NEWS
AUTUMN 10
>> York company gets cancer funding A consortium including York-based Neotherix has won funding from the Technology Strategy Board to develop a regenerative medicine product to help skin cancer patients. EktoTherix assists tissue repair and regeneration, has been developed by Neotherix with Lorien Engineering Solutions and Smith & Nephew Advanced Wound Management. The consortium has secured 50% funding for the £345,000 project to take the therapy to its next stage of development. This follows an earlier feasibility project grant made to Neotherix by the Board in 2009. Neotherix chief executive Mike Raxworthy said: “This Technology Strategy Boardfunded project will continue the development of the product towards full commercialisation. On completion our aim is to conduct a clinical evaluation of the product, with an estimated market launch in late 2012. The estimated global market for this product is £360m per annum.”
>> Rebrand for office supplier Office supplier Supplies Team Solutions has relocated to a new site in Normanton as it goes through a rebrand. The firm’s 160 employees have relocated from the original head office in Bradford to the new site which includes a 255,000 sq ft distribution centre.
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The centre has room for an additional 10,000 stocked lines, and includes 2km of conveyer belts and 8,000 pallet locations. At the same time the company, which is more than 40 years old, has launched a new catalogue and website with a bigger range of products, and new more eco-friendly services. Managing director Steve Haworth said: “We have successfully recovered from a difficult time last year and emerged with a very bright future. As well as growing our core business we have launched our own line of private label office products and are working with all suppliers to offer a greater emphasis on ‘green’ products and with customers to help reduce costs and waste.”
>> Morrison’s takes Yorkshire Blue nationwide North Yorkshire artisan cheese maker, Shepherds Purse, has secured a national listing for its best selling cheese with Morrisons. The Thirsk-based business started supplying Yorkshire Blue cheese into more than 400 stores at the end of August. Traditionally handcrafted at the company’s North Yorkshire dairy, the cheese, made from 100% cow’s milk, will be available as a 180g “buy me whole” portion on the Market Street deli. The cheese is based on a continental style recipe and has a mellow, creamy and buttery flavour. Sales and marketing director Katie Bell said: “We have worked with Morrisons
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regionally for many years and have featured as one of the supermarket’s Local Heroes, so we are delighted to introduce our handmade Yorkshire Blue cheese nationwide to customers.”
>> ICM in biggest deal Batley-based ICM Continuity Services has won the largest contract in its history – a £19m deal to provide one of the largest dedicated UK stand-by dealing capabilities outside of the City of London for a global financial services group. The new facility creates an alternative workplace at one of ICM’s dedicated business continuity centres. The secure centre instantaneously mirrors the technology, voice and data systems currently in use at the financial group’s London headquarters. It will provide the client’s traders and support staff with a permanently configured alternative facility they can use in case a major incident in London prevents normal operations. The £3.44m per annum, five-and-a-half-year deal is an early extension of an initial three-year contract that was due to end in March 2011. It includes a significant upgrade to the dealing room and PC systems to provide a “like for like” facility that will offer continuous business with no data loss and no service degradation from the “normal” operational environment. ICM managing director Mike Osborne said: “This is great news for all of our 230 staff including those based in our Leeds office. It’s also great news for Yorkshire that a locallybased company has the expertise and capability to deliver these leading-edge services.”
>> Deloitte £16m down on last year Deloitte’s North East practice brought in earnings of £75m in the year to the end of May this year, new figures show. Such a result is less than 5% down on the same period the year before. Worldwide earnings for the business >>
04/10/2010 16:02