Business Centre, Durham, 8.30am-1.30pm Thursday, 13 November – Import Processes, Compliance and Documentation – Aykley Heads Business Centre, Durham, 9am-4pm Friday, 14 November – IF Conference -

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Northumbria University, 9am-4pm Saturday, 15 November – North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards – The Hilton, Gateshead, 7pm For more information about Export Week and how to book a place at events, log onto the website at: www.exportweek.ukti.gov.uk/full

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

AUTUMN 14

>> Ann returns to her roots

>> Minister praises exporter Trade and Investment Minister Lord Livingston has seen at first hand how the region leads the way in the oil and gas industry – and urged more businesses to export. He toured BEL Valves, part of the British Engines Group, at its St Peter’s site in Newcastle to see progress on the company’s £15m investment programme.

The company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has seen its turnover almost double in the last three years, while staff numbers have increased from 393 to 551. It launched a £15m investment plan at the end of 2013 to develop its Newcastle site over the next four years.

Lord Livingston said: “BEL Valves is a great example of a dynamic company which is growing its business through exporting. Increasing the number of UK businesses that sell overseas is integral to the Government’s long term plan to build a stronger, more competitive economy. “ Last year companies from the North East contributed to the region’s economic success with almost £12bn in exports.

BEL Valves chief executive Neil Kirkbride said: “Recent figures from HMRC reveal the North East as the fastest growing region in England for export. This, alongside the fact the region has amongst the strongest manufacturing output and order books in the UK, shows that we really know how to make things happen in the North East.

“We are specialist engineers and aim to retain talented professionals in the North East. I am delighted these figures show we are achieving this together as a region.”

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

ONE of the region’s most successful business exports is returning to her roots.

Ann Cairns, president of international markets for MasterCard, is to be keynote speaker at this year’s North East Chamber of Commerce Tyne and Northumberland Dinner.

MasterCard is one of the world’s leading technology companies operating in more than 210 countries. Cairns is responsible for the management of all markets and customerrelated activities for every country outside of North America. She is Newcastle-born and attended the city’s university where she gained an MSc in Statistics before receiving a BSc in Pure Mathematics at Sheffield University.

This year’s dinner, again held at Newcastle Civic Centre on Thursday, 6 November, is sponsored by Newcastle International Airport and Gateshead College.

A member of the MasterCard’s executive committee, Cairns has more than 20 years’ experience in senior management positions across Europe and the US, running global retail and investment banking operations.

She said: “There is something very special about coming back home to Newcastle, particularly as I have the opportunity to meet with and speak to some of the region’s most successful business leaders.

“In my role at MasterCard, I visit a different country every other week, but there is nothing like coming home. Newcastle has changed much in recent years and is one of the most vibrant cities in the world. The economic makeup of the North East has evolved enormously, but the warmth and can-do attitude of the people remains the same.”

Prior to MasterCard, Cairns was managing director and head of the Financial Industry Services group for Europe with Alvarez & Marsal in London, leading the European team managing the estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings International through sections of the bankruptcy process.

She was chief executive, Transaction Banking at ABN-AMRO in London, where she managed a global business with more than 5 billion euros in revenue in 50 countries, covering the commercial, retail and financial institutions segments, and reported to the group board and served on the bank’s executive committee.

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NEWS

At the start of her career, Cairns worked as a research engineer, culminating as the head of offshore engineer-planning for British Gas. Managing a team of 50 plus engineers, she was the first woman qualified to go offshore in Britain. NECC President, Dave Laws, said: “The Tyne Northumberland Dinner is an event that has for years brought the business community together and, given the surge in business optimism in 2014, we have much to celebrate.

“This is the second year I have had the honour of addressing this prestigious event as NECC President and I am delighted to welcome Ann Cairns back to the region. She is one of our finest exports.”

>> Good bedfellows Norwegian porcelain brand Figgjo has appointed Peterlee-based tableware specialists Goodfellow and Goodfellow to launch its new ranges. The deal means Goodfellows has taken over all promotional and distribution activities for the Scandinavian brand in the UK. Its products are aimed at restaurants and caterers from fine dining to casual and buffet meals.

Goodfellows, which also has a showroom in London, was set up by husband and wife Paul and Valda Goodfellow in 2012, and works with hotels, restaurants and sporting venues across the UK. Valda Goodfellow said: “Figgjo is an amazing brand that really represents the ‘Scandi Cool’ design movement going on in various areas of product design, from fashion to furniture.

We believe their new ranges will really excite the market and can’t wait to show our customers what is available.”

Paul Goodfellow said: “We’re delighted to be representing Figgjo. We have been admirers of the brand for a long time.”

Figgjo managing director Simmer Vikesa said: “We wanted to ensure we had the best possible representation in the UK with our target customers and believe Goodfellows are the ideal partner to take the brand forward. We want to develop into areas where Goodfellows have a particularly strong influence and we look forward to working closely with them.”

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

NEWS

AUTUMN 14

>> More than 100 jobs to be created as Lear expands

Cllr Harry Trueman, deputy leader of Sunderland City Council and Gideon Jewel, Lear Corporation President Europe and Africa

>> Partnership will open doors NOF Energy, the UK business development organisation for oil, gas, nuclear and offshore renewables sectors, has announced Korea Offshore & Ship Building Association (KOSHIPA) as its latest global partner.

The agreement is designed to ease increased co-operation between the UK and South Korean offshore supply chains.

It follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations at an industry event organised by Durhambased NOF Energy in partnership with UK Trade & Investment in Aberdeen to build relationships between UK and Korean companies. Among the delegation joining KOSHIPA in the UK were Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company (DSME) and supply chain companies Kangrim, TSP, Samkang M&T and Stauff Korea.

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

US automotive giant Lear Corporation is making a multi-million pound investment to more than double the size of one of its Sunderland factories creating more than 100 jobs.

Lear is extending its plant on Sunderland City Council’s Rainton Bridge Industrial Estate by a further 3,500sq m to house additional production equipment and support its growing UK automotive seating foam business. The project has also received £500,000 funding from the Let’s Grow Regional Growth Fund. The factory, which opened in 2011, was Lear’s first UK foam manufacturing facility for vehicle seating and combined with its neighbouring seat assembly plant, it now employs 420 people. The additional jobs will be created over the next three years as the factory ramps up production to meet existing Nissan business and additional new business for Jaguar Landrover (JLR). The new foam business for Lear Sunderland will be supplied to its Lear sister assembly plants in the Midlands. This will add foam production into Sunderland for JLR models. Lear in Sunderland will begin work on the first tranche using its existing equipment and will gear up production and start creating jobs once the extension is completed next year. The Sunderland plant currently supplies foam seating to Nissan for Qashqai models manufactured at Washington. Once the extension is completed, Lear’s capacity will increase by more than 300,000 car seats per year, taking its total capacity to more than 600,000 per year.

Lear is a leading automotive component maker with 221 manufacturing sites in 36 countries, employing 122,000 people. Its seating and electrical components are found in more than 300 types of vehicle made by car manufacturers around the globe. The US$16.2bn turnover company’s president of Europe and Africa, Gideon Jewel, travelled to Sunderland to carry out the groundbreaking ceremony for the new development with Sunderland City Council deputy leader, Cllr Harry Trueman. Jewel said: “Each time I visit this plant I’m impressed with the commitment, pace and results achieved. That was an important part of our decision to invest again in Sunderland for this extension.

“Another reason is the strong relationship we have built with our customers, suppliers, and particularly with Sunderland City Council, which has worked alongside us and helped make things happen for us since before we set up here.”

KOSHIPA, which represents a cluster of shipyard operators and supply chain businesses, was established as a non-profit organisation in 1977 when the South Korean ship building industry was making its first significant inroads into the market.

The South Korean offshore industry has grown dramatically since 2005 and one of its key exports is the supply of large, high specification floaters for drilling and production to the global markets. NOF Energy’s Global Partner Network aims to open up opportunities for its network of almost 500 UK members and support collaboration across international markets and engagement. It features more than 22 organisations from countries including Canada, China, Denmark, Russia, Malaysia, Venezuela and the United States.

Deputy chief executive of NOF Energy, Joanne Leng, said: “South East Asia offers real potential for British suppliers and the

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South Korean oil and gas sector is keen to engage with our supply chain to enhance its engineering and fabrication services with innovations and technology developed in the UK. “KOSHIPA is a very like-minded organisation and is a perfect addition to our strong portfolio of global partners. We are delighted to have signed this new agreement and look forward to developing a close working relationship going forward.”

South East Asia offers real potential for British suppliers

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 14

The Art of Packing A North East based export firm has recently dispatched a bespoke piece of art work to Nigeria after spending two days carefully packing the eight tonne steel structure at its factory in Gateshead. The five meter diameter rotating globe, made out of 316 marine grade stainless steel, was packed into four 5.91m x 2.85m wooden crates designed and hand made

by Stadium Packing Services’ for client Branton Knight Ltd.

It will take 17 days for the piece of artwork to reach Lagos and a further two days by road from one side of Nigeria to the other to reach its final destination, before being installed on a prominent roundabout in the city of Uyo in the West African country.

Brian Smith, chief executive of Stadium Packing, said: “Whilst this is by no means the most delicate piece of artwork we have ever packed, it is certainly the largest and most unusually shaped piece.”

“We regularly pack large products for our clients, but this provided the extra challenge of requiring bespoke internal fittings capable of protecting the The art of packing integrity of each segment of the globe and the mirror polished edges.”

Martin Tyas, managing director of Branton Knight Ltd, said: “We have been working on the city redevelopment project in Nigeria for five years, shipping everything from civil engineering supplies vehicles to three 8082 BQ2 AWK_8082 BQ2 ad AWK 03/10/2014and 16:04 Page 1 pedestrian bridges. However, when it came to shipping the globe, which is such a

Sunderland: Software Success

Sunderland is a city that has innovation in its DNA. With state-of-the-art centres supporting its game-changing software businesses to reach national and international markets, Sunderland is the perfect place for companies with ambitions to go global.

And with other Sunderland software successes including Evolve Business Centre-based The Test Factory, that boasts a packed portfolio of blue-chip clients like Microsoft, Google and Heineken; Consult and Design International, a web agency that works with clients right around the world from its Sunderland Software Centre base; and many, many more global players, its easy to see why the city is making a name for itself as a software hotspot around the world.

E info@makeitsunderland.com T +44(0)191 561 1171 W makeitsunderland.com

prestigious and high profile element of the project, I turned only to Stadium Packing.

“I needed a supplier that not only had the expertise and facilities to handle, secure and crate such a structure, but also had the reliability to meet the deadline to get the two trailer loads to Tilbury to meet the sailing onto which they were booked.

Stadium delivered on every count.”

Stadium Packing Services is a specialist logistics and packing firm providing clients with in-house designed crates and boxes for products, backed up by an order fulfilment pick, pack and storage service for exporters. Packing expertise is also provided for hazardous cargo or specialist product ranges.

STADIUM PACKING SERVICES LTD

Brian Smith, Stadium Packing Services 0191 204 3700

NEWS

AUTUMN 14

>> Northgate predicts growth Vehicle hirer Northgate said it is trading in line with expectations and is confident for the full year with increased profit and revenue from its UK and Spanish businesses.

The Darlington-based FTSE 250-listed company said vehicles on hire in the UK rose by 900 between 1 May and 18 September to 48,500.

This compares to an increase of 1,600 in the same period last year. The rise follows the opening of 11 sites since February 2013.

The company employs more than 2,600 people in its UK, Republic of Ireland and Spanish operations. The group is continuing to expand its UK arm, with four new sites opened since the start of the financial year, bringing its total branch network to 72.

Average vehicles on hire in the period were up 10%, with 4% of the growth from the new sites and 6% down to organic growth. Hire revenue per rented vehicle was in line with last year. Northgate said in Spain vehicles on hire were up 1,800 during the period to reach 36,500, ahead of the 1,300 increase reported in the comparable period in 2013. Average vehicles on hire in the period were up 10%, but revenue per rented vehicle was down 1% on the back of adjustments to its fleet mix.

Vehicle utilisation in the period to 17 September was 92%, in line with the same period last year. The fleet has increased since then by 2,100 to 39,900. The reduction in hire revenue has been offset by a rise in the proportion of its customers using the vehicles in a way that reduces running costs, therefore increasing residual values. The group said it was confident it was well positioned to take advantage of future growth opportunities.

In its statement, Northgate said: “The group continues to see increasing returns and profitable growth in both the UK and Spain.

The UK network expansion has proceeded as planned and we will continue to invest in sites that provide the required levels of return.’’

>> Software sector flies flag for Sunderland SUNDERLAND software businesses are succeeding internationally, thanks to a unique combination of specialised space and support. With state-of-the-art office buildings, like the stunning Sunderland Software Centre and what a national newspaper described as Sunderland’s Silicon Valley, Evolve Business Centre, the city’s digital and technology scene is blazing a trail in international markets. Couple the great spaces with a dedicated support service, provided

by Sunderland Software City, and Sunderland is proving to be the destination of choice for more and more software and technology businesses with ambitions to move into international markets. Some of the recent successes in the city include Pitbull Studio – a business that has grown and grown from its Sunderland base and was bought out, this year, by internationally renowned gaming company Epic Games, which saw the Pitbull become Epic UK’s headquarters.

Consult and Design International, a web development company, and online assessment solution provider The Test Factory are among the other companies in the city that are servicing clients across the world. Sunderland is also attracting big names to its newest software hub, Sunderland Software Centre, with American technology business Saggezza recently opening its first UK base outside London in the centre, adding talented graduates from the region’s universities to their team in the process. With 6,000 technology businesses in the North East, employing over 20,000 people between them, the sector contributes £755million to the region’s economy each year, a figure only set to rise with the growth of Sunderland, a leading software city.

>> Petards back in the black Security and surveillance system manufacturer Petards is back in the black after doubling revenues in the wake of a series of new contracts. The Gateshead-based Aim quoted company posted pre-tax profits of £273,000 for the six months to 30 June

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

against a loss of £338,000 last year. Revenues stood at £7.2m against £3.6m last time.

This marks a remarkable turnaround for the company which declared the first half of last year one of the “most challenging periods’’ in its history. Petards is in a strong position to

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capitalise on its performance in the second half of 2014. It has an order book worth more than £20m, about a third of which is scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2014. One order, worth more than £1.5m, is from Siemens for Petards eyeTrain CCTV

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

AUTUMN 14

The present order book provides a strong base going forward into 2015

systems for new super high-speed trains it is building for the Turkish State Railway. This was the first order placed under a framework agreement signed with Siemens in June 2014 for the supply of Petards train related products and services. Another order, worth more than £4.5m, is for a modification programme relating to countermeasures equipment for the MOD. Chairman Raschid Abdullah said: “The second half of 2014 has started well and the group continues to trade profitably. The group’s overall order book is in excess of £20m of which over one third is expected to be delivered before the end of the current year.

“There continues to be opportunities for development and growth in all of our current product areas and we expect customers to be placing orders on a number of projects in the coming months, which we believe we are well placed to secure.

“The board is confident about the group’s prospects for the second half and beyond as whilst there is still work to be done this year in closing out new business, the present order book already provides a strong base going forward into 2015.”

Paul Negus has been appointed to the board as a director. He already has responsibility for business development for the group’s rail products and spent eight years as managing director of PIPS Technology, a developer of automatic number plate recognition and CCTV systems first under private ownership and then under the ownership of Federal Signal Inc. Abdullah said: “Paul brings to the board extensive knowledge of the sectors in which Petards operates combined with considerable commercial drive and commitment to operational success. The board looks forward to working with him in the continued development of the group.”

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

>> Ryder riding high Ryder Architecture reports growing opportunities overseas building on a string of significant UK project wins.

Established in 1953, Ryder has four UK offices – Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool and London. The Newcastle office’s projects include the redevelopment of Newcastle Central Station, Newcastle College Gateway, ongoing work for Nissan, Ashington Leisure Centre, a new master plan for Hartlepool town centre and the Freeman Hospital cardiothoracic expansion.

Securing Manchester University Library and the redevelopment of Ashton under Lyme town centre are significant commissions as is the appointment to design the new £212m Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary where the firm is working in collaboration with US firm NBBJ and Laing O’Rourke. Designs are also progressing on a £70m residential scheme opposite Lord’s cricket ground in London for the over 55s and people with dementia. In Hong Kong Ryder is preferred bidder on a £200m police headquarters, in collaboration with Farrells and local developer Hsin Chong. The Ryder/Northumbria University specialist building information modelling joint venture – BIM Academy – continues to work on the £400m M+ Museum with Farrells and Swiss practice Herzog & de Meuron. BIM Academy is also developing relationships overseas particularly in BIM for facilities management following a successful project for Sydney Opera House.

Managing partner Mark Thompson said: “International growth is clearly gratifying but what is most rewarding is being listed in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to work for 2014, as the highest ranking architectural practice. This is a barometer our people are engaged and enjoying the diversity and challenge of our work.

“Our corporate social responsibility work is also important. We recently launched our own charity – AzuKo – which is developing projects to improve lives in places with limited resources through community driven, research based design initiatives.”

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NEWS

>> Investors back Sevcon Green vehicle component maker Sevcon has secured additional funds to support its growth ambitions after a successful rights issue raised £6.15m from investors.

The stock offer by the Gateshead-based company, which is listed on the NASDAQ in New York, was oversubscribed by 50%.

Sevcon plans to use the cash to support its growth ambitions which include potential acquisitions, investment in research and development and staff recruitment, with up to 40 new skilled jobs potentially for the North East. Sevcon president and chief executive Matt Boyle said: “We are delighted by the response of our shareholders to the rights issue and especially grateful to our larger shareholders, Gabelli Funds and Wells Fargo, for their substantial oversubscription.

“Our plans for deploying the capital raised in the offering are being worked through, and we look forward to updating stockholders on our progress in the coming months.”

Earlier this year Sevcon unveiled a Chinese joint venture to take advantage of opportunities in the world’s fastest growing low carbon, onroad vehicle market, and it recently reported its sixth consecutive quarter of growth with annual sales up 20%. When the stock offer was launched in June, Boyle said: “There are substantial opportunities today to expand our business both organically and through acquisitions, particularly in new markets for us, like China, and in the electrification of systems.

“To successfully achieve the organic growth, we need to increase resources such as headcount in engineering and sales. In addition, management is regularly reviewing plans and seeking to grow the business.”

The rights issue has given staff the opportunity to take a stake in the company – the number with shares has risen from seven to 24.

The company was launched on the Team Valley, Gateshead, more than 50 years ago, where it is still based, and where it employs over half of its 115 staff.

It has factories in China, Mexico and Poland and offices in France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the US. For the first nine months of its current financial year revenues stood at £17.1m compared with £14.3m in the previous year.

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 14

ALMOST BACK TO PRE-CRASH LEVELS

David Coppock heads UKTI in the North East. He talks to Peter Jackson about the region’s international trade performance

David Coppock is a reasonably happy man. He is regional director, North East region, of the UKTI and last month’s latest quarterly report on exports showed continued progress.

The region’s exports are now just short of the £12bn per annum figure on an annualised basis. If not a record, that’s getting us back to where we were before Lehman Bros.

Coppock says: “We’ve clawed all that space back and that’s a healthy position for the region to be in.’’

He points out that we are still the only region with a positive balance of trade. Not that he believes, for one minute, that the North East can afford to sit back and relax on the overseas trade front. UKTI in the region is supporting the Government’s target of reaching £1trn of exports nationally by 2020, double its current level.

To that end, the organisation is working on two initiatives.

Coppock explains: “The first one being that UKTI are focusing on medium sized business, what we call MSBs. We have signed up 150 MSBs from the North East region to the UKTI

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

programme who are going to work with us and commit to developing the international agenda over the coming years.’’ MSBs are defined as being businesses with between £320m and £500m in annual turnover.

Coppock adds: “But we’re not precious about it, if someone with £15m turnover said they needed help in China, we’d be delighted to help.”

Why is the emphasis being placed on MSBs? “The emphasis is there because there are about 10,000 of them across the UK. They are an engine room for growth and there is a view that if they were all to adopt a strong international position it would add

a tremendous amount towards the £1trn export target. I’ve even heard it said that if all of those companies were to export – if even 2.5% of their activity was exported – then the UK’s balance of payment problem would be solved.’’

So what will UKTI do for them it wouldn’t be doing for other exporters?

“It’s a much more bespoke and tailored service – it’s not really an off the shelf process.

It’s much more about talking to the business, understanding their strategy, understanding the markets that they may want to penetrate and understanding the business model they want to use. They may want to work >>

I’ve even heard it said that if all of those companies [the UK’s 10,000 MSBs] were to export – if even 2.5% of their activity was exported – then the UK’s balance of payment problem would be solved

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AUTUMN 14

through an agent, they may want to work through a subsidiary, they may want to sell direct to consumer or they may want to sell through some sort of intermediary. It’s about understanding the business model, then working with the company to understand that process. It’s very much a bespoke tailored programme, rather than just saying, well we’ll put you on a passport to export programme and in a years’ time you’ll be accredited.’’

The second initiative is around the e-exporting agenda, getting specialist advisers in UKTI who can support companies which want to trade in the international retail arena through markets such as eBay and Alibaba.

UKTI is also working closely with the British

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Chambers of Commerce and the regional chambers of commerce on developing the overseas network of chambers to provide a support level which in the past would have been provided by the Foreign Office or UKTI. “Now we’re trying to get chambers’ people to deliver the same service,’’ says Coppock.

“There’s quite a big push and our target is to get 40 overseas markets to that level within the next four years or so. We’re going to accredit each market and we’re going to accredit each chamber and we’re going to be connecting those overseas British chambers to UK chambers here so that we’re getting a private sector solution as well as the UKTI solution.’’ Dominic Jermey is the new

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chief executive of UKTI nationally, having previously served as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

“He has got lots of new ideas about how UKTI should be presenting itself and working with companies,’’ says Coppock. “He’s keen to spread UKTI’s network of partners even further and in partnership with lots of different private sector organisations and service providers.’’

He says that one of the most active markets for the North East currently is the Netherlands at about £1.6bn, although that is rather overstated because much of that will be transhipped from Rotterdam to other destinations. The US remains a strong market

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for the region, as do Belgium, Canada, and Finland. Hungary, it seems, also showed up strongly in the last quarter, but nobody is yet entirely clear why. As usual the big sectors for the region were – as well as automotive and road vehicles – chemicals, machinery, mechanical machinery, pharmaceuticals and iron and steel.

“In the Eurozone we have seen a slight bounce back in activity in the last quarter and therefore I suspect the Eurozone as a market has bottomed out and we will see strong growth in a key market for us going forward.

The European Commission themselves have said they are prepared to intervene to stimulate that market so I think Europe remains very important to us going forward and I can see growth there now,’’ says Coppock.

“In terms of the rest of the world, activity remains strong, Brazil will remain strong, India and China are still significant to us and we’re seeing a lot of Chinese interest in the region.

We’ve got three senior Chinese delegations coming into the North East over the next three months, including the Chinese embassy in the UK, who are also visiting the region. So we’re getting significant interest.

“So, no real change in the markets we’re doing business with and no real change in our strong sectors,’’ he adds. “I suppose what that means is that we still need further work, we’d like to see more of our service sector doing more internationally, and again that’s something we’re looking to work on with the new programme coming through.’’

Unsurprisingly the automotive sector is performing well both in terms of vehicle manufacture and the attendant supply chain.

“Linked to that, we’re looking at an initiative called re-shore UK, which is looking at companies who have outsourced activity previously, to get them to bring that back into the UK and back into the region,’’ says Coppock. “We’ve got some support work going on with that as well at the moment and we’re trying to encourage companies to relocate back into the UK.’’ What’s driving that?

“It’s all about logistics costs, it’s all about derisking the business and it’s all about a shorter supply chain and taking out the costs of transport for companies that re-shore. That’s

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very much from a manufacturing side, from a services side it’s about providing a total quality solution, in terms of being able to manage the quality of the service in a much more hands-on way.’’

But does that mean businesses made a mistake in taking operations offshore in the first place?

“I think circumstances are changing,’’ says Coppock. “I think that companies are reevaluating just how much supply chain is offshore, and of course transport costs can be prohibitive.’’

And are not offshore labour costs becoming more prohibitive with the days of cheap overseas labour being over?

“That’s also part of it, it’s a complex picture, it’s partly about cost of labour, it’s partly about cost of transport, it’s partly about cost of energy and fuel, it’s partly about corporate social responsibility,’’ he says. “You know, there’s a huge raft of reasons behind those decisions.’’

Our exporters are not usually slow to complain about the strength of the pound and although it has been appreciating, they have remained strangely quiet. Are they just getting used to exchange rate fluctuations?

“That’s a very good question. I think we have seen the pound strengthen by about 10% or so against the euro and the dollar. It has kind of weakened recently, as we went through the Scottish debate but you’re right it has generally strengthened. You’re also right in that I don’t think companies have kicked back on that so much. I think what we’re seeing is companies not passing it on so much and absorbing the costs of the strong pound. I’m speculating here but it probably can’t go on much further.

But companies, certainly at the moment, are

INTERVIEW

still forecasting growth, they’re forecasting an uptake in the order books and export growth.

“I met with the Bank of England last week and they confirmed that currency did not seem to be a prohibiter at the moment.’’

Apart from export, he confirms that inward investment activity remains strong.

“The UK is a very attractive proposition, given the trend of corporation tax, and the R&D tax credits, and the intellectual property capacity here. The North East similarly remains an attractive area. I recently reviewed the Hitachi project, and was delighted to see the buildings in place and the test track going in. It all looked very exciting down at Newton Aycliffe and I hope that we can push on with further investment there.

“Working in partnership with the North East LEP, and the Tees Valley LEP, we’ve got some very good projects happening and there are other projects in the pipeline so, I think as a marketing proposition the North East remains a very strong asset.’’

It will also be attracting more attention with one forthcoming attraction he is keen to flag up.

“The Rugby World Cup is coming in 2015 and there will be a huge number of international competitors and international businesses coming to the UK. Newcastle will be hosting South Africa amongst others and I would make an early call to businesses to think about how they may be able to leverage the high profile the region will get through the Rugby World Cup.’’ Coppock adds: “You know, the region has a lot to offer in terms of its assets, in terms of its business interests. I think we’ve got to get out there and connect.’’ n

The Rugby World Cup is coming in 2015 and there will be a huge number of international competitors and businesses coming to the UK – we’ve got to get out there and connect

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FIRMS WIN UKTI HELP Teesside is renowned for exporting steel and chemicals but it is now also making an international impact with digital technology, as Peter Jackson reports

Two Redcar and Cleveland businesses have been selected as the winners of the ‘Get Set to Export’ competition hosted by Wilton Centre, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI).

Evil Technology and Switch Growth will benefit from the UKTI Passport to Export Programme and receive advice from a local international trade adviser and access to a range of UKTI export support services.

Evil Technology describes itself as an ethical North East-based business promoting sustainable digital and technological solutions to real business problems. The company is

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just over two and a half years old, is based in Middlesbrough and specialises in building web based applications, primarily for companies in the retail related sector.

Its Stockhandler.com is a cloud based software application which aims to make it easier for business to trade across online markets, not only domestically but also abroad.

The platform already includes support for ecommerce websites, eBay and Amazon and the company is currently developing connectors to various overseas marketplaces which it plans to add to the portfolio in the next few months.

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Switch Team Rita Learman, Jean Bell and Allison Redshaw

Paul Sheperia, managing director of Evil Technology, says: “This is a real boost to the work we’re putting into making stockhandler. com a success, and helps us realise the export potential of this innovative solution for retailers. We’re very grateful to Redcar and Cleveland Council for its continued support.”

He explains how Stockhandler works.

“It’s aimed squarely at businesses that

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primarily trade online, multichannel so if you sell stuff online through Amazon, eBay and through your website you trade across the world wide channels, which means as a seller you’ve got to administer each of your different markets separately.

“So if you sell things separately in France and America and Germany and Japan each of those, just on eBay, is a separate thing for you to collect your orders, to place your stock, to manage your stock online, change your stock online and manage your pricing.

“If you do a lot of selling online and you’re doing it all through multi-channel stuff, what you find is that, each individual bit of processing of an order or managing your inventory – although it’s quite small in itself – scales up into a problem very quickly.

“Imagine you have one product but you’re selling it in 10 different places, but you’ve only got one item. If you sell it in any one of those 10 different places you now haven’t got that product. So you’ve now got to go to all those other nine places and knock your inventory down by one. If you multiply that up by all the number of orders you get and the number of products you’re listing, on a daily basis, it quickly becomes an issue for you.

“If you’ve got to sign into each of your accounts every half an hour, you’ve got a lot of work to do. You’ve got to get all the orders, you’ve got to print them off, you’ve got to generate all the shipping information, you’ve got to send it to your shipping manager, put all your address labels in.

“The whole thing with stockhandler is that it’s about putting all that in one place and making it really streamlined, so it just makes it a lot easier if you need to scale up. And what we’ve seen now is that there are a lot of businesses that are hitting that problem now, that they’re trying to do that multi-channel selling, they’re moving away from selling on just an e-commerce site and they’re trying to sell on eBay and Amazon and play.com and all these other online market places, and they’re just hitting these problems really quickly.’’

The significance of Stockhandler.com is not only that it’s an exportable product in itself, but also facilitates the efforts of other exporters.

Sheperia says: “Somebody can go onto the Stockhandler.com website, sign up for a

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SUCCESS STORY

trial, authenticate their eBay and Amazon accounts, connect up their e-commerce website and they can start using the platform to fulfil orders, manage their inventory, deal with shipping and integrate with their shipping manager.’’

The company currently has four employees and has an annual turnover of between £100,000 and £150,000. But it is looking for

This is a fantastic opportunity to grow a business in established and key emerging markets overseas and we are proud to be able to sponsor it investment to expand to grow sales and take on more staff.

It already has customers in Spain and Norway and has had a lot of interest in the product from the US. Sheperia says: “It’s an emerging sector for software solutions, and what is already out there is in general incomplete and it’s quite clunky to use. We’re really coming at this trying to make something that’s very straightforward to use and very joined up. So what I’m finding, when I’m talking to retailers, is there are bits of solutions around but there isn’t really anything that deals with the whole process end-to-end and that’s really where we’re trying to come in.

“In this sector, selling bespoke software, in general you don’t get businesses coming after you, it’s generally word of mouth and lots of legwork to try and find opportunities and it’s fairly long sale cycles, but with this product, we’re getting enquiries from a fairly small amount of marketing.

“At the moment, we’re working with our UKTI advisor to put a plan together and we’re

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using some of their training to help guide that strategy. We’re also getting some support from Redcar and Cleveland Council who are helping us with things like market research.’’

Switch Growth partners with organisations to make sense of their data by developing effective procedures and systems for information management. Its aim is to support improvements in teaching and learning by designing training for the education sector which will allow schools to become effective data organisations.

Jean Bell, director at Switch, says: “This will help launch our service into those international markets which value the strengths of the UK education sector. As a new venture supported

by Redcar and Cleveland Enterprise Team, this is a significant boost to the growth we have achieved so far.”

Evil Technology and Switch Growth were selected by a panel of experts including representatives from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Tees Valley Unlimited, UKTI, Wilton Centre and Guardian Marine Testing (GMT) which was named as North East exporter of the Year in 2011.

Wilton Centre site director, Steve Duffield says: “This is a fantastic opportunity to grow a business in established and key emerging markets overseas and we are proud to be able to sponsor it.

“The guidance and expertise on offer from UKTI has proved invaluable to many of our tenants and we are firmly behind any initiative that will help drive business success in this region.”

Mark Hannon, the council’s cabinet member for economic development says: “International markets offer huge opportunities for Redcar and Cleveland businesses and we are delighted to be able to help these two promising local companies take the first steps towards trading overseas.”

Stephen Muir, UKTI’s International Trade Adviser for the Redcar and Cleveland area, says: “It has been proven that exporting helps companies to grow and that they do better with UKTI’s help, so we were delighted to be able to support this competition.

“We now have two worthy winners and look forward to working with them to achieve their exporting ambitions.” n

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David Holmes brings in materials from China for his sign-making supply business. He explains to Peter Jackson how it works

THE SIGNS ARE LOOKING GOOD David Holmes has built up three businesses, all heavily dependent on overseas trade as importers of material for sign manufacture He founded Gateshead-based First Fix Plastics five years ago, Glasgow-based First Fix Plastics Scotland two and a half years ago and FirstLite LED Systems, also in Gateshead, was set up three years ago.

The three businesses employ about 33 people and First Fix Plastics in Gateshead has grown so rapidly in five years, it has gone from one 3,000 sq ft unit to its current 16,000 sq ft home, having moved three times.

FirstLite supplies LED modules to sign makers nationwide >>

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for illuminated signs. First Fix Plastics, in Gateshead and Team Valley, supply a range of sign making equipment, predominantly acrylic sheets.

Holmes says: “We supply every aspect of what the sign maker needs, I know it’s such a twee thing to say but the one-stop-shop thing is really what we went for.’’

About 200,000 sq m of acrylic sheets are imported from China every year, coming into Felixstowe for Gateshead and Grangemouth for Glasgow in around 30 to 35 containers every year and then delivered to the businesses by the freight forwarder.

LED supplies also come from China, from one key supplier as a mixture of sea freight and air freight. The air freight is costlier but the LEDs are small items.

Holmes says: “Whereas I can spend £100,000 on two containers, I can spend £100,000 on LEDs and it would fill a pallet or two pallets.

So it’s significantly smaller to transport, but

obviously much more expensive as a product.’’

He adds: “Because of the growth of the business over the last two and a half years, we have thousands of stock in. We have a very simple philosophy of more than two months’ worth of stock in. But you always have a run on a product and that tends to be a quicker turnaround. The plastics you’re talking eight weeks in advance with orders, so you know you’ve got the rolling stock coming in. The LEDs are normally between two and four weeks for production and delivery.’’

Cost pressures and competition have forced the business to buy from China but Holmes is careful not to compromise on quality.

“We wouldn’t buy products – and I won’t buy products – unless I’ve actually physically visited the factory, because there are so many pitfalls, with the quality of the sheets,’’ he says.

“One of the biggest dangers is that you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t actually manufacture, they’re just an agent out there

We have had such rapid growth – it probably needs a couple of years of stability and growth in the existing businesses before we look at the potential to grow it again

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

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and we’ve visited factories where that has been the case. We have to make sure that the quality of the product is to the UK standard and not just on one shipment but on every shipment going forward.

“On LEDs particularly, there’s an awful lot of cheap technology being brought into the country. The whole point of an LED is you put it in, you forget about it for five years, it’s maintenance free and a much lower cost because it produces electricity. A lot of the products coming in, within six months, you’re getting failures. So again, we’re very stringent on who we buy from and the continuity of supply and we visit at least once a year to the factories to ensure that the quality’s still in place.’’

Since the last move in Gateshead in January, the business has enjoyed a 20% growth in turnover. Holmes says the business is now the largest independent supplier in the North East and in Glasgow.

“Our growth has been at the expense of the big national chains over the last two or three years.’’

Customers for First Fit Plastics are served from Gateshead and Glasgow. FirstLite operates nationwide and also has some European customers, which could be developed.

Holmes says: “At the moment we’re in negotiations with a large supermarket for some of their signage, but that has been held up until March, but the idea being, as specification goes forward, that we move into Europe with them as well. So that would be our way of breaking in.’’

He works closely with his bank, Santander.

He explains: “When I bought my first business back in 2006, we were with Barclays and stayed with Barclays for six or seven years. Then we began talking to Santander and it took a long time for the process to go through.

“The relationship has been excellent and that has been based on how they have been with us. There was no question, when we looked to move to them about funding the group. With Glasgow we put a lot of costs in, we frontended the costs with a warehouse that really was too big on day one but would mean we wouldn’t have the costs of moving.

“So we had a plan for 18 months that it wouldn’t make money. There was never a >>

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question with Santander. They saw the vision and where we were going and were prepared to back it.’’

And has the Glasgow move worked?

“Very much so, but we’ve got two years left on the lease and we now need to move from those premises into even bigger again, which we never expected. But they’ve backed us, not only with the loan.

“Santander put forward a system we could use for import credit. One of the biggest disadvantages is you’re paying for everything up front and you’re having to bring in more stock than you would if you had a UK based manufacturer, because you have to forward order. You don’t get credit in China normally.

But Santander came to us with ‘we could look at this with you’ and it was a way to effectively get 60 day credit on import.

“They put it forward to us, and although there is a cost to it, we couldn’t have gone forward on the scale we have without that funding in place. It was they who came to us, sat in a meeting, listened to what our biggest problem was, and then offered a solution to it.’’

The business was started during the recession but Holmes believes that worked to its advantage. He says: “When times are very good, people are less likely to look at their suppliers and the cost from their suppliers.

Because there’s so much business to go around that it becomes ‘well we know the person, we know the product, the cost price isn’t so significant because we’re doing well’.

“But, in a recession, people start to worry about 5p and 10p on something that may cost £100, So, although it was right in the middle of a recession and not the time to do it in theory, what we found was that people were far more receptive to talk to us because of what we could save them as a business in the cost and the service element in what else we could offer them over the competition.

“As you come out of the recession, then we are their supplier and they’re not too bothered about switching and worrying about 10p and they move forward with us. We’ve seen the business start from scratch and enjoy significant growth.’’

For FirstLite, the group is looking at developing its own range in association with a manufacturer in China.

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

“What we want to do is to make sure that the brand FirstLite is known for quality and to do that we want to produce our own range so that when people pick it up they know it’s a FirstLite product.’’

Would he look at other locations for First Fix, other than Gateshead and Glasgow?

“It comes down to people, not so much location,’’ says Holmes. “If the right person

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offered us an opportunity elsewhere in the country, possibly yes. At the moment, we have had such rapid growth, and although we have a management company that ensures there is structure and it’s not some house of cards that could topple at any time, it probably needs a couple of years of stability and growth in the existing businesses before we look at the potential to grow it again.’’ n

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SUCCESS STORY

PRIZE GUYS AND GIRLS Three Middlesbrough firms have secured thousands of pounds worth of advice and support to turn their export ideas into reality Middlesbrough Council and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) joined forces again earlier this year to find the best ideas in the town to qualify for the Exporting for Growth Prize.

They report that competition was “incredibly tough’’ this year for the prize which is open to all SMEs with an active Middlesbrough trading address and which pay business rates in the borough.

After hard deliberation, the judging panel named: Calm Digital, Industrial & Marine Hydraulics and On a Roll Sandwich Company.

Calm Digital is a web and creative agency that builds websites, apps and tools. Managing director Bianca Robinson said: “We are so thrilled to be a winner as we have been keen to market our product in the US for some time. This competition will really give us the boost we need to plan and execute our campaign.”

Industrial & Marine Hydraulics Ltd (IMH) is a hydraulic engineering company established in 1983 that focuses on high level technical service and project delivery, with wide ranging and global experience in difficult problems.

Managing director Nathanael Allison said: “Exporting our high quality engineering expertise is a fundamental part of our growth strategy. We have been working with UKTI over the past year and have seen a direct increase in overseas orders through the type of focused effort that UKTI supports. As such I am overjoyed to have secured this award as it will certainly result in continued business success for IMH.” On a Roll Sandwich Company is a food manufacturer that produces a range of sandwich and salad products, including its

“Pick of the Pantry” range for food service and contact catering in various sectors such as education and health.

Director James Stoddart said: “On A Roll is pleased to be awarded this fabulous prize and will be using the assistance being provided to aid and increase its current export of products to Norway and other Scandinavian countries too.”

The three winners will each gain access to £3,600 of support and will be registered to UKTI’s Passport to Export (P2E) programme.

The prize includes £600 worth of overseas market intelligence plus £3,000 towards the

I’m delighted for the three successful firms who now have a fantastic opportunity to grow their business and develop exciting new export opportunities cost of developing overseas business, such as travel, accommodation, translation of marketing material into different languages including website or legal services.

Winners will also receive support including business advice from UKTI and their overseas teams and mentoring from an international trade adviser.

Cllr Charlie Rooney, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, said: “In a tough market, businesses need all the help they can

Standing L-R: Daniel Askwith, Philip Allick, Andrew Murphy. Seated L-R: Bianca Robinson, Danielle Bloom

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get to stay ahead of the competition and develop new markets.

“I’m delighted for the three successful firms who now have a fantastic opportunity to grow their business and develop exciting new export opportunities.

“I’m sure the expert advice and support on offer through Exporting for Growth will make a real difference, and I look forward to hearing how it is put to use.”

Maria Dotsch, UKTI’s international trade adviser for the Middlesbrough area, said: “It has been proven time and again that exporting helps companies to grow and that companies

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do better with UKTI’s help.

“We’re delighted to have once again been able to join forces with Middlesbrough Council to run the Exporting for Growth competition and look forward to working with our worthy winners to help turn their export ambitions into a reality.”

P2E is an international trade service provided through the international trade teams.

The initiative targets businesses which are inexperienced exporters or existing exporters hoping to tackle new or difficult markets. It offers a package of support which is tailored to meet the needs of each company, together with financial support and the help and advice of an international trade adviser. n

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

In association with

CAN NORTH EAST PLC GO GLOBAL?

The issue: How do we create more “world class” North East SMEs, and what must we do to support them?

Businesses in the North East sometimes regard themselves as being at a disadvantage to competitors boasting closer cultural and logistical ties to the capital. Many are able and ambitious to spread their wings, but often lack the knowledge and contacts to get expansion plans off the ground.

But help and advice is available for those who know where to look.

Tapping into vital support networks that can launch SMEs on a journey of discovery into new markets was the main focus of a round table discussion that brought together an eclectic mix of business leaders at the Hilton Newcastle-Gateshead.

THE DEBATE Opening the discussion, Simon Crosby the lead UK Trade and Industry advisor in the North East for Canada, the USA and Mexico, said his overseas customers were often “staggererd” to discover the UK government actively supports SMEs, adding “we don’t really value that in this country.”

The World Trade Organisation recently named UKTI as the ‘best global business support agency for exporters’ and Simon told the gathering: “British businesses are blessed in terms of support that’s available, but we need more companies to come and use us.

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We’re involved in missionary work all the time.

Firstly, to get local businesses to understand the benefits of exporting, and secondly to understand what support is available to them. Because it is a lonely place when you’re exporting for the first time, or you’re entering a new market.

However, it starts with people. Exporting is like playing the guitar or playing cricket – you’ve got to want to do it. You have to enjoy doing it. And you have to have that drive to start exporting to expand your international trade.

We know that the most successful exporters – those who export longest – are those who are driven internally. So managements have to want to export. When you have external drivers, such as when companies are approached by a potential agent, distributor or customer, we know that is much shorterlived than having internal talent with drive and passion to become world class.

Simon Dunn, regional international director - North East for Santander was reminded of a story that demonstrated fears about the export market… “One of my old clients, who ran a farming business in Cumbria, had an enquiry for second hand farm equipment over the internet from Nigeria. He said to me, ‘it’s £80,000 so it’s obviously got to be a no’ and I

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TAKING PART Simon Crosby, lead UKTI advisor in the North East for Canada, USA and Mexico Ian West, OD of Peterlee-based Seaward Electronics, a specialist in electrical safety testing David Sidlow, md of Gateshead-based Palintest, which manufactures a range of water quality analysis equipment Kevin Martin, md of Hartlepool-based Exwold Technology, a contract chemical processor Tony Whiting, md of Ashington-based Raytec, world leaders in LED lighting Simon Dunn, regional international director North East for Santander Mark Collings, UK director International for Santander Andrew Fotheringham, director of Wynyardbased Evolution Accountants Alan Grisedale, lawyer and partner at Newcastle-based commercial law firm Muckle LLP Dr Tony Trapp, md at Riding Mill-based Osbit Power, which designs and manufactures equipment for challenging offshore projects Michael Mitten, ceo of Newcastle-based Houghton International, which services and repairs rotating electrical machinery Tobias Heintz, md of Consett-based Pinnacle Engineering, which manufactures industrial equipment for the oil and gas market Dan Smyth, md of Gosforth-based Bede Gaming, which makes online gaming software Rob Storey, skills and education manager of North Shields-based AIS (Advanced Industrial Solutions) Group, which works mainly in the energy sector Chairing: Brian Nicholls, editor, BQ. Also attending: Ken Oxley (Room 501) reporting. Kevin Gibson (Kevin Gibson Photography). Heather Spacey and Rachael Laschke (Room 501, facilitating).

Venue: The Hilton, Newcastle Gateshead.

BQ is highly regarded as a leading independent commentator on business issues, many of which have a bearing on the current and future success of the region’s business economy. BQ Live is a series of informative debates designed to further contribute to the success and prosperity of our regional economy through the debate, discussion and feedback of a range of key business topics and issues.

said ‘tell me about it – what’s the deal?’ He said they’d agreed to buy this piece of kit, but he thought it was fraudulent and that he’d never get his money.

But I told him he could mitigate the risk, most

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easily, by asking for cash up front. He said he’d never thought of that. And, guess what, he got paid – there was a SWIFT transfer into his account, then a big flatbed truck turned up, put the machine on the back, and drove off!”

Despite this happy ending, Simon Crosby thought it worthwhile to add a cautionary note. He said: “In exporting, common sense can sometimes go out of the window because a lot of businesses are just grateful to get the order and don’t protect themselves. They don’t put things in place to make sure they’re going to be paid – and they’re not as disciplined as in the UK over chasing down payments. You must ask yourself, are you a business selling a product or a service to make money, or are you a business that’s playing the casino.”

Mark Collings, UK director international for Santander, agreed, pointing out how fluctuating currencies can also cause problems.

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You must ask yourself, are you a business selling a product to make money, or are you playing the casino He said: “We’ve seen businesses’ profits wiped out because of the currency market. They’ve been so excited about getting the order, they haven’t managed the risk.”

He offered an anecdote too, one showing the importance of having advisors you trust. He said: “If you ask my wife who she banks with – and this concerns me sometimes – she answers

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‘Tony.’ She says it with a big smile on her face!

Tony moved banks a while ago and she just blatantly moved with him. So whether it’s banks, tax advice, audit advice or advice about going into new markets, you have to have that relationship; that partnership where it’s about trust on both sides.”

Brian Nicholls, chairman for the evening, picked up on a point made by Andrew Fotheringham, of Wynyard-based Evolution Accountants, who’d said that if you wanted to know what was going on in any particular part of the world, you should find someone from the North East – and they would give you an honest answer. Should there be a register of North Easterners working around the world, asked Brian?

“That’s exactly what we do,” said Simon Crosby, “not finding Geordies, but finding agents and distributors. We’ve 150 offices >>

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in 100 countries, so we’ve a presence in virtually every industrialised market. When businesses are looking for partners, that’s one thing we’re very good at. We identify those contacts for North East businesses and give them a tickle, warming them up and getting them interested in a service a business offers.”

Michael Mitten agreed - his company had used the organisation’s OMIS (Overseas Market Introduction Service) quite a lot. He added: “It’s very good if you want to find out about a market, but only as good as the detail in your brief that you give to UKTI. They get someone to go and research for you, and find out whatever you need to know – key contacts, market size, competitors, as much as they can realistically get. It’s a service you pay for, but good value. If you’re going to commit time and cost to go into a market, you should invest in that up front. And it tends to open new doors.”

David Sidlow, of Gateshead-based Palintest, which manufactures water analysis equipment, also praised UKTI. He said: “We’ve been on some trade missions and it does vary depending on the skills of locals. Some are very, very good, some not quite so good.

But the UKTI people abroad are excellent.

The team in China are fantastic – really enthusiastic locals who know their stuff.

It is worthwhile exploring.”

That glowing endorsement prompted Simon Cosby to joke: “I haven’t paid these guys by the way!”

Simon Dunn, regional international director North East for Santander, moved the discussion on, asking those present who else they turned to for advice about trading overseas.

David Sidlow found the North East Chamber of Commerce helpful and cautioned against paying other companies. He said: “I know

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What’s absolutely critical for this region is to retain the best people – it’s really important INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

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people who have gone to companies for third party advice and in my opinion have had their eyes ripped out. If you go to the Chamber, they charge you a flat fee – no matter how big the contract – and you still get the same service.”

Simon Crosby agreed: “I don’t think there’s anything better than peer-to-peer learning – it’s incredibly powerful. My question would be, do you feel there are enough opportunities to do this kind of thing, or is today very much a oneoff and you haven’t done it for 12 months, or even two years?

Tobias Heintz, md of Consett-based Pinnacle Engineering, an engineering and manufacturing company supplying the oil and gas market, felt some peer-to-peer networking events were “too random.” He said: “If you have a specific problem, you wouldn’t go to a networking event to find a solution.”

Rob Storey, skills and education manager for North Shields-based AIS Group, which delivers technical insulation, engineering products and services for offshore, said there was a “plethora of representative organisations” but added: “What SMEs really need is to be directed to the right support organisations. As a growing business, that’s not where your focus is and you don’t really have time to attend lots of trade events, so you need someone to point you in the right direction.”

Brian Nicholls wondered if the introduction of New York flights from Newcastle would help open up new markets for ambitious SMEs. Rob Storey said: “I used to be involved heavily with Newcastle Airport and they are desperate to put that flight on – it’s part of their 10-year growth strategy, but they are going to have to see evidence of that demand. Someone has to pull that together

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and present a coherent case.”

David Sidlow commented: “You look at Emirates to Dubai and the demand on that has been fantastic. You’d have thought the arguments would stack up for a flight to New York.”

Tony Trapp suggested: “There has to be demand. The Emirates flight is just the same as going to Amsterdam, Paris or Heathrow – all it is, is a flight to a hub. But if you want a direct flight to somewhere there has to be enough demand. I think almost inevitably, in the North East, there isn’t enough demand. There’s not going to be enough people to warrant a daily flight to New York.”

However, Simon Crosby pointed out: “We’re shipping £1bn worth of goods from the region to USA now. It’s our biggest export market after Holland, and we all know why – it’s Europort.”

Brian Nicholls then asked participants about their experiences of knowledge sharing.

Kevin Martin, md of Hartlepool-based Exwold, a contract chemical processor, said: “As an SME, we try to reflect the behaviour of our larger customers, because they expect us to meet their standards, which is pretty difficult at times. The contra side to that is that they do help us if we’re not meeting their standards – they will hold our hands a little. I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences.”

Tony Trapp returned to the subject of sourcing the right employees. He said: “What’s absolutely critical for this region is to retain the best people – and to attract the best people from elsewhere. It’s just really, really important.

You can look at student placements and get some fantastic people, but we need to build

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up the bulk of really talented people – we have got to attract clever people, and we have got to stop them going elsewhere.” He said that although Osbit Power tended to recruit only high-achieving engineering graduates, he had on a number of occasions taken on seemingly less promising staff who’d surprised him, including an English literature graduate, and also someone with a background in agricultural engineering but no qualifications. He said: “We took him on against all my better instincts really – and within a couple of years he had qualities which almost all of our degree engineers never had. He’s an absolutely fantastic chap now. So there are loads of good people who can do fantastic things, and I have to admit they don’t all have to have first class honours degrees in mechanical engineering.”

Brian Nicholls commented: “That’s an inspiring story for young people who perhaps don’t have qualifications but can adapt themselves.”

Changing tack slightly, Rob Storey noted: “We certainly don’t sell ourselves. I’ve been involved in the skills agenda for over 20 years.

When I first started we were talking about sleepwalking into this demographic time bomb for skills, and we’re still talking about it. And a lot of companies you speak to ask about workforce, manpower and planning – and lots don’t do it. Most of the good, skilled people in engineering or manufacturing are moving towards retirement.”

Tony Trapp disagreed: “I’ve heard that all my life. I heard that when we set up in the ‘70s.

People said exactly the same – ‘they’re all within three or four years of retirement. We’ll have no skilled people.’ And I think we’ve more skilled people in the North East now >>

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than we had then. No that’s not true – we don’t have the shipbuilding and we don’t have the steel industries, but, as I say, in the last few years there has still been an upsurge.”

Rob Storey countered: “But we’re not joining up all the dots – we haven’t as many young people. Maybe I’m showing my age, but when I served my engineering apprenticeship many years ago I worked for a company called Noble and Lund in Felling. It’s gone now, but it was a fantastic apprenticeship. They took 20 on every year in their own training centre, and at the end of the four-year apprenticeship they kept 10 on and let 10 go to the SMEs. You don’t really see a lot of that now. And, I have to disagree slightly with Tony. In terms of working with colleges and universities over the last 10 to 15 years, we need to be doing something more to harness the skills and join it all up, because a lot of young people who go to college now start an engineering apprenticeship and within about six weeks have changed their minds and want to go into something else – that wouldn’t have happened in my day. If you started an apprenticeship you saw it through. We have to find something that enthuses them. We have to get into schools earlier and get them switched on to engineering and manufacturing.

Let them see – and their parents and teachers – that it’s not the way it was 30 or 40 years ago.

It’s a fantastic career opportunity.

Tony Trapp said: “I’ve had a bit to do with some schools and I always think that I really should be talking to the parents, not the

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students. We need the parents to raise their aspirations. I remember talking to one group in North Northumberland and I was appalled by their lack of aspiration.”

Simon Dunn explained about Santander’s Breakthrough Talent scheme, which gives graduates the opportunity of hands-on experience in helping companies with projects such as researching export markets or looking at IT systems. He said: “For your specific projects, we bring graduates in and pay half the costs. It’s great to be able to give a graduate experience within an industry, and there’s a huge take-up. After three months you see them in the working environment and see what they’re like. About 65% have been taken on, and you don’t have to be a Santander customer to benefit – it’s one of our CSR (corporate social responsibility) projects.

Tobias Heintz asked Dan Smyth, md of Gosforth-based online software business Bede

It’s great to be able to give a graduate experience in an industry – there’s a huge take-up

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Gaming, how he sourced employees, as his company requires people at the cutting edge of IT skills.

Dan, whose firm also has offices in London and Bulgaria, replied: “With some IT roles you don’t want them to have experience because IT changes so quickly. If they’ve been 10 years with the NHS supporting their systems I’m not really interested. I want them at 18 or 19, so long as they are mathematically and computer literate. My biggest challenge is finding those people who have worked with proper software firms following proper software procedures, so that they can come in and train all my apprentices and graduates. You can’t build a business with top class grads unless you have top class trainers and top class senior developers. Right now we have some products that are split between Bulgaria and Newcastle.

I advertise roles in both places and whoever comes up first gets the job. We’ve just taken on four apprentices out of 30 18-year-olds that were interviewed. I’d love to take on everyone with a first-class degree but it’s never going to happen. We focus on first-class computer science grads. Our mission is not to let any leave the region if they want to stay, so we do a lot of work with universities. But the most difficult thing in my business is to attract people with 10 years’ experience across the full software development life cycle. A lot of people think we have great IT skills in the region.

We do have a lot of small IT firms but they don’t work in the same way as your Googles,

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Mircosofts and Amazons. Obviously we have big IT employers like Sage and, I guess, Scott Logic – and Tombola in Sunderland – but beyond that there are no massive IT employers up here.”

Tony Trapp suggested that shared ownership schemes were one way to attract quality staff, a technique he has used successfully over the years. But he added: “Of course, a shared ownership scheme also encourages people to do it, get some money then go off and compete with you!”

In his closing remarks, Mark Collings thanked BQ and those present for giving Santander the opportunity to sponsor the event. He added: “Someone mentioned earlier about a networking club based on particular themes and that’s something I recommend you do in order to promote the area and sell it as a region, and to attract those skills and those clients. That’s something I’ll take away from this evening specifically for the North East. Quite a lot of today has been about connecting and talking and listening. I think there’s so much that can be shared about who you go to for advice. I also question whether the North East should be seen as an outpost. Simon Dunn travelled from Newcastle for a meeting in London recently and got there in three hours – as quickly as some people who live 60 miles away in the South East. So I’d say getting around in this country is quite easy, and I don’t know if maybe you’re putting a barrier in front of yourselves that isn’t there. That would be

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my observation, especially with technology and being able to use digital to make the world a smaller place – that’s certainly something to think about. And I don’t see the richness of conversation in other parts of the country that I see here. Maybe this idea of the North East being an outpost is part of the attraction – you have identity as a business community. I’ve sat

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on round tables that perhaps don’t have that identity – the accent, culture and market that it is close in its own right. If I were in your shoes, I’d be collectively pulling together to shout about it. In the South East and Home Counties it’s all quite blurred and non-identifiable. So I think there’s something to be said for North East PLC shouting more about itself. n

A helping hand in the world of exports Today’s discussion demonstrated that one of the biggest blocks to trading internationally is a lack of understanding about how it is done and where the opportunities lie. There is no doubt that trading internationally can be daunting; however, working with the right partners the rewards can be transformational to a business. I am really heartened by the energy, optimism and courage of British businesses and their desire to start exporting. At Santander, as an international bank I like to think that we can help address some of the issues we have discussed here and help businesses take their place on the global stage.

With five million corporate and commercial customers globally, we have the scale, expertise and network internationally to make sure that not only do you get help with financing your export operations but our global network also means we can offer local expertise all over the world.

We believe in listening to our clients and have already offered trade missions and market entry support to over 50 UK businesses.

Working with our network of universities we can also help address the skills issue, helping local businesses tap into talent and access graduates as interns. This allows students and recent graduates to gain valuable industry experience and skills to assist them in the development of both their academic and professional lives. Alongside this, businesses gain valuable access to some of the most innovative, skilful and creative minds of the future.

Great businesses always have the potential to stretch far beyond their domestic market. They need to work out which countries they should be focusing on with which partners. If you have such aspirations, we’d love to hear from you.

Mark Collings, Director – International Santander UK

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 14

THIS IDEA HAS LEGS: HAPPY LEGS! A North East healthcare product has taken off and is now poised for overseas sales. Peter Jackson talks to Angus Long about Happy Legs

Angus Long set up Gosforth-based Embryonyx in 2008 after a 30-year career in health care, as a high end consultancy to SMEs and new business start-ups in the healthcare industry.

In a few short years the business has undergone big changes. Now it no longer does consultancy; turnover was £420,000 last year, up from £50,000 the year before and this year it is targeting £1m. It has already won a Growth Accelerator award.

This is down to its new product Happy Legs.

Long recounts what drove him to discover it.

“It was during that period of the consultancy that I came across a common theme with all these problems that essentially elderly and disabled people had – one thing they all had in common was they all couldn’t walk very easily, for one reason or another.’’

This inspired him to investigate what effect a lack of walking could have on the human body, apart from an inability to get from A to B. He did some research in partnership with Northumbria University and the results were

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startling. He explains: “What I found out was, every time we take a step, every time we use our legs, the calf muscles pump the blood from our feet up our legs – it’s not actually our heart that does that. So the calf muscles act as natural blood pumps, so when we don’t use our legs, the heart has to start working harder to get blood up from the feet and ankle area.

“Now that’s alright for short periods of time, we just get tired, but for people who can’t walk at all, or can’t walk very much at all, what happens is the blood circulation in the lower leg can deteriorate, and that can

exacerbate a whole raft of health conditions: swollen ankles, increased neuropathy for diabetics, increased vasculitis, increased deep vein thrombosis.’’

They also discovered that there was no real cure for this except using the legs and there was little available in the way of therapies or exercise equipment. There were cycling machines and rocker boards which could be helpful if people could use them for 30 minutes a day but even this was beyond the capability of people with some conditions.

An electrical stimulator did come onto the >>

What I identified was a gap in the market for a product that would help people who couldn’t move their legs easily or exercise their legs

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Research has shown that residents who get physical stimulation, not only benefit physically from the movement of the legs but also fare better mentally

market but it had so many restrictions and side effects that 60% of the target market could not use it.

Long says: “Pretty quickly, what I identified was a gap in the market for a product that would help people who couldn’t move their legs easily or exercise their legs and didn’t require electrical shock treatment.’’

The result was Happy Legs, an exercise device with three speed settings that provides gentle and consistent, vibration free, exercise, moving a patients legs while they remain seated

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in a chair. Long designed it with help from Northumbria University, and then discovered someone in Spain had, coincidentally, patented the same idea. Long got in touch and they struck a deal for the machines to be made in Spain and for Embryonyx to sell them outside Spain.

“I basically test marketed it for 18 months or so starting in 2012 and then I launched it properly in 2013 at the Disability Roadshow in Telford last June, and it has just taken off,’’ he says.

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“This started out as a product we saw as something very much for wheelchair users, people who can’t walk at all.

We get a lot of people with MS buying this because they literally can’t move their legs at all and they get terrible problems and cold feet as well. That was the initial target market and, of course, the frail, elderly, people who are riddled with age related illnesses so they’re just stuck in their chair all day.’’

However, a whole new market soon became apparent.“Since we launched it we get a lot of

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people, families and individuals buying them, who are resident in a care home. And what we’ve found is, the care home market, not necessarily the actual residents, but the care home operators, have suddenly found out and they’re absolutely falling over themselves to get their hands on Happy Legs.

“What they’ve realised is that all their residents are spending all day in a room on a chair, not moving, not exercising and of course they know, as care home operators, they need to try to help them physically with movement but they’ve got no other way of doing it. They might have gyms, which look good on a brochure but they’re only used by the staff. In reality, the residents aren’t getting any exercise.

“Research has shown that residents who get physical stimulation, not only benefit physically from the movement of the legs but also fare better mentally.

So with the Care Quality Commission now stepping up their expectations of care homes, what they’re finding is that the Happy Legs machines are providing a not just a cost effective, but an effective, physical way of bringing some exercise and stimulation to their residents.

“It’s quite a portable device, it’s not much bigger than a set of bathroom scales, so they can take it into a care home day room and pass it around the residents as they’re sitting there.

“Literally, in the last couple of weeks we’ve actually set up a whole new different strategy

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for care homes.’’ Embryonyx sells through high street mobility retailers, internet sites and its own website.

The machines retail for £290+VAT. Since the launch it has sold some 2,000 units and while it is concentrating sales at the moment on the UK and Republic of Ireland it will look at overseas markets. Long says he has other products in the pipeline, particularly for North America.

Like Happy Legs, these are products to be used while sitting in a chair.

“One of them is like an electric blanket for a chair,’’ he says. “You can imagine, elderly people are sitting at home for eight hours a day – they’ve got the whole house’s heating on to keep themselves warm, so what this product does is keep you warm in your chair.

You’re nice and cosy in your chair but you don’t have to have the whole house heated, so it’s a great product for keeping costs down for elderly people at home.’’

Another product is a hand massager for sufferers from arthritis in the hands or

INTERVIEW

Reynaud’s disease, a circulation condition which causes cold, sore hands.

“You basically hold it in the other hand and push your fingers into it and it massages your fingers which gives almost instant relief to your hands,’’ says Long.

All these products are destined for the export market.

Santander supported the business with the initial capital to fund the sales and marketing activity and buy stock.

Long says: “We just didn’t have the capital to buy the initial stock.

“One of the initial problems we had when we launched it was that our sales forecast was our best guess but they got blown away so fast that our biggest problem was we just could not supply quick enough to meet the demand. It’s steady now, we’ve managed to build enough stock in the UK to manage any large influx of orders but in the early days we couldn’t do that and we were scrambling around to try to get stock and get it built as fast as possible.’’ n

Elderly people are sitting at home for eight hours a day – they’ve got the whole house’s heating on to keep themselves warm, so what this product does is keep you warm in your chair

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Ben Staerck, of Furniture Clinic, says the win will enable him to move into Dubai sooner

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SUCCESS STORY A trio of North East companies are poised to launch export drives in the Middle East, after winning a competition to go to Dubai and drum up business. More than 25 companies across the region entered the competition, organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and the Millennium Plaza Hotel Dubai in a bid to secure a “Golden Ticket” to take part in a market visit to Dubai in December. The three winning companies were Furniture Clinic, Nortech Solutions Group and Tomlinson Hall & Co.

FURNITURE CLINIC

A GOLDEN CHANCE AWAITS Three North East companies have won the chance to take their products and services to new markets in the Middle East

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Furniture Clinic, based in Burnopfield, County Durham is a market leader in the development and manufacture of leather repair and care products used by several industrial sectors including furniture, automotive, clothing, handbags, and equestrian.

The company also offers training courses to the public and trade and new products have been added to cover other items such as fabric and wood. The company already exports to several overseas markets including the US, Russia and Hong Kong. Its exports amount to more than £250,000. The company, which launched in 2005, has an annual turnover of £2.2m, up from £1.7m last year, and more than 60 employees in 11 branches across the UK since launching in 2005. It is currently in negotiations with Durham County Council over the acquisition of a 3.5 acre site over the road from his current site, where it wants to build a 30,000sq ft factory to be operational by Spring 2015. Its five-year plan, which includes the new factory, involves the creation of 56 jobs.

Founder and owner Ben Staerck says “We are absolutely delighted to have been chosen for this prize, giving Furniture Clinic the opportunity to develop our business in Dubai and the Middle East region. This award allows us to progress business relations in this area quicker than we would normally have been planning to do.

“Initially, we would look to develop trade customers who would use our products and benefit from our training, and then eventually appoint a distributor for all Furniture Clinic products in Dubai and the region.”

Last year it opened a store in New York. >>

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We’re delighted to have been selected to join UKTI on this exciting market visit to Dubai. It is a great honour to have been selected and the visit will be an excellent opportunity to discover the many openings in the Dubai marketplace

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Bryan Bunn, of Nortech Solutions, is delighted to be Dubai-bound

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SUCCESS STORY

The amount of interest this competition has generated here in the North East has been fantastic – it has shown, once again, the amazing companies that the North East has to offer, as the judging process was by no means an easy task

Staerck says: “It’s going well. It has been open a year and it has hit its targets and is progressing well.’’

NORTECH SOLUTIONS Nortech Solutions Group of Wynyard is an award winning engineering design, project management, procurement and construction management services provider for a range of industry sectors. The Nortech group of companies is made up of three businesses: Nortech Solutions, Nortech Oil & Gas and Nortech Staffing Solutions. Since its launch in April 2011 with just four employees, Nortech has enjoyed rapid growth and created more than 80 jobs. It had a turnover of £1.1m in its first year and by its second year end on March 2013, this was up to around £8.2m and is now approaching £10m.

Founder and managing director Bryan Bunn says: “We’re delighted to have been selected to join UKTI on this exciting market visit to Dubai.

It is a great honour to have been selected and the visit will be an excellent opportunity to discover the many openings in the Dubai marketplace as well as further enhance our knowledge of other emerging markets, and showcase Nortech’s expertise.

“We have experienced phenomenal growth since we set up in April 2011. We are very proud of our achievements and are looking forward to further building on our reputation in the burgeoning Dubai market.”

TOMLINSON HALL Tomlinson Hall & Co of Billingham was established in 1919. The company is now a major pump distributor and manufacturer, serving both UK and overseas markets.

It manufactures the Liquivac pump, which

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it successfully exports to countries including China, Argentina, the USA and Canada. The pump features an innovative liquid ring vacuum design and is used in chemical processing, aquaculture, sea water extraction, land remediation and food and drink processing, and in the utilities sector.

Tomlinson Hall & Co is the current British Pump Manufacturers’ Association Pump Distributor of the Year, having been awarded the title at the association’s Pump Industry Awards 2014. The company also won this award in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Colin Simpson, business development director of Tomlinson Hall & Co, says: “We’re delighted to be one of the ‘Golden Ticket’ winners and to be making the trip to Dubai. It’s a fantastic opportunity for Tomlinson Hall & Co. “Dubai is a key target market for the company and our Liquivac pump can be utilised within numerous industry sectors in the UAE. We’re looking forward to promoting North East manufacturing overseas and to working with UKTI and Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.”

Chris Simpson, a UKTI lead International trade adviser says: “The amount of interest this competition has generated here in the North East has been fantastic and I must give a great deal of thanks to Fayha Sultan at the Dubai tourism team and the Millennium Plaza Hotel Dubai for supporting this initiative.

“It has shown, once again, the amazing companies that the North East has to offer, as the judging process was by no means an easy task. To the three winners, I would like to say a massive well done and I am sure the experience and opportunities will be game changing.

“I look forward to working with them and accompanying them on the visit to Dubai.

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Many of the region’s companies are already successfully exporting to Dubai and other markets around the globe, and UKTI is committed to helping more companies join the global race and we hope our winners’ success will inspire more to take up the export for growth challenge.”

Fayha Sultan, marketing manager – commerce at Dubai’s DTCM, says: “I would like to congratulate the winners and look forward to meeting them on the trip. It was a very difficult decision to make as all the entries were of a high calibre and their products have great potential in Dubai.

“I will be working closely with Chris Simpson to ensure that the group gets the most out of the visit on the professional and leisure side. The companies are already trading with Dubai and this visit will expand their knowledge of Dubai as a regional base for the rest of the Middle East, Asia and Africa.”

Millennium Plaza Hotel Dubai general manager Daniel Mathew says: “We are proud to be a part of the initiative alongside UKTI and Dubai Tourism to boost exports from the North East and look forward to welcoming the winners to the Millennium Plaza Hotel Dubai.”

The prize for each company includes return flights between Newcastle and Dubai, five nights’ hotel accommodation with breakfast and up to £2,000 towards market research through UKTI’s Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS).

The winners will also be able to benefit from the services of a UKTI international trade adviser both before and during the visit, will take part in a reception at the British Embassy in Dubai and have a series of meetings arranged for them during the visit through Dubai’s DTCM and UKTI’s commercial team in Dubai. n

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EXPORTING MAKES PERFECT SCENTS Businesses don’t have to be big to export, as Peter Jackson discovers talking to a small firm that started on the kitchen table

A family-run Northumberland firm is enjoying the sweet smell of success after taking its first steps into international trade.

Home Scents, of Hexham, specialises in ecofriendly products crafted from totally natural ingredients. It was launched six years ago

by Judith and John Mathias, after they were inspired by their granddaughter who suffered childhood asthma.

At that time living in Kent, they were concerned about the reported increases in childhood asthma and eczema. As a result they developed their own range which included laundry, cleaning and mother and baby toiletries made from 100% natural ingredients.

John had been an electrician but Judith’s experience was slightly more relevant.

He explains: “Judith was a trained chef and

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she always says, basically, it’s a matter of recipes and menus.’’

They began by making products for their granddaughter but things took off with more and more people taking an interest and asking to buy the products. It soon became apparent that they had a business.

“It started so that we could produce stuff for Isabelle, but it started to get bigger and bigger, we got backing from Business Link and they gave us a lot of help,’’ says John.

“It literally started on a kitchen table and Judith made one or two things and handed them round to people. It’s trial and error, you learn as you go and we came up with one or two products. I think the first one we did was a room spray and then from there on we saw what the need was and laundry was one

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of the obvious things because residues stay in things like nappies, and particularly with babies they can be absorbed easily through the skin and cause all sorts of problems. We just sort of built up a range as we went.’’

The essential principle was to ensure that all the ingredients used were natural so the products could be used by people with allergies. This was as much a matter of principle as business.

John says: “All the essential oils are aromatherapy grade. They’re all natural, there’s no synthetics at all, we don’t have anything to do with that. None of it is tested on animals, all of the other ingredients are biodegradable and botanical. We also list all the ingredients on the back label and it’s all there for people to see and I really feel that’s the way it >>

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

UKTI has been very helpful to us in our journey, guiding us through the minefields of finding the right markets, the pitfalls and advantages of agents or distributors and all the problems that can arise

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SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

SUCCESS STORY should be for everyone.’’

When their daughter and grandchildren moved to the North East, they followed and brought the business with them.

They started in Bellingham where they rented a large house, part of which they could use for production, but as the business took off they outgrew it.

“It got so big it got ridiculous,’’ says John.

“You couldn’t move up the stairs because there were boxes everywhere waiting to go out.’’

Then they found a unit in Hexham where the business is now based, although expanded again so that it now occupies two units. It is attracting the interest of larger retailers and further expansion is on the horizon.

“The way it’s going we may have to move elsewhere,’’ he says. “At the moment we can contain it but as more and more people come on board, we may have to move. We’re talking to some of the bigger retailers now, which we avoided in the early days. We’re talking to people like the Co-op.’’

Now the business has two employees apart from John and Judith. Recently they launched the Violet’s 100% Natural Laundry range and Little Violet’s Baby Toiletries which have proven to be a big hit among those with skin allergies or sensitivities to chemicals.

Keen to explore potential in overseas markets, the company signed up to UKTI’s Passport to Export programme 18 months ago and commissioned an Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) report for its baby toiletries and laundry products in the Netherlands.

As a result, Home Scents is celebrating its first overseas sales, with orders worth more than £10,000 so far. Just last month it had enquiries from potential customers in Portugal and Switzerland.

Judith explains: “We aim to make a big impact abroad, initially in northern Europe. Holland, Germany and Scandinavia are our prime targets at first. These are the more eco-friendly markets. Homes Scents has already had small exports to Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Spain.

“UKTI has been very helpful to us in our journey, guiding us through the minefields of finding the right markets, the pitfalls and

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

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We’re talking to some of the bigger retailers now, which we avoided in the early days.

We’re talking to people like the Co-op

40

advantages of agents or distributors and all the problems that can arise. This help has been invaluable since Lissa Balmer, our international trade adviser, came on board. We now feel we can make real progress in exporting our products to new markets.”

Lissa Balmer, who has been working closely with Home Scents says: “Home Scents was a novice exporter and understandably was unsure how best to approach international markets.

“It’s been a pleasure to work with Judith and the team to develop an export plan, identifying the best markets to target and it’s great to see that they are now exporting to several overseas markets.

“Home Scents is a great company to work with – very innovative and keen to explore collaborations and partnerships. It’s a great example of how, if you have the right product and the right attitude, you can succeed in the global race and I hope Home Scents’ success will inspire others to take up the export challenge.”

When they began mixing their products on the kitchen table, did they ever imagine that the business would take off and that they would be selling their products not only in the UK but around Europe?

“No, not really,’’ says John. “We were just concentrating on Izzy because she was struggling with the inhaler and that sort of thing. We thought there’s got to be a reason for this, some people get it and some people don’t. When we started researching it a lot of things came to the fore and the big boys don’t care anyway, they sell the stuff and make it as cheaply as possible and sell it as high as possible, ethics don’t come into it. But there are companies around that are ethical, and we’re one of them, we feel.’’

What are their plans for the business?

“I’m 76, but Judith won’t forgive me if I tell you her age,’’ laughs John. “The family are not interested in taking over the business. We’ve had investment and we’ve got people who are interested in the business. If we get it big enough, we can stay on in an advisory capacity and help to run the company or we can sell it, it depends. At the moment, we’re just concentrating on growing it and growing it.’ n

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SUCCESS STORY

AUTUMN 14

THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOUR PAID OFF Selling overseas has proved to be child’s play for one Northumberland business, as Peter Jackson discovers talking to Christine Lawson

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

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Export success is proving to be a real education for a Northumberland firm which has been selling overseas for several years.

Eduk8 Worldwide, of Great Whittington, is a small family business that specialises in educational aids and toys, with – it says – the emphasis firmly on innovation and fun.

Its range of products covers maths, English language, science, early years, outdoor play and special needs from the age of three years through to secondary school level, with resources for both pupils and teachers.

The company was set up by mother-of-three and former sales rep Christine Lawson and her partner Roger, a product designer, more than ten years ago with the initial focus on traditional educational teaching aids.

Lawson explains: “These are classroom resources. ,They’re materials which help children in the classroom, so they can be in the form of maths games. They’re not books, they’re all products that have been designed by ourselves for special needs, for balance, or for co-ordination. We do PE, we do maths, science, literacy, we do art and craft materials, we cover pretty much the whole spectrum apart from IT. And that’s from early years from kindergarten right the way through into early secondary.’’

The business soon began to look at exporting.

“It was so we weren’t just reliant on the home market, says Lawson. “We wanted to be able to have the opportunity to expand and we just felt that because we’re purely in the education market, it’s very limited within the UK and we needed to go abroad.’’

With the support of UKTI’s Passport to Export initiative and more recently the Gateway to Global Growth (G3) programme, the company secured an impressive overseas client list. It has also commissioned an Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) report to explore the US as a potential new market.

“We cover most of Europe, the Middle East, the US and we do ship out to Singapore,’’ says Lawson. “We’ve got a couple of distributors in Singapore as well. Primarily we look to distributors in each country, we’re not interested in selling direct to individual companies, ideally we’re looking for distributors.’’

Now about a third of sales are overseas,

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

SUCCESS STORY

We wanted to be able to have the opportunity to expand and we just felt that because we’re purely in the education market, it’s very limited within the UK and we needed to go abroad although there were cultural barriers to overcome. “Obviously the UK curriculum is driven by the government, so it’s quite specific and the UK market is our first and foremost concern, so our products have to be designed for the UK market,’’ says Lawson.

“Trying to get those products to fit in on the international sphere is quite tricky sometimes.

Just to give an example, we teach decimals in this country and we find in Europe they don’t teach decimals until much, much later and in any case the decimal place is in a totally different position, they use it like a dot, rather than in the middle. It’s difficult for a small business like us to produce specifically for a particular country because of the volumes that are involved with manufacturing. So that is our biggest problem I would say.’’

Nor is exporting cheap.

Lawson says: “There are individual countries I would love to target but can’t because I feel the cost is really prohibitive. If you think about it, when you visit a country you’ve got the flights, the accommodation, plus a research report on top, you’re talking about £2,000 to £3,000 easily. It’s a lot of money to spend on one country – and there’s a lot of countries out there.’’

In 2013, they decided to broaden the product customer base by expanding into the retail toy market, and in January this year they exhibited at the London Toy Fair in Olympia, followed in February by the Spring Fair in Birmingham and the Nuremburg Toy Fair in Germany, with support from UKTI’s Tradeshow Access Programme.

Lawson says: “We felt that parents should have access to the same quality educational toys

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which are used in schools and the response we’ve had has been wonderful. We’ve had more than 160 serious enquiries from all over the world including Japan, Korea, Germany, France and the USA and this is expected to result in 50 or more longer-term customers including Amazon, Tesco, Argos, M&S and Sainsbury’s.”

Every year, in late January or early February, Eduk8 exhibits at the seven-day Nuremburg Toy Fair.

“That is our shop window for our international customers,’’ says Lawson. “We always have high hopes for that. Every year we pick up new customers there and of course we do that with the support of UKTI, because it’s a very expensive exhibition to exhibit at, but we wouldn’t be able to survive without exhibiting there. It’s our only opportunity to access a lot of countries but in just one place.’’

Jeff Sanders, one of UK Trade & Investment’s International Trade Advisers, who has worked with the company, says: “We’ve been working with Eduk8 Worldwide Ltd for several years and Christine and Roger have made good use of a wide range of UKTI’s support services.

“It is a clear example of how success in exporting can be achieved by getting the right product into the right market, combined with a lot of hard work and perseverance. I hope their success will inspire other small businesses to find out how exporting can help their business grow.” n

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 14

HOTTING UP AGAIN AFTER THE CRASH Compact Engineering of Thirsk has just landed a major order from India.

Peter Jackson talks to Tim Klemz about a company whose equipment can be found all over the world

Tim Klemz has reason to be cheerful. It’s not every day that a sales and marketing director can celebrate landing a £600,000 export order.

It is particularly welcome for the company – which makes infrared drying lamps for the paper industry – as it suffered badly in the post Lehmans recession.

“It was brutal, absolutely brutal, hideous, horrible ’’ says sales and marketing director Tim Klemz. “I never want to go through that again. Everything seized up. Our customers weren’t getting orders for their products, they weren’t even consuming spares, so it was very tight indeed. There was obviously no capital expenditure going on and nobody was considering increasing production. So it was a bit like a sort of forced sabbatical, but you’ve

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still got an overhead that needs feeding, so it was very uncomfortable.’’

He estimates that turnover dropped by something like 80% and staff were laid off.

Now the team has been built back up to six and annual turnover can be anything between £750,000 and £3m.

The business was established in 1986 by Tim’s father David, current managing director, who, prior to starting Compact, had been the European managing director of a US firm which made infrared dryers. Before that he had been the managing director of Spooners, in Ilkley, which makes hot air dryers.

“It struck him that it would be a good idea to combine the heat transfer effect of the infrared with the mass transfer effect of the

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hot air so that’s what he did,’’ explains Klemz.

Compact Engineering predominantly serves the paper industry. Its lamps dry the coatings on glossy, high quality cardboard packaging.

“We dry the coatings either to the point where it’s immobile on the sheet surface so that’s great for quality results, or, in the case of India, we do the whole drying so we save them the cost of a hot air dryer,’’ says Klemz.

“Or we do a thing called cross directional moisture profile control, so we take a signal from the scanners on the paper machine that monitor the moisture content across the core sheet width and feed that back to our control computers, and we then change the power input across the sheet width to produce a stable and uniform product on the reel.

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“The material starts off terribly wet and it’s strained on a moving sieve and then pressed and has the water sucked out of it. Then it’s dried over a series of steam filled drying cylinders. And it works very well, but it is fairly vague, in terms of moisture removal, so you do tend to get wet streaks, and we normalise the wet streaks. So we improve the product quality, but also, taking the wet streaks out of the sheet increases the production of the machine, quite significantly, about 10 to 15%.

“We make them and we design them ourselves and because of the design and manufacturing differences, we’re able to transfer 90% more heat per kilowatt to the sheet than an off the shelf standard lamp, which is a hell of a lot when you’re running a couple of megawatts.’’

The lamps are guaranteed for 15,000 hours in an industry where the standard is 5,000 hours.

“I’ve just been to a customer last week in South Africa and theirs is 20 years old,’’ he says. The more of Compact Engineering’s lamps that are installed, the larger the subsequent market for spares.

The recession may have been brutal for the company, but it did have some benefits.

Klemz explains: “We’ve changed the way we do business, so it was, in a way, a blessing, because it’s allowed us to streamline the business. We can outsource more – place more responsibility on some of our sub-suppliers.’’

Some 90% of the lamps produced are for overseas markets. Paper is a universal product and, apart from India, the company has sold to China, Australia, South Africa, the US, Spain, Sweden and Norway.

The more promising markets tend to be those where there is an already developed industry and an interest in improving processes.

“In Scandinavia, they are good pioneers in the industry and we can help them meet bigger challenges with existing machinery, which they’re interested in. China has a growing affluence so they will inevitably consume more paper and board,’’ says Klemz.

“South America is one on our watch list.

We’ve been there a few times on visits but the industry’s really not terribly mature in a way.

They’ve got a lot of capacity to make tissue, but they don’t have anything, really, to make heavier weights, which is what our speciality

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FOR BUSINESS

There are a lot of messages which transfer face to face in a conversation which you don’t get through electronic media

is. And the US will come back. It’s struggling a bit at the moment because the economy’s not very clever and really paper and board consumption moves in economic step with the economic strength of the country.’’

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INTERVIEW

Inevitably, exporting so much involves Klemz in a lot of travel.

He says: “They’re quite chunky bits of kit and they want to see you before they split with a whole lot of money. They want to be sure that what they’re buying is the right tool for the job and, wherever business is conducted around the world, it depends on the relationship between you and the purchaser, and I don’t think there’s a replacement for that yet. You can transfer information by e-mail and Skype and things, but there are a lot of messages which transfer face to face in a conversation which you don’t get through electronic media.’’

Before winning the Indian order, the company had to overcome a financing problem.

“Our previous bankers really gave us the runaround,’’ says Klemz. “They took four months, to-ing and fro-ing, asking for changes in the terms and conditions of the payment criteria and the letters of credit and stuff and then they turned around and said ‘Oh we actually don’t have an appetite to write any more business in India’. So we were left rather high and dry, which is pretty disappointing, but Santander stepped into the breach and have been very good to date.’’

While Compact sells overseas, it is keen to source its suppliers in the UK. Klemz says: “One of my big drivers is to use as much local workforce as I can, because it’s important to me, I want the shops to stay open, I want the pubs to stay open, I want the garages to stay open, and you only do that by bringing in money from overseas and spending it locally. One of our managers from the previous bank suggested it would be much cheaper if we got some of our components made in China and I said, ‘You just don’t get it do you? You don’t understand the importance of manufacturing?’

“While we employ a relatively small number of people, indirectly we’re probably responsible for the employment of another 10 or 15, through our sub-contractors and suppliers.’’

So he sees manufacturing as important for the UK? “Yes, because it creates wealth and when I say it creates wealth, it doesn’t make you rich like a footballer, but you have somebody else’s money. I mean, I always >>

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 14

We’ve changed the way we do business, so it was, in a way, a blessing. It’s allowed us to streamline the business. We can outsource more – place more responsibility on our sub-suppliers

view macro-economics a bit like Monopoly, and the winner is the guy whose side of the board is jacked up with everybody else’s money underneath it. At the moment that country is probably China and, you know, when you’ve got a fiat currency - where when you’ve run out of it you can just print some more - to give faith to the market you really need something to back it up. So if you have a vibrant trade sector and you’re churning other people’s money which supports the value of your own money, that’s got to be a good thing. Printing your own stuff and having nothing to support it is pretty dangerous. I know that’s really old fashioned.’’

The current strength of sterling is not a problem for the business. The order cycle is long and typically, from an initial meeting to delivery can take between one and five years.

“At the outset the value of sterling’s not important really because they like the concept, they’re sold on the technology and normally there’s a bit of wiggle room in the final pricing,’’ he says. “Once we’ve fixed the price, if we need to, we can fix our exchange rate or

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

we can leave it open, it depends if it’s going in our favour or not. We just keep a weather eye to what’s going on in the broader market.’’

Something that is an irritant is red tape.

“Bureaucracy is just a pain in the neck. It’s not a hindrance in that it’s a barrier, it’s just boring because we need to employ people to do it.

Even just things like filling out EUR1 forms for exporting stuff to countries that have an arrangement with the UK, which saves our customers a bit of money, probably takes 40 minutes. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you’ve got 10 of them to do and the person who’s doing it has got other jobs that they need to be getting on with, it’s a bit boring.’’

To maintain its market position Compact Engineering has to undertake constant R&D. He says: “We’re always trying to stay well ahead of ourselves. We know we’re very good, but there’s always probably room for improvement. When I first arrived here 18 years ago the products we were making were radically different to today’s.

“One of the joys of making our own lamps

46

is we can do really silly things. Because paper is made on drying cylinders, it makes sense to have a curved lamp and we can curve our lamps in the machine direction, which means we can get twice as many kilowatts into a given space in a machine, which is a huge boon as paper machine speeds increase and the mass of water that needs to be removed at any given time increases. We’re just all about sort of chipping away at little bits here and there, which become cumulative, which is how we get such a good heat transfer.

“Ideally you want to learn from your mistakes.

I think that’s something that’s a shame in our culture at the moment - people get hammered for making mistakes, so nobody takes a risk.

I’m a big fan for standing up, putting your head over the parapet, and having a look and seeing what’s going on. I hope there is a culture amongst graduates these days that it’s alright to go and take a risk. It’s alright to mess up, as long as you don’t make the same mistake twice, and you learn from it.

It’s a perfectly acceptable way of running a business, to mess up every now and again.’’ n

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SUCCESS STORY

MAKING THE WORLD A SAFER PLACE TRM makes products in demand all over the world, for use in the most demanding environments, as Peter Jackson reports >>

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Cllr Harry Trueman and Cllr Paul Watson, Sunderland City Council and Nick Morton and Jamie Groves of TRM

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 14

SUCCESS STORY Sunderland-based manufacturer Thermal Resources Management (TRM) Group has completed three major international projects, creating jobs and boosting the group’s exports to 85% of output in 2014.

Large contracts on the high-profile New Delhi metro system, the huge Kuwait University campus and Kuwait International Airport have been completed by the group, which has added 10 staff in the last 12 months, bringing the total workforce at its facility at the Wear Industrial Estate, Washington, to 90. TRM is aiming to create more jobs over the next year as part of further expansion plans.

The group makes temperature measurement devices, manufacturing industrial heating systems and fireproof wiring cable. It claims its thermocouple and trace heating equipment is unique in the UK, and widely used in the petrochemical, oil and gas, aviation, electronics and automotive sectors.

At the peak of the New Delhi Metro system project, TRM supplied 40,000 metres of wiring per month. The public transport system now covers 120 miles and carries up to two million passengers a day.

Delhi’s metro network, which has been 30 years in the making, is considered a state of the art system, with air conditioned driverless trains, magnetic fare cards and electronic fare gates.

The group has also completed a £1m project at the New University City campus for Kuwait University, supplying fireproof wiring cable for bombproof shelters that can withstand the fiercest fires. Each bomb shelter can hold hundreds of people.

The massive campus, which will be the world’s largest when completed, occupies a 540 hectare (1,285 acre) site. By next year, more than 30,000 full time students will be

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accommodated at its 16 colleges and related support facilities.

Kuwait is an important and growing market for the TRM group, which also includes sister company MICC (Mineral Insulated Cables Company). The group is returning to the country for the Big Five Kuwait Show, the nation’s largest construction event, where it will be exhibiting with a local company it has formed a partnership with to win work from the huge infrastructure investment currently underway in the country.

MICC has also finished a key job supplying its technically-advanced fire survival cable – which can withstand fire for two hours – at the new Kuwait International Airport administration building, designed by Foster and Partners.

Sunderland City Council’s business investment team has worked with the group since it moved to Washington.

The City Council has supported the growth of group’s current plant, but its exporting successes mean it is close to outgrowing the space and it is keen to work with the City Council again to find larger premises.

TRM works with partners in India, the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and the US, and it is looking to appoint partner companies in Oman, Qatar, Dubai and Brazil.

The group’s annual turnover is now around £8m, and it invested more than £75,000 in upgrading its communications systems, including an enterprise relationship programme. TRM has been equally successful in exporting its industrial trace heating solutions, forming partnerships with leading constructors of concentrated solar power plants, for completed projects in North America, Africa and Russia. It has also attracted world-leading customers such as Reliance Industries, and has worked

with Starflex in India to provide design and insulation solutions to Reliance, one of the world’s biggest companies.

The group’s advanced temperature sensors are also supplied to UK and global power station operators, to support them in their research and development needs.

Doug Dooley, managing director of TRM, said: “Our products are used in the most demanding of places worldwide such as the bottom of oil wells, nuclear plants and in the skies, all of which demand the highest standards of safety for vital temperature measurement devices.

“We are delighted at the company’s success in winning major projects worldwide. These each bring work to our plant in Sunderland, and increase the numbers and quality of jobs we can offer local people.”

Councillor Harry Trueman, deputy leader of Sunderland City Council said: “TRM is a first rate example of our successful manufacturing sector. They create unique products, keep ahead of their markets and are fleet of foot, adapting to changing requirements to sell successfully worldwide. It is fantastic news that the companies are exporting 85% of their products and winning complex projects against global competition.”

The TRM group has staff with more than 50 years’ experience in research and development, manufacturing and applications of mineral insulated wiring cable, heating cable, thermocouple cable and many kinds of plastic heating cables. TRM’s customers include the heating, wiring and temperature measurement industries, such as petrochemical, chemical, oil field, natural gas, metallurgy, telecom, aviation, power plant, electronics, military industry, and nuclear industry. n

Our products are used in the most demanding of places worldwide such as the bottom of oil wells, nuclear plants and in the skies, all of which demand the highest standards of safety for vital temperature measurement devices

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A MAJOR EVENT TO INSPIRE, MOTIVATE & SHARE BUSINESS SUCCESS

Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner 2015

In partnership with

North East: 12th February, 6pm, Hilton Newcastle Gateshead BQ Magazine continues to support and encourage entrepreneurship across the UK. Our mission is to recognise and celebrate the contribution that entrepreneurs make to our economy, whilst encouraging and motivating others to succeed in business.

The BQ North East Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner is being held in conjunction with MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival 2015, the UK’s largest annual festival of entrepreneurship.

Be inspired, gain practical advice and celebrate as our successful entrepreneurs and emerging talent tell their story. Join BQ and BBC Home News Editor Mark Easton for an evening of chat, celebration and recognition on Thursday 12th February at Hilton Newcastle Gateshead.

Winning BQ Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 was an incredible honour that reflects the hard work we have been doing at Geco Industries. The award significantly raises the profile of Geco Industries and being presented at the MADE festival adds to this.

LEWIS BOWEN, GECO INDUSTRIES

Entrepreneur MADE The Festival: Sheffield

Join us for an inspiring evening in celebration of entrepreneurship www.bqlive.co.uk/eedinner/ne Book your place now by contacting bryan@room501.co.uk or call Bryan Hoare on 0191 426 6300

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