CONSTRUCTING THE FUTURE
NEED TO KNOW: THE I o T 10 COOL BUILDINGS
AMBITIOUS LEADERS
Our main features, on manufacturing and infrastructure, not to mention our 10 Cool Buildings spread, reveals just a small proportion of what’s being made and built across the region.
Despite what people might think, Make UK (the industry membership organisation which champions the country’s manufacturing sector), says that with an annual output of £183 billion, the UK remains the ninth largest manufacturing nation in the world.
Yes, the Victorians built our railways, sewers, tunnels and much more – Isambard Kingdom Brunel is rightly celebrated as one of the world’s greatest engineers, but many didn’t treat their workers well. There were no pensions, state support and the pay was dismal – a Victorian captain of industry didn’t have to pay workers much because he knew they’d face destitution if they didn’t work. OK there were exceptions, such as the Quaker George Cadbury who built hundreds of homes on 300 acres in the Midlands for his workers to alleviate the evils of modern cramped living conditions – but being a Quaker, he didn’t build any pubs. His homes were for God-fearing, tee-totallers.
This country is investing in infrastructure too. While HS2 is having a tough time, the long-awaited tunnel under Stonehenge got the go-ahead this summer, and preparation work has already started on the A419 “Missing Link” in Gloucestershire.
Having said that, we also know that running a manufacturing or construction business
(in fact pretty much any business) remains tough, and that won’t change quickly.
In this issue we are, again, highlighting the many successful companies and projects happening across the region, and meeting successful businesspeople who are building and running some of the fastestgrowing companies.
We talk to the boss of Gloucester pharmaceutical manufacturer (Lane’s Health), another who has built and running Bristol software company Amdaris, chat to one of the country’s largest renewable energy installers (Worcestershire-based Caplor Energy) and hear from the man behind the most successful swimming franchise in the world (Water Babies).
The Cotswolds also has the most popular whisky distillery in the world (sorry Scotland) – according to whisky experts.
Wherever we look, it doesn’t take long to discover success and inspiration.
Nicky Godding Editor
Kirsty Muir Head of Print and Advertising
Alexandra Scrivener Media Sales Manager
Too many people say that this country doesn’t make stuff any more –they’re wrong. We do
... with an annual output of £183 billion, the UK remains the ninth largest manufacturing nation in the world
The South West has been hailed as a “hotbed of entrepreneurial activity” by BGF, one of the largest and most experienced active growth capital investors in the UK and Ireland.
BGF’s Bristol-based regional chief, Ned Dorbin, predicted an exciting future for the area after reporting a strong first half of the year in the South West.
The BGF team has deployed more than £40 million across the region in the first six months of 2023. Growth capital investments have been made across a diverse range of sectors, including technology, healthcare, engineering and manufacturing.
Ned Dorbin, head of BGF in the South West, said: “We have had a great start to the year, which is further testament to the strength of the region’s business community which continues to be a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity.
“We are proud to be backing so many brilliant businesses which are focused on growth, particularly in today’s challenging market.”
Bristol-based healthcare infrastructure firm, Archus has been boosted by a £9 million investment, while South West care home group BN Care has embarked upon a fiveyear growth journey following a total of £5 million invested in the business since January this year. The company has since acquired two new care homes in Dorset and Exeter, taking its portfolio to five premises, as the demand for high-quality care for the region’s elderly continues to soar.
Earlier this year, BGF exited its investment in Trunki, the children’s ride-on suitcase brand, a decade after its original investment. Trunki, which was famously rejected by the BBC Dragons in 2009 and went on to be a phenomenally successful, multi-million pound brand, has been acquired by Heroes, an e-commerce company.
Ned Dorbin added: “BGF’s mission is more important than ever and the deals we have done this year demonstrate the strength and resilience of the region.
“We are all very excited about the second half of 2023 as we look to partner with even more businesses across the South West to help them fulfil their potential.”
We are proud to be backing so many brilliant businesses which are focused on growth, particularly in today’s challenging marketTrunki, a great South West success story
Vertical Aerospace the Bristol-based global aerospace and technology company pioneering zero-emissions aviation, has flown its first successful electric flight with a full-scale electric aircraft.
The company reached its target speed of 40kts (70 kmph) in a series of "rigorous, remotely-piloted ‘thrustborne’ test flights" at Cotswold Airport, Kemble.
The only full-scale eVTOL (electric vertical take o and landing) aircraft in the country, the VX4 lifted, hovered, flew and landed, powered solely by the thrust of the cuttingedge battery-powered propulsion system.
Vertical’s Chief Test Pilot, Justin Paines, said: “The aircraft was remarkably easy to fly.
"It was rock-solid in stability and provided precise control even in demanding flight conditions such as hovering close to the ground.”
Vertical, which was founded by Stephen FitzPatrick, the man behind Ovo Energy, has focused on building the most experienced and senior team in the eVTOL industry,
Vertical has forged strong relationships with industry-leading players to develop the various components of its aircraft and build a sophisticated eVTOL ecosystem, creating e ciencies across the manufacturing processes, aircraft operations and maintenance.
The University of Gloucestershire has submitted plans for a £5.8 million digital and cyber hub at its Park Campus in Cheltenham.
The new facilities will give students an environment that resembles working in the real world industry.
Bristol-based architects Austin-Smith:Lord have been appointed to design the hub, with Kier Group as main project contractor.
Former University of Gloucestershire Vice-Chancellor, Stephen Marston, who retired at the end of July, said: “The new centre will build on the university’s existing links within the burgeoning cyber sector in Cheltenham and the South West. This new centre will help forge Cheltenham’s position as a world-class hub for cyber and computing.”
The Rt Hon Alex Chalk, MP for Cheltenham, who has championed the town’s cyber ambitions for almost a decade, added: “Cyber is key to Cheltenham’s economic future, with a wealth of cyber expertise already here, exciting plans for the Golden Valley, and strongly backed by the government as part of the national cyber strategy.”
Over the last few years, the county has seen vast investment go into bringing its cyber ambitions alive.
In 2021 Gloucestershire College opened a dedicated cyber training centre close to GCHQ, and there is also a cyber centre at Berkeley Green, next to SGS Academy Trust’s University Technical College.
Then there’s the huge ambitions for the county’s £1 billion Golden Valley project, which, when complete, is due to deliver 12,000 new jobs, 3,700 houses, a cyber centre and cyber park.
Last year Cheltenham Borough Council appointed HBD X Factory as its development partner for the first phase of the project, but all seems to have gone quiet on that front as some concerns have been raised about rising costs. We will investigate this in a future issue.
Work is also progressing at Gloucester Forum (by Kier again) which will include a digital and technology campus alongside new houses, a hotel and leisure facilities.
“Cyber is key to our economic future in Cheltenham ...”Vertical Aerospace’s electric aircraft Artist’s impression of the new digital and cyber hub
The Cotswolds Distillery has been named the most popular whisky distillery in the UK and Ireland following research carried out by whisky experts, The Cask Connoisseurm – and its gin is pretty good too.
With whisky tourism becoming more popular, The Cask Connoisseur team charted the top whisky attractions for tourists.
They analysed the Google ratings, Tripadvisor reviews and social media metrics of 231 whisky distilleries across the UK and Ireland, with The Cotswolds Distillery coming out on top.
The Cotswolds Distillery was commended for its “highly sought-after destination in a picturesque location, immersive tours and
the opportunity to witness the meticulous craft of distilling first-hand”.
Cotswolds Distillery founder Daniel Szor said: “It is an honour to receive such praise for our distillery.
“It comes at a time when we have recently completed expansion of our whisky production site and are now the largest producer of English whisky in the UK. This accolade serves as a fantastic recognition of the hard work of the entire
Bath-based charity Designability has partnered with Pershore product design company JMDA on a “game-changing” pushchair project.
Designability, formerly known as Bath Institute of Medical Engineering, was established in 1968 by inventor and engineer, Bevan Horstmann and local consultant surgeon Kenneth LloydWilliams to create medical equipment that makes a di erence to people’s lives.
Queen’s Award-winning JMDA will support Designability in the creation of the charity’s wheelchair-attachable pushchair, enabling parents who are manual wheelchair users the opportunity to take their babies and young children out independently.
There are currently no products of this type widely available on the open market, yet there are more than 16,000 parents in the UK who are manual wheelchair-users who could benefit.
The key aim of the partnership with JMDA is to engage with interested companies to bring the accessible pushchair to market.
Matthew Ford, Director of Design and Engineering at Designability said: “We are excited to be announcing this working partnership between JMDA and Designability.
“It will o er knowledge and resources to improve the lives of disabled people throughout the UK.”
Cotswolds Distillery team.”
The distillery was founded by Daniel Szor in 2014.
Located at Stourton in the North Cotswolds countryside, it is the first fullscale distillery in the region and visitors to the distillery can enjoy tastings and interactive blending masterclasses.
A new visitor centre opened in May 2019 which includes a shop and café.
Derrick Barker, Founder of JMDA Design which won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade for its outstanding contribution to child car seat safety globally, said: “We are delighted to form a partnership with Designability, a charity which strives to increase independence for disabled people through innovative and practical design solutions.
“Using our knowledge of the global nursery and baby products industry, we are pleased to help bring their new pushchair for wheelchair-users to fruition.”
It’s been the toughest five years for manufacturers. Brexit, the pandemic and the Ukraine war have each impacted variously on labour shortages, supply chain issues and soaring utility prices, to name the biggest issues.
But, whisper it quietly, could UK manufacturing have turned a corner?
According to manufacturers’ organisation Make UK’s latest Manufacturing Outlook, manufacturers say they are experiencing their calmest operating conditions since 2020. It’s by no means plain sailing, but the daily firefighting for some is not as desperate as it has been.
Seamus Nevin, Make UK’s Chief Economist, said: “Despite inflationary headwinds, the short-term future does o er a glimmer of consistency. The UK’s manufacturing sector has shown remarkable stability in recent quarters. Our industry has demonstrated time and again its ability to adapt, innovate and find ways to navigate di cult economic conditions. The resilience that defines us remains unwavering, propelling us to innovate further and secure a prosperous future for both the industry and the jobs it provides.”
But serious issues remain. The UK’s manufacturing industry needs proper support from government. Over the last 10 years there have been six industrial strategies. The latest one was shelved last year, but arguably none of them were proper strategies – more like thought pieces that belonged to the government’s various Departments of Business and weren’t really acted upon.
Make UK is becoming increasingly vocal in its calls to move the industrial strategy conversation up to Cabinet O ce level.
By Nicky Godding, EditorJames Brougham, Senior Economist at Make UK, said: “We are the only OECD country without a formalised industrial strategy. The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, says we do have one – it is the sum of the business policies in place. But we think that’s unsatisfactory. Make UK is calling for an industry strategy and for it to be the responsibility of the Cabinet O ce.”
The manufacturing industry has had a tough ride recently, but things might just be improving
The UK manufacturing sector is an essential contributor to the country’s economy generating £206 billion gross valued added last year – a fifth higher than a decade ago.
It accounts for around half of UK exports, two thirds of spending on research and development and a significant level of business investment.
The sector also employs around 2.6 million highly skilled people across the UK, many of them in areas that need levelling up. In short manufacturing matters to the prosperity and security of the UK.
There are other headwinds too, not least the USA government’s announcement last year of its Inflation Reduction Act.
This is a landmark US federal law aiming to curb inflation and a big part of the Act is the intention to invest billions of dollars into domestic energy production.
This has already resulted in drawing green investment to the States from the UK and EU. Could this mean that UK manufacturers could up sticks and move to the USA?
While it’s not impossible, particularly for multi-national companies, to build a new facility in the USA rather than the UK, it’s less likely for small companies because it’s hugely expensive to relocate and the USA’s regulatory frameworks make it complex for smaller businesses. Labour shortages are also as serious in the land of the free as the UK.
So what are UK manufacturers doing? James says that Make UK is seeing a major uptick in investment in automating and digitisation.
“The main sticking point for manufacturers post-Brexit was labour, and that’s still the case. Transient labour helped plug the gaps but now that’s more di cult, along with the post- Covid world of working where people want to work from home, or simply work less. The solution is a five-to-20-year investment in domestic skills, which we are supporting.”
But that won’t solve today and tomorrow’s challenges.
“Automation and digitisation are no longer a nice-to-have for forwardthinking manufacturers, it’s a need-tohave for almost all,” added James.
And while the cost of borrowing is continuing to rise, which will cut the amount of capital expenditure some companies are willing to invest, others are bravely going ahead and committing to such investment.
Manufacturing margins are improving, as the sector is regaining margins it lost over the past few years and exports are also improving, Make UK’s report revealed in June that for the first time since 2020, they have met or exceeded UK orders.
Although it may be too soon to tell, according to Make UK’s Manufacturing Outlook, it was confident enough to say that the unexpected bounce back which occurred at the start of the year may not be just a blip in the data.
Manufacturers are finally reporting strong balances across all measures of orders and while the growth is not astronomical it is modest enough that can mean business as usual may be returning.
The South West generates 10.5 per cent of its regional output from manufacturing.
Three major sectors account for just under half of the South West’s manufacturing output. The largest is the transport equipment subsector, with 21 per cent of all manufacturing output. This is followed by food and drink at just under 13 per cent and machinery equipment at just under 10 per cent. This is a slight change from 2022 when electronics was previously the third biggest subsector in the South West.
Exports from the South West manufacturing sector account for six per cent of the UK’s total goods exports. More than 40 per cent are exported to the EU, less than the national average of 52 per cent, which makes the region the least dependent on exports to the EU. The next largest destination for manufactured goods from the region is North America (20 per cent), followed by Australia and the Far East (just under 20 per cent).
The region reported modest growth in its average output balance compared to the previous four quarters, but order books and investment were down.
The West Midlands generates more than 14 per cent of its regional output from manufacturing. Three major subsectors account for just under 60 per cent of the West Midlands’ manufacturing economy. The largest is transport equipment, with more than 28 per cent of all manufacturing output. This is followed by metal products at just over 16 per cent, and machinery equipment subsector at just under 12 per cent.
The region’s dependence on the EU for goods exports decreased from 46 per cent to 45 percent. The next largest destination for West Midlands’ goods is North America, accounting for 24 per cent, followed by Australia and the Far East which accounts for 17 per cent of goods exports.
The West Midlands reported a strong year. While there were no stand-out performances, the region continues to head in a positive direction.
Source: Make UK’s Q2 Manufacturing Outlook
We are the only OECD country without a formalised industrial strategy. The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, says we do have one – it is the sum of the business policies in place. But we think that’s unsatisfactory
From Tewkesbury to Bristol, some of the region’s biggest manufacturing companies are investing heavily in new facilities.
In Cheltenham, thermal energy management and niche pumping company Spirax Sarco, is investing millions in a new headquarters. The company has occupied its Charlton House headquarters in Cheltenham for nearly 80 years. The redevelopment of the site, comprising a Grade II listed house and 1950s and 1970s extensions, will deliver a new headquarters which is expected to open in early 2024.
Charlton House is one of three locations in Cheltenham, where the Group employs around 1,100 colleagues. The other two are Northcroft House and Runnings Road, Spirax-Sarco’s manufacturing site. This multi-million-pound investment in the redevelopment of the Group’s headquarters is being done with the next 50 years in mind, demonstrating Spirax Sarco’s continuing commitment to Cheltenham and the wider area.
In August Spirax-Sarco’s Chief Executive O cer Nicholas Anderson announced his plan to retire next year after 10 years in the role. He will be replaced by Chief Financial O cer Nimesh Patel. Nicholas will remain with the group until the end of March next year in an advisory role.
In May, US-based aerospace company Moog Inc opened its new £40 million factory in Tewkesbury. The new 209,000 sq ft engineering and manufacturing facility is a significant investment in Moog’s UK capability.
Sta and equipment will transition from its three smaller buildings in the town over the next 12 months into the new building, which will enable Moog to house its growing engines and flight controls business more e ciently.
Moog has been operating in the UK for more than 50 years, with nine locations and more than 1,000 employees. It is one of Tewkesbury’s largest employers.
Mark Lawton, General Manager of the Aircraft Control Components division of Moog said: “Our continued success in the marketplace resulted in us outgrowing the premises that we have occupied for more than 45 years. Our new facility is more than double in size and allows us to incorporate modern manufacturing practices.”
The government, via the Aerospace Technology Institute and Innovate UK, provided more than £8 million in collaborative research and development funding to develop this “factory of the future.”
“Our continued success in the marketplace resulted in us outgrowing the premises that we have occupied for more than 45 years”A CGI of Spirax Sarco’s new group headquarters, currently being built in Cheltenham Moog’s new factory at Tewkesbury
The Lotus car marque might have its historic roots in Hethel, Norfolk, but it now has a dedicated and specialist advanced technology centre in Warwickshire, which is headquarters for the company’s engineering consultancy.
Defence, technology and aerospace company Elbit Systems UK has opened its new advanced manufacturing and development facility in Bristol.
The Horizon facility will act as a research, development and manufacturing hub for the high-technology solutions already being provided to the British Armed Forces and other NATO customers by Elbit Systems UK.
The opening of the Horizon facility is the culmination of more than £35 million of investment in three years, developing and expanding Elbit Systems UK’s manufacturing and technical footprint across the country making it a hub for future research and development, and deliveries to other NATO customers.
The Horizon facility will build on Elbit
Systems UK’s existing capabilities and will eventually employ more than 200 people on the site, adding to the existing 680 sta working in ESUK and its subsidiaries across 16 sites throughout the UK.
Martin Fausset, CEO of Elbit Systems UK said: “The opening of this facility is a testament to the success of Elbit Systems UK over the last three years.”
Elbit Systems is an Israeli international defence electronics company engaged in projects across the world. Elbit Systems UK holds three wholly owned subsidiaries as well as two joint ventures.
The joint ventures were formed to deliver the Watchkeeper programme for the British Army and to supply and support three fleets of aircraft within the UK MOD Military Flying Training System programme.
Located on the University of Warwick’s Wellesbourne Campus, the new facility was established in partnership with WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick. The substantial facility consists of o ces, workshops and laboratory space with ample opportunity for expansion.
Initially, 130 engineers will move in, complementing the 500-strong engineering team at Norfolk.
Last year Hyperbat, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of high-performance electric vehicle battery packs, sealed a multimillion-pound contract to supply batteries to Lotus for its new allelectric Evija.
Coventry-based Hyperbat was formed to bring together Williams Advanced Engineering’s EV battery expertise with Unipart’s capability in manufacturing safety-critical products for original equipment manufacturers.
Compiling a list of the region’s top 50 manufacturers is fraught with challenges. Some manufacturers have more than one business entity listed the same location. If this is the case, we have generally taken the figures from the entity with the largest turnover. Others are UK subsidiaries of overseas businesses where we only have access to their global turnover or employee numbers.
We have also been selective in the types of manufacturing listed. For the purposes of this list we have omitted the manufacture of food and drink, pharmaceuticals and beauty products, although we have included medical devices.
What the list does reflect is the strength of the manufacturing ecosystem across the region, which supports a huge supply chain,
employs tens of thousands of people, trains thousands of apprentices and contributes substantial GDP to the region, and the country as a whole.
In a few cases, large manufacturing companies have had to be left out because we have been unable to verify their turnover as they are overseas, often private, companies.
According to a report published in May by WorldSkillsUK, an independent charity which is using international best practice to raise standards in apprenticeships and technical education, persistent skills gaps are preventing the UK becoming a global leader in advanced manufacturing. These are limiting the sector’s potential as an engine for growth, levelling up, inward investment and progress toward ‘net zero’.
These gaps are at least partly being driven by shortages of young people entering the sector and skills providers not keeping up with fast-moving industrial change. Too few manufacturers are fully engaging with the education and skills system to help meet industry standards or empower young people toward manufacturing careers in su cient numbers.
Another report by the same organisation points out that overseas companies seem to put skills at the heart of their businesses.
That report said “Foreign-owned companies such as Siemens or Airbus, already provide skilled employment in the UK, including through apprenticeship routes. Foreign-owned companies arrive from countries – such as Germany or France ¬- where there is a culture of business investing in skills. This is likely to be part of the story of why foreignowned companies are more productive than UK ones.”
Just half of UK manufacturers are working with providers to meet their skills needs, WorldSkillsUK says, despite many expressing concern that the education and skills system is not equipping young people with the skills required. Only a small number of manufacturing firms are helping educators acquire industry knowledge and experience, despite the clear majority believing this could help attract young people to the sector.
Gloucestershire engineering company Renishaw has opened a new science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) Outreach facility at its headquarters site in New Mills.
The STEM Centre will strengthen Renishaw's existing education outreach e orts, by providing a dedicated space for local schoolchildren to visit to learn more about STEM subjects and associated careers.
Professional downhill mountain bike racer Rachel Atherton o cially opened the facility.
Renishaw has worked with Atherton Bikes to use additive manufacturing (3D printing)
technology to help push the development of bike performance, and Rachel has been a key part of that drive to innovate in the highly competitive world of downhill cycling.
To mark the occasion, a group of students from Al-Ashraf Secondary School for Girls, Gloucester, UK, participated in an interactive engineering workshop in the Centre and teachers from local secondary schools also had the opportunity to tour the new facility.
Renishaw's established STEM Outreach programmes have strong links with many primary and secondary schools in Bristol, Gloucestershire and South Wales regions, providing support by running sessions that complement the curriculum
and add context to the students' learning.
The STEM Outreach team also attends many school careers events to promote Renishaw's early careers opportunities, including work experience, apprenticeships, placement and graduate schemes, that help to provide a talent pipeline of people into the business.
“Research from the Careers and Enterprise company, the UK's national body for careers education, shows that if young people have four or more encounters with the world of work, they're 86 per cent less likely to become NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training),” explained Rebecca Bound, Early Careers STEM Outreach O cer at Renishaw.”
Apprentices at MTC Training, part of the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry completed an ambitious initiative to build components for a lightweight aircraft.
Project Slingshot, created by The Air League, the UK’s leading aviation and aerospace charity, gives promising engineers a taste of what it is like to be an engineer in aerospace and aircraft manufacturing. The opportunity to explore the aerospace working environment was supported by the Department for Transport and industry players including Royal Air Force Cosford, Aston University Engineering Academy and Boeing UK.
The final stage of the project saw apprentices mount the fuel tanks, a major component of the wings structure,
to the aircraft’s wings and close out the top skins, ensuring a fully completed assembly, compliant with all of the quality controls and regulations for light aircraft.
As a result of Project Slingshot the apprentices have developed key technical skills and gained soft skills such as project management, teamwork and communication.
MTC apprentice Saul Redgrave said, “Project Slingshot has been really beneficial for me. It’s given me valuable hands-on experience and was a great opportunity for me to work with my classmates as a team to try and achieve the end goal, just like I will throughout my career. Now, we’ll get to see our hard work come to life when the aircraft takes flight.”
Data published in the BAE Systems’ contribution to the UK economy, a report published by Oxford Economics, reveals that since 2020, the Company has grown its UK workforce by more than 10 per cent. In 2022, BAE Systems directly employed almost 40,000 people, supported a further 49,000 jobs across the supply chain and thousands more in local communities, the report said.
BAE Systems, which has its headquarters at Farnborough, has more than 50 locations in the UK, including a major site in Bristol.
Almost 40 per cent of BAE Systems employees are based in the UK’s most deprived areas. Last year, the Company spent £730 million with suppliers in these locations and provided mentorship and support
for SMEs to help boost regional businesses.
Nearly three-quarters of BAE Systems’ employees work in engineeringrelated roles. To maintain this pipeline of talent, the company spent £180 million on education and skills last year, almost doubling its annual investment on the previous year.
As well as supporting educational outreach in its communities, this investment allows BAE Systems to provide lifelong development for its workforce and helps give its more than 4,300 apprentices and graduates the best start to their careers, the report said.
The company is hiring a record 2,600 apprentices and graduates in the UK in 2023, more than a 40 per cent increase on last year.
The STEM Centre will strengthen Renishaw’s existing education outreach efforts ...
Aerospace company Moog Inc has just opened a new £40 million factory in Tewkesbury, but
just as much about their people as the new space says the company
By Ian Mean, Director Business West and Vice Chair, Gloucestershire LEPMoog’s new £40 million factory in Tewkesbury, which was completed this summer, is an impressive state-of-the-art engineering and manufacturing facility.
But equally impressive are this amazing company’s culture and values.
According to the words of American founder and engineer, Bill Moog, their philosophy is very simple:
“We believe in the people who work for us. We believe work can be a rewarding and satisfying experience for everyone in an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence.”
That was Bill Moog’s philosophy 70 years ago, and it still holds true today.
Mark Lawton, general manager of the Aircraft Control Components Division at Moog gives me a tour of this impressive
new 209,000 sq ft facility and hands me a little booklet – Moog Culture & Values.
I think it’s brilliantly simple and could be the philosophy template for any company worth its salt.
The golden thread running through Moog’s values are its people, and in Tewkesbury the company’s heritage of local skilled employees spans more than 45 years.
The company employs more than 500 people in Tewkesbury, part of a worldwide workforce of 14,000, with facilities in the Philippines and in Western New York where it is headquartered.
Moog Inc’s turnover in Tewkesbury is around £75 million, part of the company’s three billion dollars globally. It has four operating groups: space and defence, industrial, military aircraft and commercial aircraft.
We have a very special culture and philosophy which has come all the way down from Bill Moog. We call it the Moog familyMark Lawton, general manager of the Aircraft Control Components Division at Moog Inc, Tewkesbury
it’s
“Our number one asset are our people”, Mark tells me. “We are nothing without them, and those people live locally so we were able to put our new factory here in Tewkesbury.
“We have a very special culture and philosophy which has come all the way down from Bill Moog. We call it the Moog family.
“Here it is all about our people. It is about relationships, and generally, you don’t look to find the instruction manual – you go and talk to people.
“Within our culture, we say: ‘It’s my responsibility’. So, if you see something that needs sorting, and you don’t know who owns it, it’s your responsibility to find someone who really does own it.
“But also if someone needs help, it is expected you will drop what you are doing and help that person until they are o and running on their own.”
According to Mark, an engineer and former graduate of the formerly mighty Metal Box manufacturing company, the top part of the company’s culture is: Trust is a Must.
“Bill Moog trusted people to get on and do it. That led to a lot of employees who were very self-motivated and able to take the initiative themselves.
“Really, what we are trying to do as a business is to perpetuate that culture by having this friendly, safe, trusting but very high standards culture.
“You will not get any top-down cracking of the whip in this organisation. We like to hold ourselves accountable. None is better than anyone else.”
Tewkesbury is now the main design centre for the company’s servo valve product which Bill Moog invented more than 70 years ago.
The servo valve goes on virtually every single aircraft, on fighter jets as well as was even used on the Space Shuttle.
Moog’s new factory investment is a big message of confidence from the company in the aerospace industry which is now driving growth in the UK where there has previously been little expansion.
The company is currently spending more than £20 million in fitting out the new facility with dedicated clean rooms, ring mains and special air conditioning in manufacturing areas which need to work to very tight tolerances.
Moog lies in Tewkesbury borough, of course, which is a huge area for economic growth in the county – and in the UK – with so many aerospace and associated companies located there.
Gloucestershire is privileged to have such an innovative company as Moog, which has chosen to invest and remain here with all the inherent skills and heritage that the company values.
Quedgeley is home to one of Gloucestershire’s leading manufacturers and biggest exporters; Prima Dental Group.
So, what is the key to success behind the world’s largest dental bur (drill) manufacturer? Here we find why the team at Prima have something to smile about.
Prima has managed to increase its manufacturing output year on year, as well as its headcount.
And it is this headcount that supports its success. Prima Dental Group has heavily invested in its team. The company’s mission – the pursuit of better – drives all that it does, and a high-performance culture programme supports this. The focus is around ensuring an engaged, multi-skilled workforce with defined career progression for all. Alongside its continuous improvement (CI) techniques, the senior leadership team are developing internal processes and infrastructures to give the planning and production teams enhanced flexibility.
Prima Dental Group can trace its roots back to more than 150 years ago, and the business first established its presence in Gloucester in 1974. In 2010, the organisation moved to its current location at the Waterwells Business Park, before doubling its capacity with another production facility in 2017.
Today, a team of more than 260, alongside
state-of-the-art equipment, makes Prima a reference worldwide, with its burs still proudly manufactured in Gloucester.
As world leaders, the business is committed to maintaining its reputation and continuously improving its performance. But it hasn’t always been plain sailing. Today, the rising costs of energy and the current shortage of skilled labour in the UK adds to its challenges, nevertheless
Quality and control are also key to ensuring the business remains competitive and provides the best possible service for its customers. And, as the dental market is a highly regulated one, keeping up-todate with changing legislations is vital, as is adapting to new requirements to meet changing industry demands.
Investment in the best machinery has
always been a priority for Prima. One of its very first bur cutting machine (pictured above) was put into service in 1960 and produced some six million burs over its 40-year life. However, e ciency was not its strength and the requirement of increased output and shorter changeover times led Prima to invest in computerised cutting machines.
This led to a partnership with Rollomatic, a Swiss Company which specialises in the design and manufacture of CNC machines which are used worldwide for the manufacture of high precision parts, including luxury watches. It’s a good collaboration – with Prima’s demand for precision and quality, they are able to use the machines “with more skills and e ciency than anyone else in their sector” as highlighted by Rollomatic.
Over the last decade, Prima has invested to ensure it continues to grow and produce top quality medical devices for its customers. In the last four years this has seen circa £20 million of new equipment being installed across its Gloucester site, supporting the manufacture of some 45 million burs each year.
With year-on-year growth also comes an increased demand on equipment and processes to deliver that progress. Continuous improvement (CI) is one of Prima’s core values and a fundamental activity to retain the organisation’s competitiveness and world leader status in the market.
The senior leadership team regularly revisits its processes to look at valueadded and value-creation activities that will deliver on customer expectations, while also eliminating the activities that don’t perform. In essence it is a working smarter, not harder, way of thinking.
This year, Prima launched its own CI deployment program where everyone in the company has been trained on basic CI principles. This is supported by individual team members undergoing specific in-
depth training that will qualify them as CI practitioners. Already the business is bearing fruit from this activity – several CI projects are improving processes, while the CI practitioners are benefiting from personal development programmes that will be accredited via Cardi University.
As Prima looks ahead to the next chapter of its manufacturing history, it is not di cult to understand the team’s optimism.
With a focus on innovation, dedication to quality, and commitment to its people, it is easy to understand the reason behind Prima’s smile.
In every medicine cabinet, in every bathroom in houses across the land there are comforting natural branded remedies which families have used for generations.
And the interest – and spending, in health, wellness and natural remedies both for established and new brands, continues to grow.
This is good news for Gloucester’s Lanes Health, which has been manufacturing and distributing natural wellness products for more than 90 years and continues to manufacture and distribute brands such as Olbas Oil, Kalms and Jakemans throat lozenges (actually, they’re manufactured in Lincolnshire, but more of that later).
The company, which now turns over more than £38 million and employs around 230 people (167 at its Gloucester site and 67 at Boston in Lincolnshire), is now into its fourth generation of family thanks to the
recent appointment of Jon Groves, 43, to Executive Chairman.
It all began back in 1932 when a teacher from Gloucestershire published a book called Nature’s Safe Way to Health and Happiness, which maintained that no-one needs to be ill if they understand the medicinal e ects of what they eat.
Gilbert Lane had come to this conclusion via a surprising route, having set up a School of Confectionery in Gloucester a few years earlier. At the time, the use of liquid glucose provided characteristic sweetness in confectionery recipes and being of an enquiring mind, he set about learning more about its medicinal benefits.
What he learned drove a lifelong passion to improve the nation’s health and quality of life through good diet. Over the next few years he flipped his business 180 degrees, from making confectionery to developing
food supplements and herbal remedies.
By 1958, Gilbert’s son Roger had qualified as a pharmacist, and together they set up GR Lane, now known as Lanes Health which manufactures and distributes a growing range of natural healthcare and wellbeing brands. Gilbert died in 1964 and Roger continued to build on his legacy, buying the rights to manufacture and distribute brands such as Kalms, an established herbal remedy to help relieve anxiety and sleeplessness, and, in 1971, the well-known cold, catarrh and flu remedy, Olbas Oil.
In the 1970s, the family opened the new factory on Sissons Road in Gloucester, and Roger’s daughter Janet Groves joined the business, taking over from her father
One man’s passion to improve Britain’s health and wellbeing in the 1930s has built a multimillion-pound business set on further growth – but not at the expense of its core beliefs
Editor
when he passed away in 2008. Now she has passed the reigns of daily management to the fourth generation, her son Jon, who joined the business in 2004.
“My mum was very good at giving me enough opportunity without forcing it,” he said. “That gave me a true appreciation and love for the business.”
Jon joined full-time after completing a degree in business and marketing followed by three years working for a manufacturer in the West Midlands.
“It was really important I got experience outside the family business,” he said. But by 2004, the family business had come calling, and he joined first as a territory manager.
“I spent three years on the road, visiting pharmacies and health food shops learning
about why and how our products sold,” he said.
It was the perfect grounding before moving into marketing, where he also analysed sales data. “After being out on the road and seeing the sales, I could tie that into the marketing,” he explained.
Long stints in planning, purchasing and IT followed, all the while building his knowledge of the business from the bottom up.
“Understanding the raw materials of some of our products is essential,” he said. “It takes six months to manufacture our Kalms tablets because they’re made of all natural ingredients which take time to settle after the manufacturing process.”
When the company began the hunt for a new managing director, Jon had earned the respect from his fellow directors and they
suggested it was time he stepped up.
He was bowled over by their support. “It’s such a massive confidence boost to have your fellow directors saying they are ready to stand behind you to drive the business, but it’s a really big responsibility, and you have to be on point all the time,” he said.
“To take on the role of Executive Director means taking on responsibility for everyone’s livelihoods. I feel honoured at their faith and belief.”
Lanes Health is a very successful, multimillion pound business, but its size pales in comparison to some of the world’s biggest health and wellbeing remedy manufacturers.
How does it compete with companies such as Unilever and Bayer?
“The big pharmaceutical companies regularly review their stable of products. And when a product becomes too small for them, it’s often the right size for us”
“The big pharmaceutical companies regularly review their stable of products. And when a product becomes too small for them, it’s often the right size for us,” said Jon.
Pro Plus is a good example. These are ca eine-based food supplements designed to give consumers a boost. Lanes Health bought the brand from Bayer in 2015.
“We now manufacture them in Gloucester. It was a good purchase for us,” said Jon.
Another really successful acquisition for Lanes Health was made in 2007 when the company bought the little-known Lincolnshire menthol-based confectionery manufacturer Jakemans. A family business in need of fresh ideas, Jakemans was turning over around £2 million when Lanes Health bought it. Now the brand contributes nearly 50 per cent of turnover to the business as a whole, with Olbas Oil making up 25 per cent, followed by Kalms, Pro Plus and the rest of the portfolio contributing to the total.
But Lanes Health isn’t resting on its laurels. The company knows that it continually needs to review its range of products, and invest in research and development of new ones, all the while adhering to government regulations which only seem to get more burdensome.
Jon is philosophical about this. “Regulations are there for the right reasons and protect both consumers and us as a business.”
But being a relatively small fish in a massive pond full of the big pharmaceutical companies is tough.
“Getting our products on the shelves of the big retailers is challenging and we don’t have the deep pockets of the bigger pharma companies,” says Jon. “So, for us it’s about supporting our long-standing personal relationships with customers. We share our future product plans, make sure that we deliver on time and put considerable e ort into maintaining that relationship.”
The company also invests in its manufacturing facility. Touring the site with Operations Director Mark Horan, it’s clear that this may be a family business, but the site is as e ciently run and with as much investment, comparatively speaking, as its much larger, global pharmaceutical counterparts. It’s also the best smelling manufacturing facility I’ve ever visited, with the gentle menthol aroma of its best-selling Olbas Oil wafting into every nook and cranny. The factory-floor sta must have the clearest airwaves in Gloucestershire.
So what’s the strategy for this successful family business?
“We want to become the UK’s leading family-owned supplier of branded household health products,” said Jon.
But the business has very firm values.
“We want to do the right thing for our sta , the environment, our customers – everyone. That’s what we are all about.
“And we also see ourselves as custodians of Lane’s Health for the future. We want to see the family business growing and to be here for the next generation.”
The company o ers over-thecounter medicines, traditional herbal remedies, medical devices, food and food supplements
Its brands include Olbas, a special mixture of pure plant oils which help relieve congestion and catarrh
Jakemans soothing menthol lozenges
Kalms tablets to relieve stress, anxiety and sleeplessness
Pro Plus tablets and food supplements help the consumer to feel more alert and improve concentration
GOPO for joint health, made from cultivated rose-hip.
BlueIron, a new iron food supplement which is gentle on the stomach
Earex, the well-known product which helps remove ear wax
Sarakan, a natural dental care range
Teangi, made from tea tree oil, known for its antiseptic and antibacterial properties
He was one of the UK’s first true pioneers of green energy in the UK, he’s set up an electric car charging business, bought a football club, made it vegan (and is planning to build a new, wooden, football stadium for it) – he’s even invested in making environmentally-sustainable diamonds.
And now Dale Vince, the founder of Stroudbased energy company Ecotricity, has unveiled plans for what he says will be "the UK's first electric airline" – although it won’t be electric quite yet.
Described as a "flag carrier for green Britain", Dale has partnered with experienced pilot Brent Smith and a team of aviation specialists to set up Ecojet.
Flights across the UK will begin early next year, starting with the Edinburgh to Southampton route, and expanding to mainland Europe shortly after, with longhaul flights planned for the future.
Short-term, to secure routes and a Civil Aviation Authority licence, Ecojet will launch using conventionally-fuelled 19-seat and 70seat aircraft. These will be retrofitted with the hydrogen-electric powertrains as they become approved for service.
The replacement of conventional engines with ones that convert green hydrogen into electricity, should take place in 2025.
Dale said: “The question of how to create sustainable air travel has plagued the green movement for decades. Ecojet is by far the most significant step towards a solution to date. The desire to travel is deeply etched into the human spirit, and flights free of C02 emissions, powered by renewable energy will allow us to explore our incredible world without harming it for the first time.”
As the owner of Forest Green Rovers football club where the sta wear sustainable clothing and the food concessions serve vegan-only food, Dale will apply the same principles to his airline.
The decision to repurpose old planes rather than build new models from scratch will save 90,000 tonnes of carbon per year, said the company. The only by-product
will be water, which can be captured and released into the lower atmosphere to avoid the harmful e ects of contrails.
Will he be able to achieve true electric flight? Many others are working hard to do the same thing, so the race is on to be the first.
Ecotricity said: “Aviation accounts for some three per cent of global CO2 emissions, while overall contribution to the climate crisis is estimated at three times this level due to the altitude at which fossil fuel pollution is released. This colossal negative impact on the planet will be removed for good when the viability of electric air travel is proven, and electric planes are adopted by the aviation industry at-large. Ecojet is the first step in that process.”
Ecojet – the UK’s newest airline Dale Vince, green entrepreneur“The question of how to create sustainable air travel has plagued the green movement for decades. Ecojet is by far the most significant step towards a solution to date”
Lance Bradley
company, the sole importer of the Mitsubishi brand into the UK, to growth. He stepped down in 2018.
Martin St Quinton, Chairman and Owner of Gloucester Rugby Club said: “Lance has decided that, after the incredible scenes of Gloucester-Hartpury winning the Allianz Premier 15s title last month and ahead of the new season, that now is the right time for him to step away.
“He has led the club through a very di cult period, not least the vast challenges of Covid-19, and leaves the Club in good financial health. He can be proud of what he’s achieved both on and o the field.
“I would like to express my thanks to Lance for his contribution to Gloucester Rugby over the last four years.”
Lance had spent more than 30 years working among petrol heads in the automotive industry, first for the Ford Motor Company and more recently as the boss of Mitsubishi Motors UK, which sponsored Gloucester Rugby. He took on the role in 2009, the year after the banking crisis,
When the entire motor industry was struggling, Lance guided the Cirencester
ProCook, the successful direct-toconsumer specialist kitchenware brand has opened its new 167,000 sq ft distribution centre and head o ce in Gloucester.
The new premises include a photographic studio, as well as a new 3,100 sq ft showroom to display the company’s range of cookware, kitchenware and tableware. The new site will bring all ProCook’s stock back under one roof, improving product availability and operational e ciency and further supporting the customer experience both in store and online. The new site also includes a café, gym and wellbeing room.
The company has also appointed a new CEO after founder Daniel O’Neill decided to take a step back. Lee Tappenden, who has spent more than 25 years at Walmart and Asda, will join as Group CEO next month.
Speaking to Business & Innovation Magazine (now The Business Magazine) in 2020, Lance said the pandemic had cost Gloucester Rugby around £5 million in lost revenues. It could have been more, but the club asked its 6,000 season ticket holders if they would agree to leave their money in the club to help fund the new training facilities. Around 90 per cent of season ticket holders agreed and the new facility opened last year.
Alex Brown, (who was one of Lance's first hires as Commercial Director) has been appointed the club’s interim chief executive.
Announcing his immediate departure on LinkedIn, Lance said: "After four amazing years at Gloucester Rugby I’ve decided it’s time to look for a new challenge. Thanks to everyone who’s been part of it. It’s been an absolute blast."
A Cirencester co ee firm opened a new headquarters in the town this summer after refurbishing a building which had been empty for more than 25 years. Established more than a decade ago, Rave Co ee says its new HQ is a fusion of modern design and functionality and houses a roastery, café and shop.
Co-founders Rob and Vikki Hodge’s journey has taken them from the corporate world in the UK to Australia and back, where they established Rave Co ee in Gloucestershire in 2011.
The company began in a shed in Avening, near Cirencester and within just a few months it moved to a unit on a commercial estate in the town.
The company said: “When Covid hit back in 2020 we were faced with
the challenge of maintaining social distancing protocols and a growing workforce as the demand for a decent brew while working from home grew. We ended up renting two other units in Love Lane, and six months later we had to find more storage to house stock and our new 70kg roaster. By 2022 we had six buildings in various locations around Cirencester.”
A team led by Cirencester's Royal Agricultural University, which is looking to understand how cultured meat could impact UK agriculture, is appealing to farmers to help them build a clearer picture of the risks and opportunities of the controversial technology.
Cultured meat, also known as cultivated, cell-based or lab-grown meat, is a type of meat substitute which has attracted interest from investors because of its potential to have the same taste and texture as conventional meat, and thereby appeal to committed carnivores.
The UKRI-funded team of farmers, researchers and start-ups has identified farms most likely to be a ected and are now looking for farmers who might be interested in playing a funded part to help identify the winners and losers.
Professor Tom MacMillan, Elizabeth Creak Chair in Rural Policy & Strategy at the RAU, who is leading the project, said: “Around the world, decisions are being made about whether cultured meat will reach our dinner tables. In the US it has been cleared for human consumption while the Italian government has proposed banning it.
“Decisions will need to be made in the UK too and it is critical that, when they are, we consider how it might impact farmers.”
The RAU’s research project was announced just before Beyond Meat, the USA-based plant-based “meat” producer reported a surprising 30 per cent drop in revenues.
Illtud Dunsford, part of the project team and CEO of Cellular Agriculture Ltd, is interested in the opportunity of establishing a cultured meat business on his own farm. He said:
“I have long considered cultured meat as an evolution of agriculture, part of the fifth innovation era for the industry.
“Cultured meat presents opportunities that many farmers might not be aware of. Growing it requires a starting population of cells and feedstocks to produce sca old and the nutrient-rich media to feed the cells, all of which could potentially be sourced from farms.
“If we are going to produce cultured meat in the UK, I want farmers to see the benefits, to be invested in the process, and for policy makers to be armed with research like this so they can make that happen.”
Earlier this year, the government invested £12 million in the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub, led by the University of Bath and including the Royal Agricultural University. The project, which will run for seven years, will explore the benefits that could arise from developing cell-level processes enabling production of foodstu s and co-products through a system akin to brewing, which could include lower carbon emissions, less pressure on land use, reduced water consumption and improved animal welfare.
If we are going to produce cultured meat in the UK, I want farmers to see the benefits, to be invested in the process ...
It’s been quite a summer for Bristol-based Amdaris. The software development company not only agreed a seven-figure expansion package from HSBC but just after this interview was conducted, it was also snapped up by the US-based global tech giant Insight Enterprises - a Fortune 500 company.
Amdaris has been one of the UK’s fastest-growing technology companies, after securing a £6 million investment in 2020 from Business Growth Fund, the independent investment company backed by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and
Standard Chartered. That investment allowed it to almost double in size last year.
Much of the latest HSBC financial package has gone into an o ce expansion at Finzels Reach in Bristol, because to attract the right calibre of people (and keep them), you’ve got to o er a great place to work. But when there’s not enough skilled developers anywhere in the UK, where else do you look? Eastern Europe is a good start.
Amdaris was set up by Andy Rogers and
Vlad Nanu in 2009 and after a few years of gentle growth, between 2021 and 2022 they supercharged expansion and turned over £27 million, a 94 per cent growth.
This year the business expects to exceed £40 million – which would be a further 48 per cent growth.
“In the years between 2009 and 2020, we were growing, but found it di cult to find the skilled developers we knew we needed to set our business apart,” said Andy. “Then Vlad, who grew up in Moldova before moving to Bristol, suggested using
Moldovan developers. We did and the quality of their work is amazing.”
The pair saw an opportunity to adapt and scale the business, which had originally begun as a digital web design agency. Andy (and his then co-director who has since retired), decided to roll their digital agency into a new software company with Vlad and the new-look Amdaris was born. Now the company employs around 850 people in the UK and overseas.
“With Vlad and I in the driving seat as co-CEOs, we are keen to ramp up growth more aggressively,” said Andy.
The company is investing in its delivery centres in the UK, Bulgaria, Moldova,
Romania and Ukraine. Amdaris currently has around 450 employees in Chisinau, Moldova, its largest overseas site.
How has it managed to grow so fast in three years? Amdaris believes in its client engagement. “We concentrate on how we deliver, how we assure that delivery and how we measure our ability to deliver – and we are super transparent about it, so our clients know what to expect,” said Andy.
“We build teams which operate as the right arm of our client’s business,” he added. “We might flex up and down depending on the workload, but they see us as a partner. Our objective is helping them use software to improve their business.”
As an example. Andy cites his client Molson – the Bristol-based construction, plant hire, demolition and groundworks machinery company.
“From their core business as the UK’s largest independent new and used equipment dealer, Molson believed that digital transformation could be a game-changer.
“Together we worked out how software could move their business into a whole new area of growth. We built them SaaS (software as a service) platforms to benefit their client base.
“Now software underpins everything they do, from tracking diggers to asset management.
“Using software has increased their business functionality and added value to the company.
“They didn’t know how to be a software company. We built new software and helped them to market it.
“We might flex up and down depending on the workload, but they see us as a partner. Our objective is helping them use software to improve their business”
“Everyone is talking about digital transformation,” said Andy. “We see it as business value and it can add IP to a company.
“Anyone can spend a lot on software, but unless it’s transforming your business it’s not worth it.”
At the heart of any business there is a lot of data. “Often, it’s unconnected and a lot of companies don’t appreciate how much data and knowledge they hold,” said Andy. “We help them identify, consolidate and extract value from their data.”
But surely this collaborative approach which Amdaris has with its clients can’t be easy to achieve with such a distributed employee base across Europe?
“Yes, we have developers in Moldova, Romania, Ukraine and Bulgaria but we have always been distributed as a business, so we’ve perfected our remote communication
style, and when Covid happened, it didn’t impact us at all because we knew how to work like that.”
However, it’s become increasingly clear after Covid that pretty much every business needs a main location, a mothership if you like, and if you are to attract the best employees, it needs to o er more than just a desk and computer terminal. Amdaris recognised that and its expanded o ces in Bristol o er collaborative areas, bar and relaxing spaces.
Andy and Vlad also aim to create a feeling of belonging with their disparate teams. “Vlad and I go to all our centres in the UK and Europe, and hang out with people. We take them for dinner, have parties and business updates. We talk a lot about culture and values. We sit with everyone in the o ce, speak to every new starter personally and our people respond to that.”
Andy’s as upbeat about his career choice as he was at the start. “I’m 43 and for Vlad and me this business has been almost 14 years of our lives and it’s still as exciting.
The investment three years ago by BGF really kick-started the company’s growth. “They are not a heavy-handed investor,” said Andy. “The BGF share is just under 30 per cent of the business and they made clear there was more funding there for us if it was needed.
“The real benefit of BGF, when I come to think about it, hasn’t been the money – it’s been the value-add. At the start it was about support and working capital. Subsequently it has been more about opening doors and helping us building our network.”
Amdaris invests in its overseas developers. “We sponsored the technical university of Moldova, funding and building an auditorium for them. We are keen to invest in Eastern Europe because of Vlad’s home connection. It’s an important part of our DNA.”
The company has been very supportive of its Ukrainian employees who are based in Odessa. “We asked them how we could help. Some wanted to move, others wanted to stay. We’ve provided them with power banks, computer equipment to keep themselves going and supported them financially in some cases. Staying there is the big thing, because a lot of companies moved out, and when the situation resolves we’re going to be part of the investment in the future.
“It is such a privilege to have this business and our aim is to keep investing and scaling. It’s exciting for us all and we want to keep that momentum going.
“Every year we want to look back and be proud of what we have achieved. We have a big vision to be a £100 million to £200 million revenue business, and I think we’re around two years away from our first target.
“What I like most about this business is the people and the sense of adventure. That’s why I went into business myself. I love building a team of passionate people that deliver really cool things.”
“It is such a privilege to have this business and our aim is to keep investing and scaling. It’s exciting for us all and we want to keep that momentum going”
Andy Rogers, Co-CEO at Amdaris
Bristol’s first new railway station in almost a century opened this summer.
The Secretary of State for Transport (and MP for the Forest of Dean) Mark Harper, joined the Mayor of the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, the Mayor of Bristol and others involved in the development which was primarily funded by the Mayor to welcome the first train which arrived from Bristol Temple Meads.
The station, between Shirehampton and Avonmouth, connects the existing park and ride site with the Severn Beach railway line. It is Bristol's first new railway station in 97 years and was funded by the Mayoral Combined Authority.
It is also part of the first phase of the Authority’s ambitious multi-million-pound MetroWest programme, which aims to open seven new railway stations, reopening train lines and boosting crossBristol services.
When the station opens to the public, passengers will be able to access halfhourly services between Bristol Temple Meads and Avonmouth, and an hourly service to Severn Beach.
Metro Mayor Dan Norris said: “This is just the beginning. We need to press ahead to give even more residents access to new stations as we strive to meet our ambitious West of England net-zeroby-2030 targets.”
Bristol City Council has also expanded the park and ride facility from 555 to 792 spaces.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: "The opening of Portway Park and Ride Station will provide a boost to Bristol and surrounding area by improving local transport links while connecting passengers to business hubs and thousands of high-skilled job opportunities.”
Real estate and asset manager AEW is to spend nearly £5 million refurbishing the Spectrum Building, the iconic Grade II listed building designed by renowned architect Sir Norman Foster as a distribution centre for automotive firm Renault.
With its bright yellow steel masts and glass walls, the design by Sir Norman –who went on to design The Gherkin and Wembley Stadium – won the Financial Times Architecture at Work Award in 1984 but is perhaps best known as the lair of villain Max Zorin in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill.
Construction began in 1982 and the building opened in 1983. It was used by Renault until 2001, since when it has been used by car seat supplier TS Tech, and the children’s play area Kidz About.
Now the owners are to pour £4.7 million into refurbishing the building to enable multiple occupancy.
Michael Shears, director at AEW UK, said: “It is a privilege to be playing such an important role in the refurbishment and development of this iconic building on behalf of our investors.
“Our e orts are focused on ensuring that the historic high tech character of the Spectrum Building is maintained while increasing its sustainability and creating a truly green asset for the community in Swindon.”
MAPP Building Consultancy is project managing the refurbishment and the main contractor will be Swindon-based construction firm Beard.
Left to right: Metro Mayor Dan Norris with Bristol City Councillor Donald Alexander and Mark Harper MP at the new Portway Station“This is just the beginning. We need to press ahead to give even more residents access to new stations ...”The Iconic Spectrum Building in Swindon
Adaptavate, the Bristol-based world leader in developing and industrialising carbon negative construction materials, has secured a further round of investment of £2 million. The company plans to accelerate its work to develop and industrialise carbon negative construction materials at a global scale, with a key focus on one of the world’s most used construction materials: wallboard – and associated products.
This investment round has been led by Counteract, with Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2), Semin, Perivoli Innovations and other participation. It builds on Adaptavate’s previous Seed round, announced in March 2022, and subsequent support received to industrialise the development of carbon negative construction materials.
The company is currently building a revolutionary development centre, including laboratories and pilot line in Bristol and accelerating its research to complete testing and licensing
programmes for Breathaboard – a scalable, carbon-sequestering alternative to one of the most widely used building products, plasterboard.
Adaptavate will take Breathaboard from the pilot line to buildings’ walls by the end of this year with pilot projects secured with world-leading organisations.
The company is also looking to licence its technology to the world’s largest building products manufacturers and has already started conversations with potential partners.
Adaptavate’s overall aim is to be a leader in helping decarbonise the construction industry.
Tom Robinson, CEO and founder of Adaptavate, said: “With the support of like-minded funding partners, we are leading the carbon revolution of building materials as a form of Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU). What I
am most pleased about is that this funding round was oversubscribed, which shows the appetite for near to market, industrially scalable carbon absorbing technologies – even at an economically challenging time.”
Richard Barker, partner at Counteract, said: “Adaptavate is a great British innovator with a truly global opportunity. Tom and his team have made incredible progress and have developed a range of high-value foundational IP. Counteract is happy to have supported Adaptavate’s growth to date and to have led this fundraising round.”
“Adaptavate is a great British innovator with a truly global opportunity”The Adaptavate team with their novel Breathaboard
In May it was announced that the purposebuilt former home of the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press would be redeveloped to become one of the largest city centre science and innovation campuses. Now another former publishing business, the former Bath Press premises in that city, is to be redeveloped too.
But this site, located within Bath’s World Heritage Site boundary and Bath City Riverside Enterprise Area, is destined for residential development.
The scheme proposes a mix of 247 apartments and 30 townhouses, alongside 1,505 sq m of ground floor o ce space.
The Bristol Technology Festival from techSPARK will return in October.
The festival aims to showcase and support the thriving tech ecosystem in Bristol, which accounts for 36 per cent of the city’s high-growth businesses.
The mix of tech giants and emerging start-ups, make it the city with the greatest number of highgrowth technology companies in the South West of England, and one of the top 20 performing tech clusters in Europe.
The event runs from October 9 to 13 over five themed days.
The site, which has been vacant since 2007, was originally home to the Pitman Press, founded by Sir Isaac Pitman in 1889, who also devised a system of shorthand used by all journalists before the advent of the hand-held tape recorders.
While many of the buildings were demolished under a previous consent, the frontage of the original printworks,
which is locally listed, has been preserved, together with the original chimney.
The proposed development, designed by architects, CDA, and landscape architects, Macgregor Smith, incorporates the historic elements with contemporary architecture, proposing high quality materials throughout.
Chippenham-based logistics firm Wincanton has signed a five-year contract with IKEA Ireland to manage the retailer’s first customer distribution centre in the Republic of Ireland.
Located in Greenogue Logistics Park in south-west Dublin, the 280,000 sq ft warehouse will enable quicker customer fulfilment and better availability of IKEA products in the country, with delivery lead times reduced by more than half.
IKEA products have previously been delivered to consumers in Ireland via distribution centres in the UK. Locating the CDC in Ireland means IKEA is closer to the end consumer, supporting
its sustainability strategy through a reduction in CO2 emissions.
The first deliveries are expected to leave the warehouse in early 2024. When fully up and running, the CDC will create 120 jobs across warehousing, logistics, and administration.
The contract builds on Wincanton’s growing relationship with IKEA, which has seen the Wincanton Group chosen as its long-term partner to operate a new multi-millionpound distribution centre in Dartford, Kent, alongside investments in electric vehicle technology for its home delivery services.
“The site, which has been vacant since 2007, was originally home to the Pitman Press, founded by Sir Isaac Pitman in 1889 ...”
In 2007, Gareth Williams had an epiphany.
You may remember that year. It was the wettest English summer on record, and on Sunday, July 22, more than 400mm of rain fell across England and Wales, with Gloucestershire and Worcestershire particularly hard hit.
If it had rained a week later Gareth, a farmer from Herefordshire, wouldn’t have lost £100,000 of potatoes because
he’d been planning to harvest them the next day.
But it wasn’t just that weekend’s heavy rain that made him determined to make a change. He’d just returned from a trip to West Africa, where he’d been advising on carbon sequestering.
“I’d seen first-hand how climate change was influencing the landscape,” said Gareth, 55. “I was chatting with someone
while standing on what I thought was a beach, to be told that just a few decades ago it was woodland. Previous generations had felled the trees for firewood and repurposed the land for agriculture. Years later they are faced with desertification.
“We saw other things, too, such as a big fish project built by the Chinese which was failing because the water was going salty thanks to changing weather patterns. That’s when I realised that climate
When you see the evidence of climate change with your own eyes, you’d be irresponsible not to try and do something about it, according to Herefordshire businessman Gareth Williams
change wasn’t just theoretical. It was now.”
“There were problems in Africa, problems here, I had young kids and the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) had released a report that human beings are 98 per cent responsible for climate change problems and it’s going to get worse.
“The planet won’t care, it will evolve, but human beings will cease to exist.”
So what to do? Farmers are masters of diversification – they have to be. Gareth is a third-generation farmer, but with just 80 acres at his disposal, he’d long had to add to his income in other ways, such as contract farming across Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, and investing in house building and refurbishment in South Wales.
An entrepreneur by nature, in 1993 he’d been awarded a prestigious Nu eld Scholarship* to study cattle breeding, and on his trips around Europe he’d also seen what they were doing in terms of energy generation such as windmills. “Even then, from Denmark into Germany they were building wind turbines, developing biomass boilers and generating energy from waste. Britain was way behind.”
Fast forward a decade or so and on that wet July weekend in 2007, he decided to do something about climate change.
“I had experience with building and property, and we use a lot of energy on the farm, so I started learning about making it more sustainably.”
After doing his research, Gareth launched a solar panel business. Caplor Energy is now one of the largest renewable energy installers in the country.
It predominantly fits Solar PV panels on houses, commercial properties, farms and community buildings.
It is also increasingly installing batteries for storing solar energy, heat pumps for central heating and hot water in domestic properties and fits electric vehicle chargers and solar thermal systems for hot water.
When Caplor first started installing solar panels in 2008, the UK renewable energy sector was still young. One of just a few hundred MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) approved installers at the time, the business learned to navigate a new sector that could be volatile.
“The government’s 2010 feed in tari stimulated a lot of consumer interest. We were one of just 200 MCS qualified installers. When the market took o this increased to around 5,000 installers, but as the feed-in tari dropped, the number of installers plummeted to around 600-800. We called it a “solarcoaster” because the government kept messing with the tari s.”
One area where Gareth was determined to help was supporting local communities.
“I’m on the local parish council and in 2010, we were considering installing a community solar initiative on the roof of the village hall. The hall’s bank balance couldn’t cover the cost, so I o ered to install a system free of charge. The deal was that as long as Caplor was paid at least the feed-in tari which the hall could then attract over 10 years, that would work for both parties. As a farmer, I understand these longer-term strategies and we have done many similar ones since.”
While the business was growing, and to help combat the “solarcoaster”
fluctuations in government support which a ected customer demand, Gareth engaged Firestarter Business Solutions, a Gloucestershire organisation with national coverage which helps companies drive sales performance and business improvement. Firestarter helped him expand his sales team and drive new processes and e ciencies.
More recently, a huge shift in attitudes towards energy and climate change helped Caplor double its turnover over the last year.
“We now employ more than 50 people, plus multiple contractors, and are in the top 10 per cent of UK installers by volume of business,” said Gareth. “The work we’ve done with Firestarter has been instrumental in our success.”
I had experience with building and property, and we use a lot of energy on the farm, so I started learning about making it more sustainablyWith Tom Heap (from Countryfile) recording an episode for Costing the Earth in a Bristol studio this year.
One key element of the Firestarter support was succession planning.
“We had started succession planning, but I became ill unexpectedly in 2021 and was out of action for five months. This gave my senior team the opportunity to step up, and they really did.”
Neil Evans, a member of the senior team, took over as Managing Director that year.
“We have an excellent team and culture at Caplor and the senior team and all the gang are pivotal in the company’s development and ongoing success.” said Gareth.
“The knowledge and skills the team picked up from Firestarter has contributed to our success. I can now focus my energy on advocacy for sustainable business and renewable energy.”
Caplor Energy is now a successful B-Corp*, currently the only B-Corp installer in the UK and it continues to work with Firestarter.
With Gareth no longer responsible for the day-to-day running of the business, he’s deploying his considerable knowledge in energy more widely.
He is a Vice-Chair of Solar Energy UK, Vice-Chair of the MSC Charitable Foundation and an environmental advisor to the government, currently engaged with a ‘’solar task force’’ that is building a plan on how to develop the government-led desire to see solar deployment increase five-fold.
“The world needs energy from many di erent low carbon sources, including nuclear energy, and I understand that in a transition phase we need oil and gas, but we don’t need to dig more wells.
“In the world of energy, the government should help consumers by positively developing the good schemes they’ve introduced, like the boiler upgrade scheme.
“They have said they are going to do it until 2028, but I say – create some certain long-term policy by extending the boiler upgrade scheme for the foreseeable future and with su cient budget. That will
help us train installers. It takes us years to train people.
“There is a skills shortage in our sector generally, but you can’t easily recruit a qualified heat pump installer because not enough of them exist.”
Lending his considerable sustainable energy expertise is now a passion for Gareth. “The reality of global climate change is increasingly accepted and I am proud to be able to contribute.”
*The Nu eld Farming Scholarships Trust is a charity organisation which aims to bring positive change to agriculture through its future leaders. It sends them overseas to learn from others and helps them share their knowledge and ideas when they return home.
Since 1947, the Trust has awarded scholarships to more than 1,000 members of the food, farming, horticulture and rural industries to study a topic they are passionate about.
*Certified B Corps (B Corporations) are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy.
“We have an excellent team and culture at Caplor and the senior team and all the gang are pivotal in the company’s development and ongoing success”
A new athleisure brand has launched this summer. Based in Worcestershire, Theta has been developed by former rugby player George Wootten after he found it di cult finding clothing designed for those who enjoy taking part in regular functional fitness but is also suitable for post-activity comfort.
George, 24, who played scrum-half for Worcester Warriors and also for the University of Bath, was forced to rethink his career plans after su ering a number of sports injuries early in his career.
“It was tough having to go back to the drawing board, after thinking I’d spend the next few years playing rugby, but after so many injuries it was clear that wouldn’t happen. It was quite a dark time for me, but I had to refocus and plan again.”
Following a degree in Sports Performance and a Masters in Sports Management from Bath University, he decided to develop a new athleisure brand.
He said: “I wanted to develop fabrics that deliver on functionality and aesthetics while still o ering comfort for lifestyle.”
What this means is being particular in the fabrics Theta uses, and developing clothing
which fits on key points of the body, such as shoulders, arms and legs, while o ering more give over areas such as the torso and thighs.
George worked with leading Worcesterbased sustainable custom sportswear supplier, Scimitar Sportswear to develop the range. He’s also attracted entrepreneur and investor Oliver Bruce whose Cheltenhambased agency, PinPoint Media, is working on the creation, distribution and deployment of social-first content for the athleisure wear brand.
Oliver said: "Being able to invest but also work alongside George on the growth of Theta made a lot of sense to me. I was blown away by the quality of the garments and his passion."
Theta launches with menswear only, but George is already planning to launch a women’s range next year.
The clothing is made from a durable and lightweight fabric made specifically for functional training where durability against barbells and flexibility for range of motion are fundamental.
It’s been a roller coaster ride for George, who has made a significant personal investment to launch the business.
“I really enjoy working on creating the range, including selecting fabrics and the designs,” he said. “I’ve also had to learn how to run a business, budgets, cashflows and managing logistics – it continues to be a big learning curve and will be for some time.”
Developer Stoford is looking to expand Worcester Six Business Park and has submitted a planning application for works on the southern side of the site.
If Wychavon District Council’s planning committee approves the application, Stoford can begin extending the estate road to a new access point to the B4636 Newtown Road.
Edward Peel, Stoford director, said: “Extending the business park has always been part of the long-term strategy. Our
strategy to submit planning and start the works is due to the continued occupier interest in the site and we look forward to making further announcements in due course.”
An extension has always been part of the Worcester Six Business Park plans, which is included in the South Worcestershire Development Plan.
When phase two is complete, it will provide up to a further 680,000 sq ft of floorspace on 61.18 acres of land, adjacent to Newtown Road.
International tech giant IONOS has launched a new climate strategy, and is using its data centre in Worcester, which opened just last year, as a blueprint.
The Berlin-based web hosting and data centre firm plans to reduce data centre carbon emissions by 55 per cent from 2019 levels by 2030 – switching from diesel to biofuel-powered generators.
The company is also pledging to source 100 per cent renewable electricity.
As a model, the company is using its data centre in Worcester, which was its most sustainable data centre to date when it opened in October 2022.
The data centre gets 10 per cent of its power from on-site solar panels and has back-up generators powered by biofuel, reducing carbon emissions by 90 per cent.
It was constructed using carbon neutral steel, and bee and bug hotels were installed to improve biodiversity.
Achim Weiss, CEO of IONOS, said: “We are proud of our environmental sustainability achievements so far. The next step towards this strategy is evaluating the use of waste heat from our data centres.”
Jade Bensilum’s love of pole and aerial work has seen her travel the world over the last decade, performing and teaching.
Now she and personal trainer husband Ollie Read have launched their new Studio Flare in a unit on the Ridgeway Trading Estate, coaching private clients during the day and running group classes in the evening.
Jade, aged 33, said: “We met eight years ago when I was competing in the Miss Pole Dance UK competition that was being held at the same venue as the Mr Fitness event. The rest is history and we’ve been married nearly two years now.”
The couple, originally from Essex and Surrey, decided to launch their own studio and move to the Midlands for its central location three years ago. But then came Covid 19.
“I started running classes online, which has proved enormously popular, and I now have clients all over the world, including Germany and Kuwait,” said Jade.
Ben Truslove of commercial property agency John Truslove representing landlord Midpark Capital, secured Jade a five-year lease on the 943 sq ft unit at Ridgeway Trading Estate.
“It was a bigger unit than the original one – and cheaper – so it was ideal,” said Jade.
Jade has competed internationally, including a placing in the top five in the World Championships in 2019.
“I have pupils aged from their teens to their 50s – there is even a world champion in her 70s – and it is wonderful watching them gaining the fitness and strength to perform in just a couple of weeks.
“They gain flexibility and always have fun.”
An international pole dancing star has opened her first aerial fitness studio at Astwood Bank, near Redditch. Jade Bensilum and Ollie Read of Studio Flare with Ben Truslove of John TrusloveA family business has expanded its chain of convenience stores in Redditch.
Parminder Gosal secured a former Co-op supermarket premises in Crabbs Cross to open a new branch of SimplyFresh.
Mr Gosal and his family now operate a chain of four SimplyFresh stores as franchisees and have plans for more.
A new Film O ce has launched in Worcestershire to encourage film and TV production companies to use locations in the county.
Soon, county landmarks such as Broadway Tower, the Severn Valley Railway, Droitwich Saltworks, the majestic Malvern Hills or Worcester Cathedral could become backdrops to the latest TV or film releases.
FAME Pro, with the support of Visit Worcestershire, is leading the project to attract filmmakers, production companies and the creative support industries to the area.
The new service will act as a one-stop-shop to all filming requirements in Worcestershire and will work with local authorities, locations and suppliers to ensure the correct permits are in place and that the production runs as smoothly as possible.
Cllr Marc Bayliss, Cabinet Member for Economy, Infrastructure and Skills, at Worcestershire County Council said: “I am delighted that this new project has launched to support film production in
Worcestershire. The initiative will help increase the profile of the county as a film-friendly destination, creating economic benefits for local suppliers, supporting our existing network of creative industries and generating further opportunities.”
Kelly Mikulla, Managing Director of Worcestershire Film O ce said: “We are so excited to be working with our colleagues and clients in Worcestershire. I hope we will build a strong foundation together, working to showcase all the stunning locations Worcestershire has to o er.”
TV and film generate huge exposure often giving locations and destinations further publicity creating more visitor interest. Visit England has released data which demonstrates that one in five people decide where they are going on holiday based on a film, TV location or because of screen-based marketing.
Visit Worcestershire is hoping the project will increase Worcestershire’s profile as a visitor destination and follow in the footsteps of other destinations in the UK benefiting from film tourism.
SimplyFresh is a West Midlands headquartered nationwide upmarket grocery brand with a focus on locally sourced and organic fresh produce. The business launched in 2014 and currently has 23 stores from the Midlands to London.
Ben Truslove, joint managing director at John Truslove, helped Mr Gosal secure a 20-year lease on the 1,990 sq ft supermarket premises on Evesham Road, Crabbs Cross.
Mr Gosal said: “The Co-op had moved out of the premises about two years ago, so we felt this was an excellent opportunity in a good area. Things are going very well so far, attracting new customers, and we are now looking for new opportunities in the area.
“While most of our goods are supplied through SimplyFresh we source our own cakes, fruit and veg locally, from the Evesham area and are at the wholesale market at 3am every morning.”
SimplyFresh focuses on local and the best of British products anchored by an organic healthy range of food. The stores also include a core range of branded grocery lines to cater for all consumers.
A commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, which describes itself as a disruptor in the fledgling electric truck market, has set up a UK base in Warwickshire as part of expansion plans.
Volta Trucks has taken over around half of the American Barns o ce development in Banbury Road, Warwick to support the engineering and production of its Volta Zero, the world’s first purpose-built all-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed for last-mile urban logistics.
Volta Trucks has around 20 members of sta permanently based at the site.
It follows a period of growth for the brand, which has also seen Volta Trucks o cially open its first service and maintenance hub in Tottenham, North London ahead of the
first customer vehicles to start operating in the UK.
Volta Trucks was formed in 2019 by cofounders Carl-Magnus Norden and Kjell Walöen. It is based in Stockholm, however, most of its business and engineering operations are in the UK.
The deal to take over the space at American Barns, an extensive conversion of unusual brick farm buildings, was negotiated by Leamingtoncommercial property agents ehB Reeves.
Ben Anstey, Director of Electrical Systems and Digital Experience at Volta Trucks, said: “Warwick’s central location is ideal for our engineering and business needs and is part of our UK expansion. The all-electric Volta Zero has been designed from the ground up to reduce the environmental
The UK’s largest regional tech festival, Birmingham Tech Week, is returning to the city from October 16-20.
Over the five days, around 7,500 attendees are set to congregate in venues across the West Midlands – to take part in tech expos, skills symposiums, summits and panel
discussions. Highlights of this year’s event will include a Leadership Summit, Digital Skills Symposium and a Global West Midlands event.
Tech West Mids (formerly Birmingham Tech), the not-for-profit organisation behind the festival, will work closely with founding patrons HSBC UK, Gowling
impact of commercial deliveries in city centres with safety and people at the heart of everything we do.
"The vital work taking place in Warwick will play a huge part in this, as we accelerate the industry to transition towards electric commercial fleets and pave the way for a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future for us all.”
Simon Hain, director at ehB Reeves, said: “We’ve seen the introduction of an ultralow emission zone in Birmingham, so we know the issue of reducing emissions is one the region is already taking steps to tackle.
“We hope having a company like Volta Trucks on our doorstep will help us to become a flag-bearer for cleaner and greener logistics.”
WLG, and the University of Warwick, to showcase the region’s tech capabilities.
The West Midlands has nearly 6,000 tech companies employing a workforce of more than 38,000 people –contributing to an ecosystem that is now worth more than £15 billion to the economy.
A new era in Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub’s history will see the region’s companies still able to receive top-level business support services.
Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub was set up in 2014 as part of the government’s City Deal funding and became a subsidiary of Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP).
Since then, it has been funded by the Department for Business and Trade, the European Regional Development Fund and Coventry and Warwickshire’s local authorities, district and borough councils.
The organisation became a separate entity in March this year following the Government’s decision to integrate Local Enterprise Partnerships into local democratic institutions, such as county councils.
Now, Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council have agreed to become joint shareholders and join the board of the new company.
A new board of directors will be formed to involve representatives from the private and public sector throughout the area.
Sarah Windrum, former Chair of CWLEP, said the remaining funds from its closure after 12 years had been transferred to CW Growth Hub.
She said: “Since March 31, it has been business as usual for the Growth Hub in terms of providing help, information and advice to businesses across Coventry and Warwickshire.
“The Growth Hub has transitioned smoothly from being part of CWLEP to a stand-alone entity and the decisions at Cabinet level by Coventry City Council and
Warwickshire County Council for the shareholding agreement in the company to be ratified means this is a new era for this successful business-led support service.
“The local authorities will have equal shares as shareholders, underlining the partnership approach which was the hallmark of CWLEP and the bedrock of our success in securing funding for projects to drive economic growth throughout Coventry and Warwickshire, from large capital infrastructure investments to careers support.”
Craig Humphrey, Chief Executive O cer of CW Growth Hub, added: “We have been mindful of the regionalisation of funding and the fragmentation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund but the most important aspect is that our level of services have remained constant to businesses throughout our patch.
“That is really important because businesses crave stability and consistency, and these political decisions mean we will carry on delivering the best possible support to firms ranging from early life to scale-ups.
“We have also integrated Coventry & Warwickshire Champions and CW Business Solutions into the CW Growth Hub Group so we are looking forward to the future with purpose and ambition to continue to ensure our Growth Hub is one of the best in the country.”
Over the last nine years, it is estimated that CW Growth Hub support has led to the creation of around 10,500 jobs, added £400 million in gross value to the local economy, and leveraged about £300 million in private sector investment for businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire.
Research by sub-national transport body Midlands Connect has found a quicker uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in the region could be worth nearly £9 billion to the local economy.
Recent investigations show the benefits of reducing carbon emissions and cleaner air will result in £8.7 billion of benefits to the Midlands’ economy.
The “massive” benefits will start to be released by 2035, a few years after the proposed phasing out of petrol and diesel engine vehicles, the report said.
A decline in transport emissions is estimated to fall from more than 14 million tonnes of harmful chemicals like CO2 per annum in 2023 to under seven million tonnes per annum by 2050. This could be worth between £405 million or up to £1.5 billion.
The findings follow the publication of Midlands Connect’s landmark report Supercharging the Midlands, which investigated the future of EVs in the Midlands and advocated for more EV charge points across the region. It found that EV use in the Midlands was projected to increase by more than 3,000 per cent by the end of the decade – less than seven years away.
Midlands Connects’ report set out three ‘scenarios’ for EV uptake in the region, with low medium and high uptake. The upper end of these scenarios have now been used by the Department for Transport in their national framework for the roll-out of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, the 2035 Delivery Plan for Transitioning to Net Zero report.
Bharat Pathania, Technical Innovation Lead at Midlands Connect, said: “By reducing the number of petrol vehicles on our roads and swapping to healthier options like EVs, we can enjoy cleaner air across the Midlands.
“This isn’t just a health thing – it’s a massive economic thing too – it’s worth up to £1.5 billion for the NHS and nearly £9 billion for the Midlands’ economy.”
A Warwickshire company that supplies high-end sports equipment to elite clubs and organisations has struck a partnership to reduce its import costs.
Perform Better, which is based in Southam and turns over around £5 million per year, works with nearly every Premier League football club, the FA, English rugby and many other teams and organisations.
The company’s equipment ranges from testing systems through to recovery products, as well as strength and conditioning and CV exercise bikes and treadmills.
Perform Better imports significant amounts of product that it assembles on site, as well as ready-made equipment, and costs have been rising over recent years.
The company partnered with RationalFX,
an FCA-authorised international moneytransfer service provider which has been supporting the company since last November. The move saved the firm more than £1,000 in the first four months by helping to reduce the exchange rate on its import expenditure.
Steve Edwards, of Perform Better, said: “We have been spending significant five figure sums every month on importing products and, like every business, it is important in the current climate to look at every cost.
“We were introduced to RationalFX by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and they immediately managed to secure a better rate on our imports. In the first four months, we saved more than £1,000, which may not sound like a huge amount, but that could cover the rises in energy bills that all businesses are facing.”
Hercules Site Services, which employs more than 800 people, from bricklayers to civil engineers, supplying their labour to construction companies running major projects across the UK, is investing more than £6 million in a new construction skills training centre in Nuneaton.
It is on track to have a new team operating from the facility by the end of October, and training courses will begin shortly after that.
Speaking to The Business Magazine editor last year, Hercules founder and CEO, Brusk Korkmaz, said: “Our investment rationale is that by 2050, 60 per cent of the traditional jobs in construction will no longer exist.
“We must o er training for the new jobs in construction and help employees learn to use technology which is currently in development. To do that we need dedicated training centres.”
Chinese tech firm Tencent has made a large but unspecified investment in Warwickshire video game developer Lighthouse Games, which was formed in March by former Playground Games studio head and co-founder Gavin Raeburn.
The new Royal Leamington Spa company aims to become one of the UK’s biggest video game publishers, and has already attracted 30 industry heavyweights at its launch to work on “an unannounced new IP”.
“People should be looking at Lighthouse expecting that we will be producing something highly-polished and
technologically ambitious. That’s exactly our ambition and the heritage of our team makes that possible,” promised Gavin.
The CEO told industry platform GamesIndustry.biz that “an investment of this scale allows us to grow our team and prove the vision for our game and remain completely independent, whilst still leveraging the skills and experience of one of the world’s largest video game publishers.”
He added: “This new beginning also enables us to build our game from the ground up, with no legacy tech or architecture to work around.”
The company, which has its headquarters near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, said that its academy is poised to make a significant impact on the entire UK construction industry.
“We recognise the industry’s challenges related to skills shortage and are confident that our academy will play a pivotal role in addressing these challenges. We look forward to sharing this momentous journey with employers, suppliers, manufacturers, and training providers. Together, we can deliver the very best in construction training throughout the UK.”
Leamington’s Lighthouse Games secures funding from leading tech firm Tencent
More businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire and the wider region are exporting and importing compared to the rest of England, according to a report published this summer.
The monthly SmartRegion report contains outcomes from the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub’s business engagements, Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, and other business support organisations.
It reveals that while the international trade situation in the West Midlands has seen a slight improvement compared to previous months, overall it remains of concern.
The recent Business Insights & Conditions Survey by the O ce of National Statistics found that 34 per cent of West Midlands respondents had exported during the last 12 months which is higher than the national average of just under 27 per cent.
Among exporters, around 15 per cent are exporting more, but a fifth are exporting less.
Craig Humphrey, the Chief Executive O cer of Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, said that while the findings were encouraging, there is more that could be done to help international trade grow further.
“International trade is really important for our sub-region because of the jobs it safeguards or creates as well as providing opportunities for firms to target new markets and increase revenues,” he said.
“It is really encouraging that more businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire have the confidence and expertise to export because this could lead to substantial economic growth and job creation for our region.
“But it is important to mention that the full European Union border controls on imports have yet to be fully implemented, and won’t be in place until later this year, which are likely to impact the extent and volume of imports.”
More of the region’s mid-market companies are looking to India for growth, according to new research from Grant Thornton.
The firm’s Business Outlook Tracker, which surveyed mid-sized businesses in the South West, found that more than a third are planning to invest more in international growth in the next six months, and almost three-quarters have their sights set on India.
The South West’s mid-market is already familiar with doing business in India – 68 per cent of the businesses surveyed have an established presence. Of these, almost all plan to expand, nearly nine in 10 businesses within the next two years.
A majority of respondents agree that a free trade agreement, which should reduce tari s and duties to allow for a more level playing field with India, is likely to encourage their business to explore more opportunities there.
The biggest barriers identified by the research are a vast fragmented market with varying regulations, rules and
policies and cultures, high tari s and protectionist policies, and infrastructure.
Jonathan Riley, practice leader for Grant Thornton UK in the South West, said: “India is now the fifth largest economy in the world and is predicted to become the third largest by 2030. It therefore presents a huge opportunity for growth for businesses in the South West.
"As the country is only set to continue to grow, it is an excellent time for both those with an existing presence, and those looking to India for the first time, to be exploring potential opportunities in this market.
“With the current uncertain geopolitical situation, India o ers a stable and certain economic environment for investors and businesses, with, not only a fast-growing economy, but also a large working age and consumer population.
“The anticipated UK-India free trade agreement should also help propel the relationship between the two countries further and provide an excellent platform for further investment.”
David Melling has built a hugely successful career as a narrative illustrator. Among many stories, he’s the author and illustrator of the Hugless Douglas children’s picture books about a bear who wants (and finally finds) the hug he wants.
During his career David, 60, has written and illustrated more than 150 books which have sold more than five million copies and been translated into 30 languages.
The runaway success of his hugless bear took him around the world. “I went on book tours all over Europe and to India, Dubai – even South Africa and America. It was amazing.”
So how did it all start? While he always loved drawing, David says he wasn’t a prodigy. “Drawing is like sport – to get better you just have to keep practising.”
He grew up in London, one of four children. “I loved drawing and really thought I could do it for a living, so I enrolled on an HND in art and design.”
When he told his tutor he wanted to do illustration, he was advised to study graphic design because there was no money in drawing – but there was a problem: “It was before computers when you had to work
out type layout on the page mathematically which I found di cult.”
He went on to study photography to degree level in Blackpool. “They encouraged us to use a sketchbook and plan our ideas. When I spent more time drawing in mine than taking photographs it only confirmed where my real interest lay.”
He was o ered a year’s work drawing at a studio in London, using the government’s £40 a week Enterprise Allowance Scheme (which also helped kick-start the careers of others, including artist Tracey Emin and Superdry clothing retailer Julian Dunkerton).
“It was a great experience and at the end of the year I was given names of agents and a couple of leads.”
But the jobs weren’t consistent and working from home, unusual in those days, meant he didn’t get about much. “I couldn’t get an agent because I didn’t have experience and I didn’t have experience because I didn’t have an agent. I was just too raw. I’d go into meetings and not hear back. I got some work, but it wasn’t great.”
At crucial times of his career, David says that luck has played an important role. “After about a year I met an illustrator. When he learned I worked in colour pencil, he introduced me to an animation studio where I worked with around 20 others rendering animation cells and doing backgrounds.”
He was finally in a creative environment doing narrative imagery – and loved it.
“I was self-employed, working for various studios drawing backgrounds for TV and animated adverts.”
He worked on Raymond Briggs’ phenomenally successful Father Christmas TV film (released in 1991) and on a Peter Rabbit TV series.
It was good regular pay, around £300 a week, but he was, essentially, colouring in other people’s work. “It was before computers and we were given drawings which emulated someone else’s style, and coloured them in.”
have turned their passion and talent into a fruitful career
“My digital work allows me to create different atmospheres and moods which are difficult to get across in watercolour. I am pitching for work I’m not sure I would have got before –and feel confident in doing it”David Melling with some of his original art
One day, the celebrated author and illustrator John Burningham, he of Granpa fame, came into the studios – and David knew who he aspired to be. He turned down the next paid job and began building his portfolio to find an agent.
Luck played its part again. “A friend introduced me to a children’s illustrator. His wife, Eunice McMullen had just set up her own children’s book agency and I became one of her first illustrators.”
In 2010 he created Hugless Douglas. “What was supposed to be just one book, took o . Over the next decade or so the books sold well, and I was getting paid well.”
While immensely proud of his creation (which ran to 12 picture books plus another dozen spin-o titles – the final one published in 2021), eventually he wanted to move on.
“I began looking at new ideas and ways to bring them to life.
“Up until three years ago, I drew everything by hand, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that I should look at technology.” David thought that if he went digital, he’d never draw by hand again. But that wasn’t the case. “Technology allows me to do
additional things, bringing things to my work which are di cult to do in watercolour – the medium I use. Some purists say it’s cheating, but to keep fresh and competitive you have to move forward.
“My digital work allows me to create di erent atmospheres and moods which are di cult to get across in watercolour. I am pitching for work I’m not sure I would have got before –and feel confident in doing it.
“David Bowie said always go a little further into the water, go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting –and that’s what I did.
“People have always told me that my draughtsmanship is my strength, and my pen is my thinking stick as my dad used to say, so I still begin by drawing everything. Then I drop it into my software and work on it there, using other mediums such as chalk or charcoal, or even photography to build up layers and do all sorts of things such as changing textures and colours.
“I really enjoy the process, which has surprised me. After 30 years, I’m very lucky to still do what I enjoy, and I’ll keep going for as long as I can.”
You can find out more about David and his work at www.davidmelling.co.uk. If you would like to buy David’s creations, his Etsy shop, DavidMellingArt sells prints and original art.
Along with two fellow authors and illustrators, David is planning a teaching/mentoring scheme which could o er online courses, residential workshops and a mentoring programme.
He said: “We are regularly approached by aspiring artists and authors asking for help in launching their own careers. We would like to o er professional tips and advice which we have cumulatively built up over the decades.”
The University of Gloucestershire has appointed Clare Marchant as ViceChancellor. Clare, who has been the UCAS Chief Executive for the past six years, will replace current ViceChancellor, Stephen Marston, who retired at the end of July.
Forest of Dean-based advanced materials engineering group Versarien has promoted chief technology o cer Dr Stephen Hodge to CEO. Stephen joined Versarien in 2017 and joined the board as chief technology o cer in 2021.
ETL Systems, the Herefordshire-based global manufacturer of RF equipment for satellite ground stations and RF components, has appointed Alex Baldock as Chief Operating O cer. Alex has held senior leadership positions with Magellan Aerospace, Cobham Group and, most recently, Abaco Systems.
Evelyn Partners, the wealth management and professional services group, has appointed Will Thompson as a Financial Planning Director in its Bristol o ce. Will joins from Rathbones where he spent three and a half years as a Senior Financial Planner.
06
Rugby-based Häfele UK, a manufacturer of furniture fittings, architectural hardware, LED lighting and electronic access control systems, has appointed Richard Curtis as Managing Director in the year the group celebrates its 100th birthday.
Group appoints new Group CEO as founder takes step back
Gloucester-based kitchenware brand ProCook Group, has appointed Lee Tappenden as CEO, following founder Daniel O’Neill’s decision to step back from the role. Lee, expected to join in October, has spent more than 25 years with Walmart Stores and Asda, most recently as President and CEO of Walmart Canada.
Regional law firm Lodders has grown its real estate group. Samantha Amphlett joins Lodders’ Planning and Highways Team from Warwickshire County Council. James Leighfield and Chris Mills join Lodders’ Strategic Land and Residential Development. (Photograph L to R) James Leighfield, James Mottram, and Chris Mills. (Front, L to R) Victoria Longmore, and Samantha Amphlett.
07 Piper Homes boosts top team as part of
Sarah Cooper has joined Bromsgrovebased Piper Homes as Chief Financial O cer. Sarah (pictured with Lee Homes, Piper Homes’ CEO) has experience across the residential housing, retail and manufacturing sectors and joined Piper from her role as Divisional Finance Director for Countryside Partnerships.
09
Ian Atkinson has joined Two Rivers Housing as its Corporate Director of Property. This is a new role which will also see him take on responsibility for the Group’s facilities management and repairs company Centigen. Ian joins Two Rivers Housing from Milestone Trust, where he was Director of Estates, Facilities and IT.
10 Centre stage for new Coventry Building Society Arena MD
Coventry Building Society Arena has appointed Paul Michael as managing director. Paul has been commercial director at the venue since 2019, which has included overseeing its commercial strategy since being brought under new ownership last year.
Accountancy company Old Mill has appointed Adil Taha as Chief Operating O cer. Adil’s experience in leading operations and strategies for high-growth organisations across various sectors will play a pivotal role in Old Mill’s growth strategy, the company said.
08
Commercial property specialist Michael Bennett has joined Harrison Clark Rickerbys as a Partner in the firm’s Birmingham Real Estate team. Michael is an expert in landlord and tenant law and has extensive experience in property insolvency having qualified as a Law of Property Act Receiver in 2013.
For thousands of new parents swimming is the first exercise they can do with their babies. Forget football, hockey, rugby –these won’t be on the weekend rota for years, but from the time they’re one day old, you can take a new baby swimming.
Paul Thompson, 57, is passionate about teaching babies to swim and his company, Exeter-based Water Babies, is the largest baby swimming business in the world. It currently has 76 franchise operations in seven countries, teaching more than 52,000 babies annually to enjoy and feel confident in the water.
He said: “If you really are into your child’s physical and mental development, take them
swimming. The di erence in the acceleration of their progress is the di erence between night and day. This is a lifetime skill – it’s also a great way to meet other new parents.”
Paul was born in London and raised by his nurse/health visitor mother. His father had the first independent black accountancy practice in London.
When he was 11-years-old, his mother sent him to private school. “I remember the level of aspiration expected from students. I thrived, was good at sport and became head of the school’s Combined Cadet Force.”
After school, Paul went travelling, returning
to study surveying and got a job with the Peabody Trust in London, where he met his first wife.
“I worked on big regeneration projects, did a Masters in construction project management at University of Edinburgh and moved to take on a new job on the South Coast.”
It was an ideal life: a good job, walking to work from a flat overlooking the water in Hove, marriage, a new baby… but sometimes outward perfection isn’t what it seems.
“I became dissatisfied with my job and, never having been afraid to throw all my cards up in the air, we went from a yuppy lifestyle to no job with my wife still on maternity leave.”
And his next move? Relocating his family to Dominica so he could teach scuba diving. As you do.
“We moved to a shack on a remote part of the island and I taught scuba diving to holidaying Americans.”
But the dream faded rapidly thanks to a Caribbean hurricane bringing Paul and his family back home to the UK. Jess returned to work and Paul happily became a stay-athome dad.
That’s when everything changed. “I needed a schedule – so I found baby activities locally and came across Aqua Babies.
“It was the best thing I did all week. I saw my young daughter accelerate in confidence and development. Because of my scubadiving background, I was constantly talking to the instructor, so he eventually said – why
don’t you become a teacher, we’re always looking for new ones.”
Paul took the advice and did the training. “After my first four classes I had a lightbulb moment – I had a natural empathy for parents and babies – I don’t know where it came from.”
He looked at the world of baby swimming and saw a well-meaning but amateur business.
“I thought it could be done better. We moved to Ilkley in Yorkshire and with just £5,000 started Water Babies.”
Paul wanted to do things properly. “We invested in proper branding and used a local chap called Rob who we still work with today and has become a good friend.”
He remembers the early days: “We were doing up a house, setting up a business, Jess was pregnant with our second child and Rob would roll up at lunchtimes to show us what he’d done. Then our builders got involved, pitching in with mugs of tea in hand, giving their opinion on the branding.”
Paul got posters, leaflets and a website done, negotiated space at five local pools. He had space for 80 clients, although he only needed 30 to break even.
“It was before social media, so we walked the streets handing out flyers.”
There was an almost immediate response. “When I got home from one outing, our
builder came running down the stairs like a giddy schoolboy with 16 names on a piece of paper. The phone hadn’t stopped ringing. We were in the right place at the right time.”
Six weeks later, in June 2002, Water Babies had around 100 clients. That Christmas the business ramped up again, thanks to two unsolicited phone calls.
“My sister-in-law in Bristol wanted to get involved but had no experience in swimming. Then two former college friends in Edinburgh said the same thing.”
“We looked at business ideas and came across franchising. That suited me because I could use all my own systems and processes.”
Paul helped his sister-in-law and friends get pools in Bristol and Edinburgh and they saw early success too.
“Then we realised we were responsible for two families and that was terrifying,” said Paul.
He contacted the British Franchise Association, based in Abingdon, which recommended a franchising consultant.
“To be a successful franchisor he said we needed to have been established for some time and have a couple of outlets to prove we could do it elsewhere. He was sceptical but when I showed him what we’d done, he took us on.”
“He asked how big do you think you will be in five years? I said 15 franchises. He said you’ll grow much faster than that.”
The consultant was bang on the money. Paul went from four to 14 franchisees in just a year.
By 2007, Water Babies had begun to look overseas. “We opened in Australia. It didn’t work, but we learned a lot and it ended amicably. Then we looked at America. But it’s di cult to open as a franchisor in the USA.”
So, he looked closer to home – Ireland. “We had a franchisee who had given up her job to set up Water Babies in Dublin. Then the financial crisis hit.”
Amazingly, his Irish franchisee went from zero to teaching 1,000 babies in one year – amazing when you consider that the 2008 financial crisis hit the Irish economy particularly hard, and it all but imploded. “We thought that people would see swimming lessons as a luxury, but most saw it as a priority.”
Ireland now accounts for about 10 per cent of the company’s total business, teaching almost 3,000 babies a week.
With the financial crisis settling, Paul was
approached by HSBC to enter its Global Connections competition designed for UK companies wanting to export.
Out of 1,600 companies, Water Babies made the final top eight, and the judges said it was one of the best run companies it had ever seen and was internationally scalable.
“That spurred us on to expand further internationally and Water Babies is now in Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Germany as well as Ireland and the UK,” said Paul.
Paul had initially rejected the idea to open in China because some of the world’s biggest brands have tried and failed.
But a client in North London contacted him –and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
A year after signing an agreement with her, Water Babies sold the Master Franchise rights for the whole country to a new partner.
Soon after, Paul attended the opening ceremony of a Water Babies aquatic centre
there. “It was quite extraordinary,” he said.
And earlier this year the business finally entered the USA, acquiring Water Babies USA.
There have been great times for the business, and deeply sad ones too. The pandemic closed the business down for many months over two years, and Paul lost his CEO, Steve Franks, to Covid. “Steve was one of my best friends and had been CEO since 2009. When we were planning to mitigate the crisis, I said to him we will probably lose sta . I didn’t realise we would lose him at just 57 years old.
“But our clients were amazing and almost to a person said we want to come back – keep our subscriptions.
“When we reopened, we had a surge of interest.”
Paul remains ambitious for Water Babies. For him, it’s all about the people.
“We have helped scores of people launch their own businesses and have careers they never thought possible. We are a BCorp and an Investors in People Platinum business.” (Platinum is the highest accolade that can be achieved against the Investors in People standard and is currently held by only one per cent of IIP-accredited organisations).
“We intend to bed into the countries we are now in, and would like to build our own aquatic centres. We had two on the drawing board but as construction costs have risen, we are rethinking. We want to build centres geared up to what we do.”
“This year we have also launched a new Oceans of Imagination campaign, supporting children in learning to swim through purposeful play.”
Water Babies is currently a private company, with 10 per cent in a trust fund for the sta . The whole network turns over around £30 million and as a franchisor Water Babies turns over around £7 million.
“We are the biggest baby swimming company in the world and I’m very proud of that,” said Paul.
“We have helped scores of people launch their own businesses and have careers they never thought possible. We are a BCorp and an Investors in People Platinum business”
PaulThompson, founder of Water Babies
In today’s business world, where turnover rates are high, Whitley Stimpson takes pride in its long-term employees, reflecting a focus on building enduring relationships within a supportive environment.
With 90 sta members, 61 per cent have served for more than three years, 53 per cent for over five years, and an impressive 21 per cent for more than ten years. These experienced employees not only bring stability and invaluable skills to the firm but impart a sense of belonging and purpose, giving confidence to new recruits.
Ten per cent of our employees consists of family and friends recommended by current sta , reflecting a strong sense of camaraderie and trust within the firm. Such referrals are a testament to the belief that Whitley Stimpson is a place where people can reach their full potential.
Whitley Stimpson o ers apprenticeships spanning various areas of the business, including payroll and accountancy. We welcome not only school leavers and graduates but also individuals who have transitioned from di erent career paths to join our firm.
The training we provide is not just about the basics required to complete exams. We have created a culture of learning and growth from the youngest apprentice to long-standing directors, where sta continue their learning through continued professional development.
This year we have 14 apprentices across our four o ces in Banbury, Bicester, High Wycombe, and Witney. All new starters receive instruction through our induction programme including IT training, health and safety, compliance, and other essential skills.
Accountants are trained either through the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) or the Institute of Chartered Accountants England (ICAEW) curriculum provided by the Reed Business School.
Experienced sta work with their colleagues on their individual personal development plans to ensure they reach their goals. For example, our payroll administrator Maddi Cooper came to the firm for work experience in 2018 after completing her GCSEs. Her potential was quickly recognised, and she became an apprentice in the payroll department.
She spent two months working in the department to build up knowledge of legislation and payments practice which she then carried into the apprenticeship. After achieving a distinction, Maddi was awarded Apprentice of the Year in the
Awards 2020 run by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers.
Now she is an integral member of the payroll team, having achieved her BTEC Level 3 award in Payroll Procedures and works with a diverse range of clients as well as helping train new starters herself.
As well as providing a positive and rewarding work environment, the firm recognises the financial benefits of nurturing long-term relationships. Retaining employees reduces the costly process of hiring and training new talent, and the continuity provided by long-serving sta also aids in mitigating disruptions and maintaining a high level of service.
Whitley Stimpson has now been operating for more than 90 years and has many longstanding clients benefiting from sector specific advice in areas such as agriculture, charities, property and construction, and service charge accounting.
We are proud of our team and the strength of our relationships, and we look forward to the next chapter in our history from a position of strength and confidence.
For more information about how Whitley Stimpson can support your business visit www.whitleystimpson.co.uk
Banbury | Bicester | High Wycombe | Witney
benefits the entire company.national LUCA
“We have created a culture of learning and growth from the youngest apprentice to longstanding directors”Some of the team that earlier this year attended Whitley Stimpson’s celebration lunch thanking employees for their longstanding service
Chartered surveyors Richard Julian and Associates (West Midlands) Auditors IMSM (Wiltshire)
Thin-film coating company Artemis Optical (Devon)
acquired by Legal firm Gateley (West Midlands)
Advisors: Liberum (Broker), Belvedere Communications (PR)
Cybersecurity outfit Netcraft
has received an investment from Spectrum Equity Management (United States)
The assets and IP of Fundamentals’ Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML) business (Wiltshire)
acquired by Software firm Marlowe (London)
Advisors: Cenkos Securities (broker), Berenberg (broker), Stifel (broker), FTI Consulting
acquired by Component manufacturer Gooch & Housego (Somerset)
Advisors: Shaw & Co
Software company eoSurgical (Lanarkshire)
Manufacturing firm The P&M Group (Gloucester)
acquired by Medical task trainer Limbs & Things (Bristol)
Hydro International (Somerset)
has secured funding from Lloyds Bank
Coats Group subsidiary Opti Zips (Bristol)
acquired by Power distribution company Lucy Group (Oxfordshire)
acquired by Oldcastle Infrastructure (United States)
acquired by Private equity house AEQUITA (Germany)
The economic uncertainty that carried us into 2023 still lingers, according to Elinor Owen, associate director at Osborne Clarke. “However, investors and businesses remain cautiously optimistic. The pace of corporate transactions has slowed over the last six months, but in the South West we are still seeing a steady flow of mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity-backed deals across a variety of sectors.
“Investors recognise the potential of the South West – whether that be hydrogen technology projects near Bristol, biodiversity initiatives in Devon, or the
region’s rapidly evolving fintech clusters.
“The South West technology sector remains an important regional growth area, having cemented itself as a home for tech innovation with start-ups and university spin-outs attracting domestic and international interest over the past decade.
As the economy continues to stabilise, market confidence is increasing and deal activity will in turn accelerate. However, if interest rate hikes persist this will likely put pressure on consumer focused businesses.
Concerns around changes to capital
gains tax and talk of reform of private equity tax could potentially be a driving force in investor and business decisions into 2024.
“More private investment and pension funds are focusing on regional strategies. The British Business Bank launched its £200 million fund earlier this year to support the growth of small to mediumsized enterprises. The government has continued to o er its levelling up commitment in the region. These investments mean we can remain optimistic that the South West’s diverse
hub will weather this economic storm.”
The last 12 months have been an exceptionally interesting time for the Commercial Property Team at BPE. With the Ukraine War, soaring energy bills, an uncertain economic outlook and the continuing post-Covid pressures, its multitude of clients have been facing relentless challenges, no matter the sector or industry within which they operate and no matter their size.
By investing in building strong longterm relationships with clients, the BPE Commercial Property Team strive to thoroughly understand each of their client’s particular challenges – as well as their businesses, industries, strengths and opportunities. In times as turbulent as these, the Team are remarkably proud to o er their clients technical expertise, commercially-grounded legal advice and legal support beyond just the billable hours – by becoming what their clients see as an extension of their own internal teams.
The BPE Commercial Property Team provides clarity and certainty for developers, landowners, landlords, occupiers and lenders across a wide range of commercial property transactions ranging from straightforward owneroccupier purchases to highly complex multimillion-pound transactions. The Team has
an enviable client base across a wealth of industries and sectors, punching above its weight with both national and global clients – many of whom are longstanding.
Some of the team’s key clients include Superdry plc, a nationally recognised retailer whose relocation from Regent Street to Oxford Street in London was facilitated by the BPE team; Boultbee Brooks Real Estate, a national heavyweight developer and investor, with an expansive portfolio of properties that BPE helps to purchase, redevelop, let and sell with prices in excess of £20 million; and Gloucester Rugby Club, whose recent multi-million pound investment into a new state-of-theart training facility near Kingsholm, BPE acted upon.
Combining City expertise with a personal and pragmatic approach, BPE is recognised as a regional heavyweight.
The Commercial Property Team remains the largest team at BPE – and one of the largest property teams based solely in the South-West. Having recently welcomed back networking powerhouse, Partner and Notary Public, Paul Engelbrecht
from Hughes Paddison, the Team now comprises five partners, four senior associates, one associate, one solicitor, three paralegals, two secretaries, a trainee solicitor and a chartered legal executive. There have been many recent notable achievements for the team including:
Antonia Shield, Managing Partner, who built her career working with notable brands such as Golden Tulip Hotels, Wyevale, Pure Gym, Soho Co ee, and Superdry, was shortlisted in the Law.com Women in Law Power Awards 2023 in the Mentor of the Year category.
Jo Bewley, Deputy Managing Partner and Head of Property Services, and a recognised expert in the healthcare sector whose super surgery work has put the Team on the map, retained her position as a Leading Individual in the most recent Legal 500 annual rankings.
Doug Armstrong, who specialises in the acquisition, management, and disposal of large investment properties across the UK, was promoted to Equity Partner in October 2022 and continues to champion the firm’s Regional Business Group (which looks to promote business in the region and specifically support start-ups in the area, aligning with the Golden Valley objectives).
Offering a personal and pragmatic approach, BPE’s largest team provides City expertise without the City fees.
“Doug and the Property team at BPE are reliable, concise and very easy to deal with. It’s why we’ve instructed the team for almost a decade and would happily recommend them to property investors.”
Zoe Wood, Asset Manager of Boultbee Brooks
“BPE were instrumental in getting this deal to exchange and we can’t thank BPE enough for their hard work, support and efficiency. BPE kept us fully up to date to make informed decisions along the way and went beyond what was expected in making the deal happen.”
Tim Cheater, Greenway Nurseries“Many thanks to BPE for the excellent work on my behalf. Doug has been thorough, persistent, fair and transparent throughout and I do not hesitate in recommending him as a solicitor.”
Metin Civlak, Director of Sef Steakhouse“BPE have always been extremely helpful with everything we ask of them no matter how big or small the request. Their experience has always helped us get the best deal possible in the quickest possible time.”
Peter Creed, The Bell Inn
In only the last 6 months, BPE have advised on the following:
Acquisition of Bay Tree Court for Lilian Faithfull Care – The Team advised well known South-West based charity Lilian Faithfull Care on their recent acquisition of Bay Tree Court, a spacious purpose-built 59-bed home together with independent living units, tucked away on Prestbury High Street in Cheltenham. The transaction was structured by way of an asset purchase, with completion conditional upon CQC approval. Having previously acted on three other acquisitions for this client, as well as the lease of LFC’s first charity shop in Tewkesbury, the team were uniquely positioned to manage this transaction in an e cient and pragmatic manner.
Retail Expansion for Weird Fish – The Team recently completed five new retail premises leases for Weird Fish in Whitstable, St David’s, Aldeburgh, Southwold & Boscastle bringing the total number of shop premises for the lifestyle clothing and accessories retailer to 28.
Acquisition, financing and lettings for Warners Retail at Cleevelands Centre Development – At the beginning of 2023 BPE celebrated the completion of longstanding client Warners Retail’s brand-new bespoke development – The Cleevelands Centre in Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham. Having acted on the site acquisition in 2020 the Team further advised Warners on the pre-lets of the units to national tenants including Co-op and Dominos Pizza and then the financing of the site to Handelsbanken.
Dodo Pubs Lease of The Cross Hands, Bristol – The Team assisted Dodo Pubs Co with the acquisition of its newest location – The Cross Hands in Bristol. Dodo Pub Co now has seven neighbourhood pubs in its growing portfolio (including The Bottle of Sauce in Cheltenham and The Rusty Bicycle in Oxford), each o ering a traditional yet quirky welcoming style. The All Inn, as the pub will be renamed, will reopen on Staple Hill Road in Fishponds, in May 2023, and is the latest pub to be rescued from closure by co-founders Leo Johnson and Chris Manners.
Bath cyber security company
Cheltenham cyber and technology specialists Emerge Digital and Red Maple Technologies are working together to bring enterprise-level cyber security to SMEs at a time when small businesses struggle with the cost and resource of staying secure.
This year’s Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey reported how an increasing number of small to medium-sized companies are struggling with their cyber hygiene since the pandemic.
The number of micro businesses using up-to-date malware protection has dropped from 81 per cent to 74 per cent in two years, while there are now fewer medium-sized firms with security controls on devices compared to last year.
In a separate report, 38 per cent admitted to having insu cient budget to adequately protect themselves against cyber-attacks.
As a Managed Service Provider (MSP),
Emerge Digital will incorporate Red Maple’s attack surface management solution, FractalScan Surface, into its recently launched OnyxSecure product suite, to bring enhanced cyber security to small businesses at more a ordable prices.
Rob Stemp, CEO at Red Maple Technologies, said: "By partnering with leading MSPs, such as Emerge Digital, we aim to extend our reach and provide our state-of-the-art attack surface management platform to a significant number of SMEs."
Not only does this move bring together two companies that share a keen focus on cyber security but who also have common roots in Cheltenham's vibrant business community.
Tom Henson, Emerge Digital's Managing Director, added: "Security shouldn't be a privilege confined to big corporations. This partnership allows us to bring top-tier security to all businesses, irrespective of their size.”
Invest in Gloucestershire, the county’s leading inward investment programme, has revealed the arrival of Turkish cyber security LB&WAF vendor TR7 into Cheltenham. The company will be establishing their global HQ in Eagle Tower in the next few months.
This comes after Phil Clement, Head of Inward Investment at GFirst LEP, presented to TR7 and other Turkish
cyber firms in Istanbul in January, organised by the Department for Business & Trade. The team hosted the company on two visits to Gloucestershire this year – the most recent just last month. Senior managers will be relocating from Turkey.
The company specialises in load balancing and web application firewalls, and has recently gained many plaudits
Netcraft has secured a $100 million investment from Boston-based Spectrum Equity Management and appointed a new chief executive as the company seeks to expand its business in the USA, which currently accounts for around 25 per cent of its revenue.
Netcraft says it analyses more than a million threat reports and suspicious web addresses a day. Its cyber crime detection, disruption and takedown platform is powered by sophisticated automation operating at scale. Early detection leads to early disruption, which reduces the impact of cyber threats.
Ryan Woodley has been appointed as its new CEO. He has held senior executive positions at security company DigiCert as well as Progressive Leasing, which rents household products in lease-to-own arrangements. Mike Prettejohn, the company’s founder, has joined Netcraft’s board. Netcraft, founded in 1994, does business in 100 countries, and says 10 of the 20 largest banks in Europe are customers.
for its cyber security work related to the recent national elections in Turkey.
Ömer Günel, General Manager TR7 said, “TR7 are excited about opening our new global HQ in Cheltenham. We have been impressed by the depth of the cyber ecosystem in Gloucestershire and look forward to bringing over key members of our team from Turkey as well as hiring from the excellent local talent pool.”
Bristol fibre optics and telecommunications firm Pulse Networks has been recognised at the UK Fibre Awards 2023.
The growing firm - which has increased its headcount from one to 45 in the past 12 months – was highly commended in the Best Fibre Rollout Supplier category.
Pulse Networks acts as principal contractor for four of the UK’s top 10 internet service providers.
The telecoms industry is in a state of reform with some ISPs pulling back on construction due to a hold in investment from their parent companies. Multiple companies are going through consolidation and others considering buyouts and mergers of their current asset base/infrastructure.
The company has also created a renewables subsidiary, which has won its first contract with a leading UK solar farm developer.
Managing director Josh Packer said: “I have extremely ambitious plans for Pulse, not only within telecoms, but also in renewables with Pulse Eco Ltd.
“As well as what we achieve on the job, I am proud to represent a team of individuals with huge hearts that go out of their way to support Pulse’s work with mental health and young homelessness charities.
“In March 2023, all Pulse operatives also worked an hour of overtime, the earnings from which were donated to the British Red Cross’ Turkey-Syria earthquake appeal.”
Homes and businesses in some of the most remote areas of Gloucestershire could get greatly improved broadband connectivity says Gloucestershire County Council.
The Gloucestershire initiative, part of the government’s Project Gigabit, aims to revamp connectivity for more than 8,000 properties presently linked via outdated copper wires, which stretch across the Forest of Dean, Tewkesbury and East Gloucestershire. These antiquated connections will be replaced with fast and alternatives.
Project Gigabit is the government’s flagship £5 billion programme to enable hard-toreach communities to access superfast gigabit-capable broadband. Its target is to provide high-speed gigabit-capable broadband to 85 per cent of the UK population by 2025, with a further goal of reaching 99 per cent by 2030.
Gloucestershire’s chosen providers will be announced early next year with the build expected to start soon after.
This new scheme builds upon the significant progress achieved by Fastershire Broadband Project, a successful collaboration between Gloucestershire County Council and
Herefordshire Council. Since 2011, Fastershire has invested more than £30 million into building digital infrastructure. Across Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, so far 97.4 per cent of premises have access to superfast speeds exceeding 30Mbps, with more than 68 per cent of properties having gigabit access, Gloucestershire County Council says.
According to Ofcom, at the beginning of this year, full-fibre broadband was available to 12.4 million UK homes (42 per cent): this is 4.3 million more premises a year ago, and for the second year running represents the highest year-on-year increase since full fibre started being rolled out in the UK.
Gigabit-capable broadband is available to 20.8m homes (70 per cent): this includes full fibre and upgraded cable networks that are capable of delivering download speeds of 1 Gbit/s or higher.
The number of premises without access to decent broadband continues to fall: factoring in coverage from both fixed and fixed-wireless networks, nearly 80,000 homes and businesses (0.3%) still do not have access to decent broadband. Ofcom estimates that around 15,000 of these will be covered by publicly funded roll-out schemes in the next 12 months.
Numbers vary wildly, but according to market and consumer data company Statista, there are around 15.14 billion connected Internet of Things devices –equivalent to just under twice the total number of people worldwide. But other estimates are much higher.
We’ve all heard of the Internet of Things (IoT) but why should it matter?
The acronym IoT refers to a network of physical devices, vehicles, domestic appliances, manufacturing equipment and in fact everything that has a sensor or software embedded into it which will allow it to collect and exchange data over the internet.
Here’s how IoT works: IoT-enabled devices are equipped with various sensors (for example, temperature, humidity, motion, pressure), that gather data from their surroundings. That data is transmitted to the cloud (the globally distributed information storage system) via Wi-Fi or other networks. The cloud-based centralised systems can then process and analyse that information to derive meaningful insights, and then use that knowledge to trigger appropriate actions, automate process or send alerts to users, devices or systems. It’s not always automated, there is often some human
interaction or control via web portals or mobile apps.
So it’s Big Brother then?
Well, you could see it that way, or more positively you could acknowledge that for businesses it can improve e ciency and productivity, streamline supply chains and optimise operations, reducing downtime in important equipment.
Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation says that one UK casting manufacturer uses sensors to enable machine monitoring when the machine is running or idle and canidentify reasons why the machine may be stopped. This helps the manufacturer to improve processes, machine maintenance and have real time information from several sites.
A print manufacturer knows the usage times and consumable levels of its machines and sends replacements for consumables without the need for ordering. As part of this they can manage upgrades on their own schedule and based on the data from all machines predict when maintenance will be required and schedule this. This allows them to sell the ‘service’ rather than the product to the end customer.
IoT sensors can continuously monitor product quality and ensure regulatory compliance. They can also help with energy e ciency by regulating lighting, heating, cooling, and other systems based on real-time data, resulting in reduced energy costs and environmental impact.
For individuals it also has big benefits, particularly in medical monitoring. In July the government announced a big expansion in its “virtual wards”. Virtual wards (also known as hospital at home) allow patients to get hospital-level care at home in familiar surroundings, helping speed up their recovery while freeing up hospital beds.
Just as in hospital, people on a virtual ward are reviewed daily and cared for by a multidisciplinary team.
The “ward round” may involve a home visit or take place through video technology. Many virtual wards use technology like apps, wearables and other medical devices enabling clinical sta to easily check in and monitor the person’s recovery.
We’re already using the Internet of Things daily. But do any of us really understand its scope?
Customer engagement and personalisation is also improved using IoTenabled devices, although some people can find this intrusive – for instance, you may not wish others to know your whereabouts or preferences.
The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to transform the way that we interact with technology, enabling communication between devices and creating a more interconnected world. It is currently estimated that there are over 15 billion IoT devices worldwide and this is growing rapidly. IoT devices range from medical devices; smart security devices; smart vehicles; smart home devices to telematics devices… and these are just a few. Given the ubiquitous nature of IoT devices, there is increasing concern around the security of the devices and any data that they may collect.
While the benefits for both businesses and individuals are massive, there are significant concerns relating to personal and professional data security and privacy, and the threat of hackers which have to be taken seriously.
This summer, it was reported in some parts of the national media that an increase in the numbers of Chinese-manufactured cars into the UK could pose a security risk if the software in them was capable of being remotely monitored. Could the Chinese authorities press the stop button which would see all cars made in the country judder to a halt on roads and motorways, while Teslas and other Western-manufactured electric vehicles accelerate past? Unlikely probably, but perhaps not impossible.
The best way to reap the many rewards of IoT while being mindful of any threats to personal or company privacy and security is to ensure that all IoT-enabled devices are secure and comply with data protection regulations and have a robust IoT strategy.
IoT devices provide for new entry points for cyber criminals to exploit and disrupt. Previously, we have seen the likes of Netflix and Spotify targeted using Distributed Denial of Services (DDOS) attacks that flood a network with such a huge volume of requests that the system crashes. Cyber criminals are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities that the vulnerabilities of IoT devices create, and their attacks are becoming ever more complex and include the theft of data (including personally identifiable information), ransomware attacks, and access to confidential business information.
The UK Government is due to introduce the consumer connectable product security regime, which will set minimum security requirements for manufacturers, importers and distributors of UK consumer connectable products. The regime is based upon the UK’s Code of Practice for consumer IoT security, input from the National Cyber Security Centre
Sarah Kenshall: Sarah.Kenshall@bpe.co.uk
(NCSC) and the consumer global standard for IoT products. The new legislation will require manufacturers to have a plan for responding to vulnerabilities; disclose the length of time software updates will be available to the consumer and require consumers to set bespoke passwords.
Ensuring security keeps pace with development must be at the forefront of thoughts for government, industry, manufacturers and users. Users must be aware of their responsibilities to use the devices appropriately and implement available updates. Companies that use IoT should review their IoT policies and ensure they are fit for purpose.
If you would like further information or advice around IoT security, contact us www.bpe.co.uk today.BPE Partner, Sarah Kenshall
“Virtual wards (also known as hospital at home) allow patients to get hospital-level care at home in familiar surroundings ...”
WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick, has secured two major projects with Leamington Spa-based Bellagio Stone and Radius Systems thanks to more than £200,000 in funding from Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme.
Bristol waste management firm Grundon has launched another environmentally friendly measure to the city – seagull-proof sacks.
The 250 litre bags, coloured Bristol blue, will be o ered free to new Grundon customers. They are large enough to fit ten general waste bags inside and, as well as being beak-proof, are safe from penetration by vermin.
John Phelps, operations manager at Grundon Waste Management, said: "We know how much of a problem seagulls destroying bin bags can be – it’s unsightly, unhygienic and has knock-on e ects on encouraging other vermin.
"We also know for businesses that are open late, for example, there’s a historic issue with bags getting abused and mistreated. Our drivers often have to clean up after these pests – they sometimes spend as much time sweeping up waste as they do collecting it.
"So we hope these bags are going to o er a solution to the problem. They’re strong, aesthetically pleasing and easy to manage. We think we’re the first waste management company in Bristol to o er
them and we hope they’ll be popular."
Such bags are already proving popular in coastal areas like Cornwall.
"We work closely with enforcement o cers at the city council to tackle sites which are proving a problem," added Phelps.
"So by the time most people are up, the streets are clean – even our business customers don’t realise what we’ve been up to.
"There’s also a safety issue for our drivers, as rats carry Weil’s Disease in their urine which can be dangerous and even fatal. So it’s in everyone’s interest to minimise this issue."
In July this year, Grundon launched its first electrically powered refuse lorry in Bristol and the company plans to convert its remaining fleet to eco-friendly fuel over coming months.
Since 2000, Oxfordshire- headquartered Grundon has reduced its carbon emissions by 78.68% through measures, including an ongoing energy self-su ciency programme and investing in state-of-theart technology.
A KTP is a three-way collaboration between a company, an academic institution (in this case WMG at the University of Warwick) and a graduate or postgraduate. KTPs are designed to help businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity through shared knowledge, technology, and skills.
Bellagio Stone’s two-year project will create a new management and leadership framework within the business following a recent merger, enabling it to boost productivity and expansion.
Radius Systems manufacturers innovative plastic pipeline solutions. It will work on a two-year project with WMG to design and implement a process control system to reduce process variation in the continuous manufacture of water, gas and hydrogen infrastructure pipes.
Simon Broome, Innovation Manager at WMG who works with SMEs to secure KTP funding said: “Both Bellagio Stone and Radius Systems have showed a fantastic appetite to grow their businesses and engage with the University to achieve their goals.”
Allen Clarke Technical Director at Radius Systems Ltd said: “We have many ideas and initiative to further enhance our manufacturing processes. The scheme will give us great insight into our chosen technical subjects whilst enhancing our manufacturing and Industry 4.0 philosophy.”
Albotherm, the Bristol-based advanced materials agritech and construction startup, has been awarded a £500,000 grant from Innovate UK to spearhead a ground-breaking project in collaboration with glass manufacturer Pilkington, and salad and produce growers Flavourfresh and Vitacress.
This latest funding builds on the £1.6 million seed investment round announced in June. That investment was led by Green Angel Syndicate and supported by Oxford Innovation Finance through its angel platform OION, Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC) and others.
Albotherm has developed a smart shade coating that is transparent in cold weather but automatically converts to opaque in hot weather to provide on-demand shade, optimising crop growing conditions, and reducing solar overheating. Albotherm says its technology is vital in producing 50 per cent more food by 2050 to feed a global population reaching nearly 10 billion.
This need is compounded as available arable land has decreased by 30 per cent in the last 40 years due to the e ects of urbanisation and climate change. The world's changing climate also brings more unpredictable weather conditions, which can cause stress to crops, resulting in a 25 per cent decrease in yield.
As Albotherm’s product is responsive to changing temperature it ensures that the greenhouse environment remains optimum for growth.
In commercial greenhouses, their technology allows crops to benefit from the early morning and evening light, while being
protected from the heat of the midday sun, boosting overall light levels by 18 per cent and demonstrating a 34 per cent increase in crop yield compared to standard shading approaches.
This ambitious project, which began in May, has received funding from the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural A airs (Defra) as part of the Farming Innovation Pathways Grant, administered by Innovate UK. The aim is to address the pressing need for sustainable solutions in the horticulture sector by maximising energy e ciency and reducing environmental impact.
The project aims to develop and test Albotherm’s innovative smart coatings, with a focus on the optimisation and scale-up of their retrofit temperature-responsive shade coating for commercial greenhouses. Initial testing is expected to start next Spring in partnership with Flavourfresh and Vitacress,
two of the UK’s leading soft fruit and culinary herb growers, with commercial scale crop trials.
Albotherm is also partnering with leading glass manufacturer Pilkington to develop a glass coating for new greenhouse construction that can be produced using Pilkington’s large area manufacturing
“We are honoured to have the support of Flavourfresh, Vitacress and Pilkington on the Ground-breaking project ...”Dr Sian Fussell, Chief Technology O cer (left) with Molly Allington, CEO Albotherm (right)
processes. This new product will have a longer lifetime, maximising the environmental benefit of Albotherm’s technology and allow access to a wider market opportunity in industrial glazing.
Albotherm has also benefited from growth support from Innovate UK EDGE, delivered by Innovation and Growth Specialist, Marc Rambaud. Innovation UK Edge is the UK innovation agency’s resource for innovative businesses from any sector who are ambitious to grow further and scale.
“Marc and the team at Innovate UK EDGE have helped us to build a really strong framework across areas like design, HR, internationalisation and funding and finance,” says Molly Allington, CEO of Albotherm.
“It’s been great to have both the general support from Marc, and to also work with specialists like Adele Reynolds who helped us to revamp our funding strategy and secure our most recent grant.
"We are excited to receive the Innovate UK grant and to collaborate with leaders in the UK horticulture industry. We are honoured to have the support of Flavourfresh, Vitacress, and Pilkington on this ground-breaking project and we look forward to contributing to a more sustainable future for the horticultural industry."
Anna Colley, Lead Technologist at Pilkington Technology Management, said: “We are continually developing the next generation of glass products and have recently launched our Pilkington Botanical glass range focused on optimising greenhouse farming. We are very much looking forward to working with Albotherm and exploring the potential of combining their smart shade coating with our glass technology as a potential step towards more dynamic systems for combating temperature variations in greenhouses.”
Andy Roe, Production Manager at Flavourfresh added: “This Albotherm project is exactly why British horticulture is number one in the world. Flavourfresh are so excited to be partnering with Albotherm on such an incredible and innovative concept. The outcome of this work will be so beneficial to all growers across the sector. It's projects like this that make our jobs so stimulating and exciting for future challenges.”
Dymag, the Chippenham-based designer of lightweight wheels for the automotive industry, is working with Korean motor manufacturer Hyundai on the development of advanced new carbon hybrid wheel technology for its N Performance cars.
The first result of the collaboration between Dymag and composites material specialist Hankuk Carbon, the new wheel technology further cements Dymag’s position as a leading manufacturing partner for the global automotive industry and marks the start of a relationship with Hyundai.
A prototype of a new jointly-developed N Performance carbon hybrid wheel was unveiled on Hyundai’s stand at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, where the company also debuted its IONIQ 5 N hot crossover.
Tom de Lange, CEO of Dymag, said: “We are delighted we are working with Hyundai. This is the start of what we hope is a long and fruitful relationship which will bring our game-changing technology to a wider audience of global automotive customers.
"Carbon hybrid wheels from Dymag bring many benefits for highperformance vehicles, with very low capital expenditure for car-makers,
thanks to our patented technology and lean production methods. We look forward to announcing further original equipment manufacturing agreements very soon.”
Dymag has been working on advanced wheel design since 1974 and was the first in the world to commercialise carbon hybrid automotive wheels in 2004.
Designed for high-performance vehicles, from sports cars to SUVs and pick-ups, the patented carbon hybrid wheel delivers multiple gains for original equipment manufacturers, the aftermarket and others. In addition to lower unsprung mass and inertia, gyroscopic force is also reduced, improving steering feel and handling.
Aerospace giant Airbus, which employs 2,700 people at Filton, near Bristol, has posted higher-thanexpected underlying operating profit for the second quarter.
The world's largest plane-maker said earnings before tax rose 34 per cent to €1.8 billion as revenues grew by 24 per cent to nearly €16 billion, buoyed by higher jet deliveries.
The firm delivered 316 commercial
aircraft during the period. The company is targeting the delivery of 720 commercial aircraft this year.
Filton is home to Airbus' Aerospace Integrated Research and Test Centre, which opened in 2021. Wings, fuels systems and landing gears are developed and tested there.
Half of the world’s air passengers fly on Airbus wings designed at Filton.
Twenty years ago, in 2003, high speed rail – something Japan has been enjoying since the mid-1960s – finally arrived in the UK with the opening of the first part of High Speed 1, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link between London and the South Coast.
Finally speeds of up to 300 kph (186 mph) were available on British railways.
Six years later, in 2009, the Labour government unveiled plans for High Speed 2. The plan was to reduce journey times between London and the Midlands and north, as well as freeing up capacity on the rail network.
But public objections to the route and the upheaval the work would cause – as well as the eye-watering cost of the project –meant it wasn't until 2017 and 2021 that the two acts of parliament that would make HS2 a reality received Royal Assent.
Since then the proposed network has been cut substantially. Plans to link HS1 and HS2 – providing a high speed rail link between the north, the Midlands and the continent were dropped at an early stage. In 2022 the government announced that the eastern leg connecting Birmingham to Leeds and York would be dropped.
Meanwhile work is finally under way on a less ambitious, less costly HS2. Phase 1, which connects London Euston and Birmingham Curzon Street, is due to be completed by around 2031. For
passengers departing from the north, the next high speed train from Manchester Piccadilly is expected to depart by 2033.
It's worth noting, though, that HS2 is still Europe’s largest infrastructure project and includes civil engineering projects that would have Victorian railway forebears lifting their stovepipe hats in celebration.
Four new stations – Birmingham Curzon Street, London Euston, Interchange at Solihull, and Old Oak Common in West London linking HS2 with the Elizabeth Line and the Great Western Main Line – are being built. Each promises to unlock land for housing and employment.
Sixty-four miles of dedicated high speed rail tunnel are being constructed in five separate locations along the route, which cuts through Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.
Eleven miles of viaducts and bridges are
being built across valleys, rivers, roads and flood plains. There will be 500 new structures by the time the project is completed.
And the network will be serviced by 54 bullet trains which, the government insists, will be designed, built and maintained in the UK.
Some of the biggest names in civil engineering have formed consortiums to carry out the work. Household names like Balfour Beatty, Kier, Sir Robert McAlpine and Skanska are all involved.
And the project has created thousands of jobs – 30,000 at the last count across 350 sites.
Those sites include a manufacturing plant at Kingsbury, Warwickshire where 2,742 huge concrete segments which will be used to build the Delta Junction are being produced.
If the journey to a high speed rail network seems a long time in the making, plans to reduce congestion at one of Britain's mostvisited tourist attractions has taken even longer.
It was in 1994 that English Heritage first mooted the idea of returning the landscape around Stonehenge to its natural state. The much-maligned collection of 1960s pre-fab buildings with toilets, a snack bar and a gift shop would be dismantled. A new visitor centre would be built a mile and a half from the stones with tourists shuttled to the monument by a fleet of Land Rovers. It would – pledged English Heritage – be open for the dawning of the new millennium.
Meanwhile, the busy A303 – a single carriageway road connecting private cars, and freight tra c, and – especially during the summer months – thousands of holidaymakers from London and the M3 to the M5 to Devon and Cornwall, would pass through a tunnel, giving visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage Site a tra c and smog-free view of the stones.
Among the vocal supporters were Rollo Maughfling, Archdruid of Stonehenge and Britain.
The £27 million visitor centre finally opened in 2013, while plans to divert the A303 through a tunnel have faced so many heritage objections, legal challenges and budget row-backs that it makes the original
civil engineering project of dragging bluestones from the Preseli hills in Wales to the middle of Salisbury Plain seem relatively straightforward.
The latest, as of July, is that the tunnel plan – that's the £1.7 billion 2020 plan, not the 2013 plan, the £540 million 2007 plan, or the £183 million 2002 plan, or the 1994 plan – is back on again.
The 2.1-mile tunnel is just part of a larger civil engineering project that will include bypasses, viaducts, and flyovers.
The plans would alleviate at least one of the bottlenecks on the A303, the length of which is currently around two-thirds dual carriageway and one-third single carriageway.
Relieving the tra c would make good economic sense according to the government. Time is money, and lorries in tra c jams are doing nobody any good. National Highways says the journey time past Stonehenge could be reduced from "as much as an hour" to eight minutes.
There would also, it is argued, be public safety benefit – A303 bottlenecks are notorious accident hotspots, especially during the summer months.
National Highways has appointed an international consortium including FCC Construcción (Spain), WeBuild (Italy) and BeMo Tunnelling for the roadbuilding and
tunnelling schemes. Some of the work is likely to be subcontracted to SMEs in the region.
Meanwhile, the contract for quantity surveying, cost consultancy, and contractor liaison was won by London-based Mace.
National Highways says the work will be carried out in a way that is sensitive to the needs of the environment and the cultural heritage of the area.
Wiltshire Council, which backs the plans, says the project will support 21,000 jobs and boost the region's economy by £9 billion.
But historians remain horrified at the idea of digging a tunnel through what is now understood to be a far wider archaeological site than was realised in 1994.
Popular historian Tom Holland, who grew up in the area and is president of the Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site campaign group, said: "At the best of times this would be a grotesque decision, but at a time when the country is faced with so many bills, such a financial shortfall, this desecration of a World Heritage Site is the height of folly –an act of vandalism that shames Britain."
And although the project currently has the green light, objectors are currently "exploring avenues" to legally challenge the government's decision again. Like the lorries on the A303 on a good day, this one rumbles on.
At the risk of allowing a theme to emerge, our next civil engineering project is also decades in the making.
In the mid-1990s work began to construct a dual carriageway between the M4 at Swindon and the M5 near Gloucester, following the existing A419 and the A417.
When the scheme – completed in sections – opened in full in 1998 it was possible to drive on dual carriageway between the ports of England's south coast to the industrial Midlands and north into Scotland... with one notable exception.
Even at the planning stage the government and local councils knew there would be congestion at a three-mile stretch of single carriageway road around the Air Balloon roundabout.
This is where the A417 turns sharply taking tra c from the Cotswold hills down a steep gradient to the Severn Valley below.
Dubbed the Missing Link, the government promised to address the issue very, very soon.
For motorists caught in tra c jams there was a glimmer of hope in 2014, when the government pledged to deliver a tra c scheme within five to eight years.
Eight years later, in 2022, National Highways finally awarded the £460 million contract to Kier, which is working with partners Volker Fitzpatrick, Arup, Tony Gee and RPS.
On New Year’s Eve 2022, the final pint was served at the 200-year-old Air Balloon pub, which will be demolished for the road to be upgraded.
That's a small price to pay, say some, for the benefits that the scheme will bring: £65 million in accident reduction, £314 million in reduced journey times, £40 million in business user journey time
reliability, £31 million in commuting and other user journey time reliability, and wider economic benefits totalling £140 million according to National Highways.
Work is due to be completed in 2027 – 30 years after the first stages of the A417/A419 scheme were opened.
The bridge they said they’d cross when they came to it: the Missing Link
“Work is due to be completed in 2027 –30 years after the first stages of the A417/ A419 scheme were opened
On the North Somerset coast, between the popular seaside resorts of Burnham-onSea and Watchet, construction on the UK’s newest nuclear power station is under way.
Hinkley Point C was due to replace Hinkley Point A, which is currently being decommissioned in a scheme that will conclude some time around 2085 (that’s not a typo – that’s twenty eighty-five) and Hinkley Point B, for which a closure date of 2023 was originally pencilled in, seems sure to be extended.
Financed by EDF Energy and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), construction began in 2017. The project is expected to cost in the region of £32.7 billion – over 50 per cent more than was envisaged when the contract was signed in 2016.
In February this year, the first new nuclear reactor for a British power station for more than 30 years arrived in Somerset.
At 13 metres long – which is apparently compact for a nuclear reactor – and weighing 500 tonnes, the reactor pressure vessel made by the French company Framatome, will create the heat needed to make steam for the world’s largest turbines.
A month later two of the world’s largest cranes were lifting components into the plant’s cooling water system. Neptune and Sea Challenger – which are mounted on nautical platforms – are often used for building o shore wind farms and have a combined lifting capacity of 1,500 tonnes.
The project was a joint venture between EDF, Balfour Beatty and New Wave Solutions.
Once completed, each of the two nuclear reactors will provide enough energy to power three million homes – around seven per cent of the UK’s domestic energy requirements.
The government says nuclear power is cost e ective – cheaper than wind or gas. It says the plant will generate power for 60 years but “we’re only paying for 35”.
Its last Value for Money Assessment was published before Russian troops marched into Ukraine, pushing energy costs skywards. Today, the talk is all about energy security – the ability to produce our own power.
Environmentalists will argue about the pros and cons of nuclear power all day: some say it’s an important tool for hitting net zero. Others point to the potential of a nuclear accident, which would be catastrophic but, according to the independent O ce for Nuclear Regulation, extremely unlikely.
Meanwhile, EDF Energy argues that Hinkley Point C is good news for the regional economy. It says 19,250 jobs have been created directly on-site so far, including more than 1,000 apprenticeships. More than £24 million will be invested directly into education, skills and employment.
Nine hundred site workers are being housed at the former Pontins Brean Sands Holiday Park, which EDF has spent £2 million upgrading. EDF has also established a £20 million community fund to support charities and community groups in North Somerset.
Major contract benefactors include the French-led joint venture. Bouygues TP/ Laing O’Rourke Joint Venture which secured the £2 billion groundworks contract, and Kier BAM Nuttall, which has a £203 million earthworks contract to move more than 5.5 million cubic metres of material to create complex terracing structures and an expansive road network.
But there are local winners too – Somerset Passenger Solutions has the contract to transport workers on to the site, while six Somerset food producers working together as Somerset Larder have the catering contract.
“Once completed, each of the two nuclear reactors will provide enough energy to power three million homes – around seven per cent of the UK’s domestic energy requirements”
In July, Indian multi-national conglomerate Tata, the owner of automotive brand Jaguar Land Rover, confirmed plans to open a gigafactory for electric car batteries in the UK.
The £4 billion investment will create up to 4,000 new direct jobs and thousands more in the wider supply chain.
One of the largest-ever investments in the British automotive sector, the gigafactory will deliver half the battery production needed by 2030 according to Tata.
With an output of up to 40 GWh of production per year it will also be one of the biggest gigafactories in Europe.
The site of the new factory will be near Bridgwater in Somerset, on an as-yet unbuilt business park called Gravity and could be up and running by 2026.
Tata was also looking at a site in Spain, so the Somerset announcement came as good news for the UK economy.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "Tata Group’s multi-billion-pound investment in a new battery factory in the UK is testament to the strength of our car manufacturing industry and its skilled workers.
"With the global transition to zero emission vehicles well under way, this will help grow our economy by driving forward our lead in battery technology while creating as many as 4,000 jobs, and thousands more in the supply chain.
"We can be incredibly proud that Britain has been chosen as home to Tata Group’s first gigafactory outside India, securing our place as one of the most attractive places to build electric vehicles."
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman at Tata, added: "The Tata Group is deeply committed to a sustainable future across our business.
"I am delighted to announce the Tata Group will be setting up one of Europe’s largest battery cell manufacturing facilities in the
UK. Our multi-billion-pound investment will bring state-of-the-art technology to the country, helping to power the automotive sector’s transition to electric mobility, anchored by our own business, JLR.
"With this strategic investment, the Tata Group further strengthens its commitment to the UK, alongside our many companies operating here across technology, consumer, hospitality, steel, chemicals and automotive.
"I also want to thank His Majesty’s Government, which has worked so closely with us to enable this investment."
Meanwhile, 140 miles up the M5 and in the heart of the UK's automotive industry, civic and business leaders in Coventry were left wondering what future there was for their own gigafactory plans.
In 2021 Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport had unveiled plans to develop what
would have been the UK's largest battery gigafactory – with an output of up to 60GWh of production per year.
The £2.5 billion gigafactory would make electric vehicle batteries from 2025 and create up to 6,000 jobs directly, plus thousands more in the wider supply chain.
A week after the Tata announcement, the team behind the West Midlands gigafactory said its plans were still alive.
Jim O'Boyle, jobs and regeneration portfolio holder on Coventry City Council, told local media that if Tata's scheme produced half the batteries required by the UK automotive industry, the other half would need to be built somewhere.
"Ours is the only scheme with planning permission and ready to go," he said, adding that Warwick Manufacturing Group was in discussion with a number of car manufacturers.
“I am delighted to announce the Tata Group will be setting up one of Europe’s largest battery cell manufacturing facilities in the UK”The proposed new West Midlands Gigafactory
Two major motorway junction schemes in the West Midlands aim to keep motorists moving and unlock economic potential.
Tra c congestion and poor journey reliability have constrained investment and economic growth around the M42 at Junction 6 near Solihull, according to National Highways.
Having almost reached capacity, the junction – near Birmingham Airport – has become a bottleneck.
And the junction is likely to get busier once HS2 is operational.
To accommodate forecast tra c growth National Highways is building a new 2.4 km dual carriageway link road aligned to the west of Bickenhill, and a new Junction 5A on the M42, 1.8km south of the existing M42 Junction 6. Two new roundabouts north of the B4102 Solihull Road on either side of the M42 are also planned.
Meanwhile, a new overbridge above the A45 near the Arden Hotel will provide cyclists and walkers with a safer route to cross the road.
The cost of the scheme is £282 million. Work started in 2021 and is anticipated to be completed in 2025. The work is being carried out by Skanska.
Meanwhile, construction firm Galliford Try has been awarded the Gloucestershire County Council contract for the M5 Junction 10 Improvements Scheme.
Galliford Try will work alongside the council to support the planning application, while also ensuring the scheme delivers best value for money and is achieved within budget and on time.
The council says the improvements scheme will unlock housing land and the economic potential around Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury.
And National Highways has also identified in their Birmingham to Exeter Route Strategy that improvements to M5 Junction 10 are a
critical requirement to maintain the safe and e cient operation of the M5 corridor.
The scheme is being funded through the council’s successful bid to UK Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund, administered by Homes England, for £249 million.
If approved, the transformative infrastructure project will see the addition of a new slip road on to the M5 southbound and a new slip road o the M5 northbound, to create an all-movements signalised junction.
The new junction will provide access in all directions, unlocking housing and employment opportunities at sites proposed for development including west and north-west Cheltenham.
The scheme also includes a new link road connecting the A4019 to the B4634 in west Cheltenham and widening of the A4019 Tewkesbury Road.
Up the Junction: major works will keep traffic moving and unlock housing and employment land
Walking past, or working in, a beautiful building lifts the mood. A building should sit well within its environment, be practical and energy efficient – and most currently under construction or recently built are all three. We look at some of the best recent commercial building projects across the region
By Nicky Godding, Editor
The University of Warwick’s Faculty of Arts building has been recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as a national award-winner. The £60 million building forms part of Warwick University’s £100 million investment into the arts and is the cornerstone of the university’s new campus arts quarter. Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, the building brings together the departments and schools of the faculty under one roof.
The University of Wolverhampton’s School of Architecture and Built Environment has been shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)’S New Reinvention Award, designed to encourage architects to refurbish existing buildings rather than demolish them to create new-builds. The School of Architecture and the Built Environment is based at the University of Wolverhampton’s £120 million Springfield Campus - a brownfield regeneration site. Architect: Jonathan Dawson-Bowman. The winner will be announced later this month.
Beezantium is a folly set within the landscape of The Newt, a Somerset country estate. Designed to educate and highlight the positive impact bees have on the local habitat and ecosystem, the apiary-inspired folly acts as a beacon within the grounds and entices the user to explore and investigate the building.
Senate House in Bristol is the imaginative reuse and reinvention of an existing 1960s administration building on the University of Bristol campus, creating a new student social and support hub. Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. Image courtesy of Rebecca Noakes Photography.
The Undercroft Learning Centre, formally the monastic storage rooms, provides an innovative and versatile venue to learn and discover for the whole community. Acanthus Clews breathed life into the damp vaults of Worcester Cathedral, causing a stir to passers-by who frequently peer through the crafted windows.
The Clore Learning Centre is housed within the city of Bath’s historic Roman baths, a Grade II-listed building, in a conservation area and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The centre was formerly a Victorian spa laundry building. Along with an area of Roman remains beneath street level, the site has been sensitively renovated to create a new Learning Centre that will allow groups to learn about history and heritage in a hands-on and accessible way. Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. Image courtesy of James
The University of Gloucestershire bought the iconic Debenhams building in Gloucester’s King’s Square after it closed in 2021. In a pioneering move, which has galvanised others to look at old department stores in a new light, the forward-thinking university is now converting it to become a new teaching campus.
Hope Rise, Bristol is situated on councilowned land and this innovative approach, building apartments on top of a car park, provides 11 a ordable and low carbon flats for young workers and vulnerable households. This tried and tested concept o ers ample opportunities to provide light- filled modern living above disused air space. Architect: Zed Pods Ltd.
Hopewell Street in the Barton and Tredworth area of Gloucester is the latest transformation by local artist Tash Frootko. It’s her fifth project, and not an architect in sight. He first was St Mark Street, now fondly known at the Rainbow Street.
More community engagement and better developer and partner collaboration is needed if Tewkesbury Borough Council is to make a success of its Garden Town ambitions.
This is the decision taken by the council following a major review of the garden town project earlier this year after concerns were raised by councillors and some local communities around the programme’s delivery.
In 2019, Tewkesbury received an initial £750,000 from government to undertake a specialist survey and planning works to establish whether a garden town, located around the Ashchurch area on the east side of the M5, could deliver up to 10,195 homes. Two years later, the council secured a further £2.4 million to fulfil its place-making objectives and the need for
additional local housing through financial support for sta , master-planning work, and the studies and assessments needed to underpin delivery.
But a number of people, including some councillors, criticised a lack of community engagement and partner collaboration.
Ashchurch Rural Parish Council protested that the Ashchurch Concept Masterplan had been predetermined without any consultation. It said that the proposed infrastructure plans didn’t go far enough to support the proposed growth, and building more than 10,000 houses would more than double the population size of the town in what was currently a “distinctly rural community”. It also said that the retail park and designer outlet centre currently under construction could become a serious competitor to Tewkesbury town centre.
In July, the council agreed to commission a review and, following its publication, has now agreed that a new programme of delivery, based on the review’s 17 recommendations will now be developed.
The review, carried out by planning consultancy Cratus, highlights that without a garden town programme to guide high-quality sustainable housing, the risk of poor-quality, piecemeal development would be considerable.
The council is now developing a Strategic Framework Plan, which will enable a collaborative approach with developers and communities to designing and building the garden town over the coming decades.
Cllr Richard Stanley, Leader of Tewkesbury Borough Council, said: “I am pleased that the findings of the gateway review have been fully acknowledged and a new approach for the Garden Town can now be developed.
“The report puts forward suggestions for delivering the Garden Town in ways that will satisfy not only current but also future needs, with the emphasis on delivering high-quality green homes and infrastructure capable of supporting healthy communities and fostering community spirit.”
The report puts forward suggestions for delivering the Garden Town in ways that will satisfy not only current but also future needs ...Aerial photograph of Tewkesbury
The West’s commercial property market was subdued in the first half of 2023 as pressures in the wider economy filtered through to the sector, according to the latest Market Monitor from regional property consultancy Alder King.
Concerns over inflation and rising interest rates impacted business decision-making while increased construction costs and yield shift made new development less viable, said the report.
As a result, o ce and industrial take-up in the first half of the year were down on the same period last year.
But the consultants say the indicators for the rest of the year are more positive –inflation is falling, business investment is forecast to rise and the volume of active requirements, together with the number of transactions already in solicitors’ hands, are likely to translate into a much stronger second half.
And the reduced level of new development because of the recent economic factors is likely to result in an increased shortage of top end supply in many locations from early 2024 which,
when coupled with the existing lack of good quality second-hand available space, could continue to impact take-up.
In Bristol, first-half o ce take-up was down against the five-year average.
Most occupier focus is now on new/newly refurbished space o ering the best ESG credentials and occupier amenities. An increasing amount of take-up is likely to be of new Grade A space with more than 27 per cent of the new space currently under construction in the city centre already let or under o er.
Take-up was down by 37 per cent in Bristol’s industrial and logistics sector on the same period in 2022, constrained by the lack of immediately available space and uncertainty following last year’s Autumn Budget.
In the retail sector there has been good activity during the first half of the year. Demand is higher than pre-2020, with the food and beverage, health and fitness, and beauty sectors being the most active.
In Bath, city centre Grade A supply is much healthier following the completion of the
Bath Quays development and several comprehensive refurbishments. Demand for centrally located units is strong and the number of deals completed across Bath is the highest it has been for several years, driven in part by rent reductions.
In Swindon, BLB Solicitors moved to the 4,000 sq ft ground floor of Churchward House, Colas Rail took 5,500 sq ft at Edison Park, and Bespoke Guardians leased 3,000 sq ft at Delta O ce Park.
Edge of town retail parks have few vacancies, while demand from small independent retailers in Swindon’s Old Town and the town centre remains positive and the council’s investment of £33 million to create the Bus Boulevard on Fleming Way is having a positive e ect on the town centre.
Key transactions for the firm in the first six months of the year include the freehold disposal of the 23,367 sq ft former Travis Perkins Depot in Bristol, the disposal of the 22,519 sq ft Nibley Court at Westerleigh Business Park in Yate, and the sale and leasehold disposals for Verve Investments of the 23,000 sq ft Phase 4 development at Paintworks, Bristol.
London-based real estate firm Longstock Capital and investment firm Mactaggart Family and Partners have purchased the 190,000 sq ft Canons House for an undisclosed sum.
The crescent-shaped building was built as a regional headquarters for Lloyds
between 1988 and 1991. More than 2,000 people were employed at Canons House, but sta moved out in 2022 and the building was put up for sale.
Canons House was a key part of the redevelopment of Canons Marsh in the late 1980s. It replaced old tobacco bonds built by the Wills family in the 1920s, which were demolished with controlled explosions in 1988.
In 2022 Canons House was granted Grade II listed status by Historic England, which called it a beacon in the postindustrial redevelopment of Bristol’s docks, and described the regeneration of the derelict harbourside as a thriving recreation and cultural centre, and a 20th century landmark.
In recent years its amphitheatre has been the venue for live music concerts.
Worcester residents were given a preview of a new future for one of the city's most under-valued areas at an exhibition in the city on proposals for revamping the 14-hectare Shrub Hill Quarter over the next 20 years.
The exhibition was held ahead of the preparation of a formal planning document that will govern the future of the Shrub Hill Quarter. A first draft of this will be published later in the year and will be put out for public consultation.
David Blake, Managing Director at Worcester City Council, said: "The Shrub Hill Quarter is currently an under-valued part of the city with significant untapped potential. We want city residents to help us to make the most of the area's size, location and its strategic rail connectivity and I hope they will come along to the exhibition and give their views on these exciting plans.
"Our ambitions are that, within 20 years, Shrub Hill will become known as a high quality and distinctive neighbourhood,
play a significant role in growing our city's diverse and productive economy, and that the area will transform its connections both within the city and beyond."
The Shrub Hill Quarter is defined as the area bordered by the railway station, Tallow Hill Road, George Street, Pheasant Street, Lowesmoor Place and Tolladine Road. It does not include the separate, neighbouring Sheri ’s Gate development.
North Place car park in Cheltenham, which has long been in the sights of developers keen to make the most of a piece of prime brownfield land in the town centre, will have 150 new houses after developer Wavensmere Homes was confirmed as development partner. The land, which extends to 13,400 sq m, was bought by BBS Capital as a joint venture but has been used as a car park for many years.
Glancy Nicholls Architects has been appointed to design the scheme.
Cllr Rowena Hay, leader at Cheltenham Borough Council said: ‘’The North Place redevelopment – providing homes for professionals, families and older people in an area where people want to live and work – is a shining example of what can be achieved when the borough council and developers work together to realise their ambitions and create something really special for the benefit of Cheltenham.”
The scheme has been designed as a residential square development with a centralised community green.
James Dickens, managing director of Wavensmere Homes, said: “This site has been considered for development for over a decade, with various parties not being able to bring it forward successfully. We are proud to be working alongside BBS Capital to propose a scheme to the council that overcomes the complexities and will greatly enhance the street scene along North Place and St Margaret’s Road.”
The Shrub Hill Quarter is currently an under-valued part of the city with significant untapped potential ...
Plans for a new £5 million-plus industrial development on the outskirts of Swindon town centre have been approved by Swindon Borough Council.
The news will see Reading-based developers Robert Cort Properties move ahead later this year with the demolition of the vacant Fraser Centre site on Faraday Road in the Dorcan area of town to create a total of 3,300 sq m of industrial floor space.
Nick Kirby, planning director at the Thames Valley o ce of planning consultancy Lichfields, has secured project approval from Swindon Borough Council.
The firm was instructed part way through the planning application to resolve planning objections relating to biodiversity requirements, tree protection, landscaping and the impact on neighbouring residents,
Nick said: “The town continues to be sought after by businesses looking to take advantage of quality commercial accommodation in a great strategic location with excellent transport links and access to a skilled workforce.”
The scheme has been designed by Oxford Architects.
Work has completed on a speculative unit at the popular Worcester Six Business Park.
Cabot 38, built by commercial property developer Stoford, comprises 34,000 sq ft of flexible commercial space and 4,073 sq ft of o ces.
Edward Peel, Director at Stoford, said: “Our significant investment in Worcester Six over the past few years has led to the creation of a high-quality business park that has attracted a number of worldclass businesses to the region,” he said.
Stoford has worked with Worcestershire’s
Commercial agents at Harris Lamb have secured four new lettings at a newly refurbished Coventry industrial estate, reinforcing the continuing strong demand for quality stock throughout the Midlands.
The lettings at Seven Stars Industrial Estate on Wheler Road follow an extensive £1 million refurbishment
overseen by Harris Lamb’s Building Consultancy team to upgrade units at the business park on behalf of the landlords.
Shipping specialists DX Freight have signed a 10-year lease on Unit 4, a 25,339 sq ft self-contained warehouse with o ces, while communications experts imail comms have taken
Green Infrastructure (GI) Partnership to create a plan which will see the developer putting aside 6.55ha of the site for natural habitats and landscaping, in addition to on-plot landscaping.
Worcester Six Business Park is home to Siemens, Spire Healthcare, Kimal, Kohler Mira, ZwickRoell, Alliance Flooring Distribution and IONOS. Once fully developed, it will provide 2.1 million sq ft of accommodation.
Stoford has also submitted a planning application for further works at the southern side of the site.
occupation of Unit 3, at 22,648 sq ft, on a 10-year term.
Two additional units, 5A and 5B, which have a combined floor plate of 23,000 sq ft have been let to Easy Heat Systems Ltd on a five-year lease, while Coventry & Warwickshire NHS has taken on Unit 5C, at 7,840 sq ft on a five year lease.
The Cotswolds, Swindon & North Wiltshire
Championing Regional Business
2023 Print issues will be published in January, March, May, July, September and November
NEXT ISSUE: NOVEMBER 2023
Managing Director Richard Thompson richard.thompson@black-ox.com
Managing Editor Stephen Emerson stephen.emerson@black-ox.com
Operations Director Jo Whittle jo.whittle@black-ox.com
Visit
Follow
South East edition: Oxfordshire & Thames Valley Berkshire & Buckinghamshire
Surrey, Kent & Sussex Solent & South Coast
Editorial
Print Editor Nicky Godding nicky.godding@black-ox.com
Deputy Editor Pete Davison pete.davison@black-ox.com
Events
Head of Events Lauran Webb lauran.webb@black-ox.com
Event Manager Dan Teuton dan.teuton@black-ox.com
Researcher Laura Clarke laura.clarke@black-ox.com
Events Executive Ashleigh O’Shea ashleigh.oshea@black-ox.com
Events/Sales Executive Lauren McCarron lauren.mccarron@black-ox.com
Marketing
Marketing Manager Rory Hinton rory.hinton@black-ox.com
Junior Digital Marketing Scott Whittle scott.whittle@black-ox.com
Commercial
Head of Client Relations Peter Laurie Thames Valley peter.laurie@black-ox.com
Business Manager Alan Lindstrom South Coast alan.lindstrom@black-ox.com
Business Manager Kirsty Muir West Midlands kirsty.muir@black-ox.com
Media Sales Manager Alexandra Scrivener South West & West Midlands alexandra.scrivener@black-ox.com
Events/Listings events@black-ox.com
Accounts finance@black-ox.com
Magazine Design: Origin Creative I www.origin-creative.com Publisher: Black Ox Ltd – Company number 13202910
Registered O ce: 24 Bell
lane,
