The Business Magazine SW - January 2024 Edition

JANUARY 2024

south west and west midlands

INSIDE:

FACES OF THE FUTURE APPRENTICESHIPS REPORT TECH PANEL COOL CO-WORKING SPACES Career Ahead Cyber Deals Science & Technology Manufacturing Real Estate

JANUARY | LAUNCHPAD

2024: A YEAR FULL OF PROMISE It’s full steam ahead for businesses across the region, and at The Business Magazine we are widening our coverage and events programme A new year is always full of promise, so our front cover feature profiles some of the people whose business ideas and creativity will light up the region in 2024. Age or background is no barrier to innovation – some of our faces are young, some older, we celebrate them all.

With National Apprenticeship week landing on the second week of February, we’re also looking at apprenticeships.

This is an annual celebration and flagwaving for apprenticeships which have, over the last few years, gone mainstream.

Because when big corporate beasts such as KPMG, Deloitte and Google embrace apprenticeships alongside employers in the more traditional construction, engineering, care, beauty and hairdressing sectors – you know they make sense.

For this issue I visited Bristol Port, and was blown away by its size. It’s got its own power supply and even its own police force – and is the biggest car park in the country thanks to some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers using it to import. Every year more than 700,000 vehicles are driven off cargo ships and parked on the land around the Royal Portbury Dock and Avonmouth Docks, both part of the 2,600-acre privatelyowned Bristol Port Estate.

In our last issue we ran a feature on the demise of Local Enterprise Partnerships and asked the question: with the axing of regional support by the government, who’s there for local businesses now?

The answer is us – The Business

What we do brilliantly is provide a public channel for growing businesses to showcase themselves

Magazine. OK we can’t make major economic decisions for the region, but what we do brilliantly is provide a public channel for growing businesses to showcase themselves, share their news and network, whether you’re a startup, scale-up, SME or larger corporate, manufacturer or professional firm.

Through our daily news on the website, our e-newsletter or this magazine, our team of journalists work hard every day to find out what’s going on across the region and share it across all our platforms, including social media.

And in 2024 we are widening our coverage across Bristol, Bath, Swindon and North Wiltshire, as well as in our heartlands of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands.

We’ll be launching new events and awards programmes too.

We’re interested in your business, so if you’ve news you want to share, or an issue you’d like us to investigate, get in touch.

Here’s to a successful 2024 for us all.

Nicky Godding Editor

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AMBITIOUS LEADERS 

18 Justin Wateridge, Steppes Travel

06 IN THE HEADLINES

24 BRISTOL PORT

52 FEATURE APPRENTICESHIPS

REGIONAL FOCUS

PLATFORMS

Business success stories from across 21 Gloucestershire 27 Bristol & Bath 30 Worcestershire 33 Coventry & Warwickshire 37 Swindon & North Wiltshire

40 42 50 46 48 60

Career Ahead Deals Cyber & IT Science & Technology Manufacturing Real Estate

JANUARY | CONTENTS

In the headlines

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FRONT COVER FEATURE: FACES OF 2024

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We introduce you to some of the most exciting business people who we think will be making a splash this year

Ambitious Leader: Justin Wateridge

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Travel broadens the mind, says Steppes Travel boss

Regional roundup

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Business news from across Gloucestershire, Coventry & Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Bristol and Bath, Swindon and North Wilts

FOCUS: on Bristol Port

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There’s a lot going on at Bristol Port

Career Ahead:

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Promotions and progressions across the region

10 FRONT COVER FEATURE FACES OF 2024

66 FEATURE 10 COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

Deals

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We report on the biggest financial and legal deals Across the region

NEW: Tech Panel

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Introducing our new tech panel, experts reveal the tech companies which they think have a bright future

Science and technology

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Manufacturing

48

Cyber & IT

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FEATURE: Apprenticeships

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National Apprenticeship Week runs from 5-11 February.

We look at what’s on offer across the region

Real estate

60

10 Cool Co-working spaces

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IN THE HEADLINES

Concorde making its final flight over the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol in November 2003 – the last Concorde ever to fly

THE WEST CELEBRATES 20 YEARS SINCE CONCORDE’S FINAL FLIGHT It’s 20 years since the mighty Concorde made its last commercial passenger flight back to the UK, travelling at twice the speed of sound from New York City’s John F Kennedy International Airport.

The British Airways jet landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on October 24, 2003, carrying 100 passengers – including the actress Dame Joan Collins.

The following month the final Concorde flight flew from Heathrow over Bristol before landing at nearby Filton Airfield.

Concorde was an engineering triumph of its time and it was largely built in the West.

Developed jointly by the British and French governments this sleek, beautiful triumph of technology, with its distinctive delta-shaped wings, could fly from New York to London in around three and a half hours, travelling at 1,350 miles per hour.

Following the first French test flight on March 3, 1969, a month later the first British Concorde prototype 002 took off from

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Filton, landing shortly after at RAF Fairford – just 56 miles away in Gloucestershire.

The rural Fairford airbase became the main flight test centre and locals got used to seeing this engineering marvel take off and land there.

Four Rolls-Royce engines were mounted on the underside of the wings. Britain took responsibility for the engines, which were developed by Bristol Aero Engines (which became BAE Systems), France for the majority of fuselage production (Sud Aviation, which became Airbus).

The first time that Concorde flew at Mach 2 – twice the speed of sound – was on November 4, 1970. Just six years later Concorde began flying passengers.

A total of 14 Concordes were built for commercial service with British and French taxpayers funding the project, which totalled around £1.3 billion – close to £8 billion today.

Concorde quickly became a symbol of speed and luxury, and over 27 years of

commercial flying, more than two and a half million passengers flew at supersonic speeds (each one issued with a certificate to prove they’d broken the sound barrier).

Tragedy struck on 25th July, 2000, when an Air France Concorde crashed in Paris – 113 people were killed.

Just three years later, Concorde made its final commercial flights, with the British Airways fleet landing one after the other at Heathrow Airport.

Around 21,000 people worked on Concorde’s development but, like HS2 today, the project had plenty of detractors.

British aeronautical engineer Roxbee Cox, (also known as Baron Kings Norton), spoke up for the programme in a 1974 parliamentary debate. He said: “Many people do not understand the ancillary advantages of a programme of this kind.

We all understand the direct advantage— travel at unprecedented speed to the far corners of the earth. But the impact of the achievement of this aeronautical objective

IN THE HEADLINES

Royal Agricultural University teams up with University of Worcester to develop 'green wine' The Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in Cirencester is collaborating with the University of Worcester to understand how grape growers can make green wine.

But we’re not talking about green wines joining reds, whites and rosés on the shelves. The study, led by the RAU’s Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, Duncan Westbury, will look at how wildflowers can help make cleaner and greener wine in the UK. Most vineyards require chemicals such as insecticides to control diseases and pests, but they have implications for our health, biodiversity and the environment.

Professor Westbury, who joined the RAU last September from the University of Worcester, is the project’s director.

on other technologies— electronics, structural engineering, metallurgical development, communications techniques, on more mundane areas of technology—is enormous.”

He was right. Technologies developed for Concorde went on to form the basis of some hugely successful companies. One such is global engineering technologies company Renishaw, based at Wottonunder-Edge. The company, which last year turned over more than £688 million and employs more than 5,000 people globally, was set up in 1973 by two former Rolls-Royce employees to commercialise an innovation that solved a measurement problem faced in the manufacture of the Olympus engine that powered Concorde.

Concorde was a symbol of the UK's ambition, innovation, collaboration and technological achievement. The airframe and the engines were largely developed in Bristol, the UK assembly line was located in the city, and all UK Concordes made their maiden flight from Filton's runway.

He said: “Research around the world has been helpful for UK growers but different regions have different landscapes, climates and pests. British growers need studies to be carried out here looking at the specific issues that the UK faces. Our country currently has

Woodchester Vineyard, one of Gloucestershire’s most successful privatelyowned vineyards

around 3,800 hectares of vineyards – including the RAU’s vineyard at Poulton in Gloucestershire – that could benefit.”

UK wine production has increased significantly, with more land being used for grape growing. Production is expected to rise from 5.9 million bottles in 2018 to 40 million by 2040.

University of Worcester PhD student Joe Leaper will conduct the research.

The study is being funded by the Perry Foundation, the University of Worcester, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Everflyht Vineyard near Brighton.

Wiltshire invention saving superyachts from cyber pirates A Wiltshire cybersecurity company has invented a device to protect superyachts from cyber attacks.

Computer Network Defence’s ‘Osprey’ device combats specific threats faced by high net worth individuals while on board their superyachts.

who can take action to eliminate threats.

While designed for superyachts (and of course we all have one of those), the Osprey can also protect any seagoing vessel, no matter how large.

The briefcase-sized appliance constantly monitors threats and reports them to the Computer Network Defence team.

Andy Cuff, CND’s managing director, said: “These superyachts are like cities at sea, with a vast array of technology from GPS and electronic chart displays to information systems to communication devices.

Staff are on duty 24/7 at the company’s Corsham HQ and its security centre on the Isle of Man,

“Our box can be simply plugged in by the crew and we configure them from our office.”

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IN THE HEADLINES

Coventry University’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering

Coventry Very Light Rail vehicle tested on revolutionary track for first time The pioneering Coventry Very Light Rail (CVLR) project has been successfully run on its test track at the Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre in Dudley.

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING SETS ITS SIGHTS ON UNLOCKING SUPPLY CHAIN POTENTIAL AFTER £6 MILLION EXPANSION The UK’s first Faculty on the Factory Floor has unveiled a six-million-pound expansion to help boost industry’s journey towards a sustainable and digital world.

Coventry University’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME), which was originally born out of a collaboration with Unipart Manufacturing in 2014, has been relaunched thanks to a £5 million investment by the university and a £1 million grant from the government’s Local Growth Fund.

The investment has delivered nearly 2,000 sq metres of additional space for new laser welders, laboratories, a robotic and testing area and new digital twin capabilities.

The relaunch marks nearly a decade of achievement for AME, with more than £110 million of research and development and commercial projects completed for major automotive marques such as Aston Martin, Ford, Lotus and the new battery manufacturing facility Hyperbat, helping generate more than £500 million of economic benefits for the UK.

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Nearly 175 companies – including large manufacturers alongside SMEs, have collaborated through the centre, and more than 400 students have graduated thanks to the combination of real-world shopfloor and classroom learning.

AME has spearheaded projects that have improved production precision and efficiency and has been pivotal in developing lightweight, eco-friendly products and methodologies. It also helped create high-volume fuel rails that are now exported from Coventry to China and other parts of the world.

Carol Rose Burke CBE, Managing Director at Unipart Manufacturing, said: “As the transport sector transitions to EV manufacturing and greener solutions, Coventry University’s latest investment will empower AME to expand Unipart’s capabilities into new sectors.

“This involves collaborating on R&D with academia and strengthening ties with supply chains – including small and medium-sized firms – all working together to generate business growth.”

The battery-powered vehicle and revolutionary track system will offer cities the chance to install rapid passenger tram systems faster and at a much lower cost than traditional light rail systems.

The innovative track is thinner than the track used in existing light rail or tram systems. As a result, it can be laid just 30cm deep into the road surface, reducing the need to divert all pipes and cables, which can add significant delays to light rail projects.

The Coventry VLR project has been developed by West Midlands organisations including Coventry City Council, Transport for West Midlands, WMG at the University of Warwick and the Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation, which runs the Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre.

The project is backed with funding from the £1.05 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement awarded to the West Midlands Combined Authority by the Department for Transport.

The CVLR project has been allocated £40 million funding to progress the research and development to deliver an affordable integrated mass transit system that could be deployed in cities across the country.

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA chair, said: “As VLR picks up pace, we’ll be able to further reduce traffic congestion and improve our air quality – offering a convenient and sustainable transport option for local people to enjoy.”

FACES OF 2024

FACES OF THE FUTURE

The Guitar Marketplace Team – with Ben far right

By Nicky Godding, Editor

Ben is hitting the right notes with his guitar marketplace

Entrepreneurs across the region are hoping this year their idea could be the one everyone talks about

When we talk about entrepreneurs, names tripping easily off the tongue include Sir Richard Branson, Sir James Dyson and Dale Vince. But Sir James is 76, Sir Richard is 73 and Dale, 62.

We’re not being ageist – we’d be stupid not to acknowledge that just one day in the company of any of them could teach us more than a year on an entrepreneurship course – our point is since they came to our notice in the 1980s – the business landscape has changed almost beyond recognition.

So who’s in the running for the-most-talkedabout-entrepreneur for the 2020s?

We can think of a few. Stephen Fitzpatrick, 46, established Ovo Energy in 2009 buying and selling electricity to domestic homes.

First based in Cirencester, he moved to Bristol as the business grew.

Seventeen years later, as if establishing one of the UK’s most successful energy suppliers wasn’t enough, he set up Vertical Aerospace to revolutionise urban air mobility and electrify air travel. He now wants to build the most advanced electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft – and has gained support from across the industry.

Then there’s Ben Francis. This 31-year-old from the Midlands is co-founder of athleisure brand Gymshark, which he established in 2012 with Lewis Morgan while they were still at university. Ben is now CEO of the £350 million turnover Solihull brand.

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Stephen Bartlett, 31, who moved with his family from Botswana to Plymouth when he was two, founded a social media company which sold for millions. He then became a Dragon on the BBC programme’s Dragon’s Den, and more recently he has set up the successful podcast, Diary of a CEO. Spot something? They’re all men. There are entrepreneurial women of course – Victoria Beckham, 49, is now known as much for her successful fashion brand as for being a Spice Girl.

Dame Sharon White, 56, is the boss at John Lewis and Karren Brady, 54, was the managing director of Birmingham City Football Club before becoming Sir Alan Sugar’s aide in the BBC’s The Apprentice.

Female entrepreneurs from ethnic minority backgrounds experience the biggest barriers to success, but location is an important factor, irrespective of ethnicity and gender.

Greater London is the toughest place to be an entrepreneur, while entrepreneurs in the South East and North East see most success, according to research.

What do you need to succeed in business? Vision, creativity, decisiveness, resourcefulness, persistence – but most of all you need to have an idea and really believe in it – and in yourself.

Our feature showcases entrepreneurs from across the region, who are making it happen.

Young entrepreneur Ben Griffin is hitting the right notes with his customers, after revealing last year that his e-commerce business, The Guitar Marketplace, was turning over more than £100,000 per month.

The three-year-old online competition company specialises in offering guitar enthusiasts the opportunity to win their dream instruments – some of which can cost up to £14,000 – with a virtual raffle ticket costing just a few pounds.

Since 2020 he says he has handed over £1.7 million worth of guitars – including Les Pauls, Fenders, and Gibsons – to more than 4,500 randomly-selected winners.

Ben has grown a bedroom-based business into a successful venture with a team of four employees, all hailing from the local area, with an office/studio in Brierley Hill, near Dudley.

“With four employees all in our early 20s, and an average age of just 24, we must be one of the youngest businesses running in the region, if not the youngest,” said Ben. Ben - who works seven days a week – keeps his business local rather than moving away to a larger city, and aims to buy largely from local music shops.

FACES OF 2024

Liha and Abi on their way to building a global beauty brand Beauty brand LIHA was founded by Gloucestershire born and bred Liha Okunniwa and London girl Abi Oyepitan, who met at university in 1998.

It’s a long way from Liha and Abi starting their business on £3,000 of savings each, and there have been many struggles along the way, despite winning countless beauty industry awards.

After university, the girls pursued different careers. Abi became a two-time Olympian and one of the fastest sprinters Britain has ever produced. Liha set up an art publishing business.

Liha said: “Whenever Abi travelled, I would ask her to bring back different ingredients – especially that good Nigerian Shea from her father’s town.”

And so LIHA was born. In the Yoruba (Nigerian) tradition, making beautifying oils, soaps and lotions from the nuts, tree bark and plants that grew in abundance was a traditional skill learned by all young women.

Liha’s mother is an English aromatherapist, so she started to blend the two disciplines together.

Liha said: “Over the years we have been to countless investment meetings where people were genuinely baffled that we couldn’t just do a friends and family round or quit our other day jobs to focus on product development.

Liha Okunniwa and Abi Oyepitan of LIHA Beauty

Last year the business raised £1 million via a funding round led by private equity.

“People often ask if we knew then what we know now, would we have gone a different route and tried to raise super early on just with concept and no market proof. Maybe it would have been quicker or easier – but we all know the statistics on black woman founders and what percentage of investor/ private equity capital actually reaches our banks.”

The investment follows £200,000 raised by the organic skincare brand pre-pandemic.

But the world has moved in their direction.

Beauty editors love LIHA.

LIHA Beauty believes in the slow living philosophy rooted in Yoruba culture – wellness and self-care.

James Hygate took bio-fuels into the mainstream ... now he’s got plans to repurpose sewage Around 20 years ago, James Hygate founded Gloucestershire-based Green Fuels. Fast forward a couple of decades and his company now sells biodiesel-making equipment, which converts cooking oil into fuel, all over the world.

Now he’s turning his attention to human waste. Yes – poo.

James said: “Sewage is a problem and a very undesirable waste, whereas sustainable jet fuel is a major commodity. Being able to create a valuable thing from waste seems quite magical, but really it’s just great chemistry.”

James Hygate, Firefly

In 2021, James, his business partner Dr Paul Hilditch and research director Dr Sergio Lima entered the “Green Fuels, Green Skies” competition organised by the Department for Transport, winning a £2 million research grant.

In simple terms, the HTL process involves taking sewage sludge provided by the water utilities and putting it into an energy-efficient high-pressure reactor. The sludge begins to separate into two useful materials. One is a biochar which, as fertiliser can be supplied to the agricultural industry. The other is a bio-oil, or crude, which can be refined into jet fuel.

Their research team were already experimenting with a process called hydrothermal liquefaction or HTL.

The men set up Firefly and last year secured £5 million investment from Wizz Air. It was Wizz Air’s first equity investment in

sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) research and development. The partnership will allow the airline to supply SAF to its UK operations from 2028, up to 525,000 tonnes over 15 years. The agreement has the potential to save 1.5 million tonnes of CO2.

James is now preparing plans to build a demonstrator plant in the UK to start manufacturing large quantities of fuel and is looking for investors for this stage of development.

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FACES OF 2024

Alan Rock, founder of Moasure

Tariq and Wahid Muhammed of Invatech Health and Titan PMR

REVOLUTIONISING COMMUNITY PHARMACY OPERATIONS, TARIQ AND WAHID HAVE GLOBAL AMBITIONS

A measured approach to innovation could make the humble tape measure obsolete Qualified electronic engineer Alan Rock developed the idea for Moasure in 2002. He says it is the world’s first motion-based measuring tool. He built a working prototype but had to wait more than a decade before launching the business due to the high cost of complex sensors used in the device.

It’s a decade next year since former pharmacist Tariq Muhammed, on a mission to revolutionise community pharmacy, first set up the company behind Titan PMR.

solutions within primary healthcare – in Tariq’s words “a force for change in the delivery of healthcare services harnessing the power of technology”.

Four years ago, his creation became the first cloud-based patient medication record software, and the first patient medical record system to be accredited by the NHS in more than a decade.

Heading up the technical elements of the development has been Tariq's brother and Titan PMR CEO Wahid Muhammed.

Moasure’s patented technology uses motion to make measurements, leveraging inertial sensors and a proprietary algorithm to deliver an innovative new way to measure.

Wahid has worked in pharmacy and health tech since 2000. Before Invatech Health, where he is now Chief Technology Officer, Wahid was head of IT development at the care home services division of Pharmacy Plus, leading the development of IT strategy and architecture to create a pioneering solution which changed the way nurses administered medication to patients.

Moasure successfully launched a smartphone app, allowing users to leverage the motion sensors in their smartphone to take measurements, by simply moving their phone. This app validated the technology and is free to download and use. Alan’s focus is now dedicated to the Moasure ONE .

Today, he works with Tariq developing new healthcare technologies.

Moasure’s unique motion-based technology, allows Moasure ONE to know where it is in 3D space, allowing users to measure and draw simultaneously.

Since then it has been adopted by more than 500 community and online pharmacies, as well becoming accredited for remote rural dispensing doctor’s surgeries. It is now used to process almost seven per cent of all prescriptions in the UK, the company said.

Its latest development has seen two years and more than £1 million of private investment go into creating Titanverse – a new pharmacy management system.

This software enables pharmacy chain owners to digitally transfer workloads between separate pharmacies, communicate directly with patients, carry out consultations, manage appointments and promote specialist clinical services.

For almost 20 years before setting up Titan, Tariq ran Bristol-based Pharmacy Plus, which grew to a 25-strong chain across the South West, from Gloucester to Plymouth.

The company developed into a national provider of pharmacy services to care homes.

Invatech Health was set up in 2014, creating and providing SaaS (software as a service)

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Their ambitions are huge – a nationwide mission to give pharmacists across the UK the capabability to independently grow their businesses to administer a wider range of clinical services, providing the paying public with a viable alternative to relying on the NHS. Tariq and Wahid hope that, by using Titan’s products, pharmacies can become genuine community health hubs – not just dispensing but also diagnosing and prescribing solutions for a range of health problems. Currently 90 per cent of the average pharmacist’s work comes via the NHS. Titan says it is creating the opportunity for a parallel medical service that sits in the community, paid for by people who want to use it.

With Moasure ONE a user can measure up spaces and have a fully dimensioned drawing complete in the time it takes to walk around a room or outdoor space. This allows users to dramatically speed up the measuring process.

The business, based at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Innovation Centre, now ships to more than 150 countries and its ambition is to revolutionise the way people measure and eventually make the tape measure and spirit level obsolete.

FACES OF 2024

into business together. “I was working in recruitment in London and my husband was a property developer. I was expecting our third child and looking for a way to work from home around them.”

It’s not always advisable to go into business with your other half, but it’s certainly worked for the Walkiewicz family. Hannah manages the marketing and much of the client liaison, while her husband operates the company’s 30-strong Polish team.

“It works because women are very often the decision-makers and don’t always want to talk to a male builder, because they can feel at a disadvantage,” she says.

Hannah Walkiewicz at The Build Bristol Group

HANNAH AND HER HUSBAND ARE BUILDING BETTER TOGETHER When a client trusts you with the complete renovation of their new five-bedroom house, without having actually seen the property they’ve bought (because they’re based in Hong Kong) – and gives you just three pieces of art on which to base the entire project, you know you’re in business – especially when the end result is a very happy client.

That’s what happened to Hannah Walkiewicz at The Build Bristol Group, a privately-owned construction company specialising in residential refurbishment, renovation, extensions and new build construction.

The business launched 10 years ago, after Hannah and her husband decided to go

The Build Bristol Group also follows green principles. “We operate just one electric vehicle and one van, rather than having many vans running around the area,” she adds.

The company has now burst out of its Bristol home and successfully undertaken projects further afield – including Gloucestershire, Surrey, London and even France.

The company has seen its revenues rise steadily and last year turnover was more than £1.7 million, and for Hannah, the only way is up.

“With the children all in full-time school, I can now devote even more time to the business I love,” she added.

Julie is drilling down into future talent Julie White is not only Managing Director of D-Drill, a Coventry-based diamond drilling and sawing company and the first woman to chair the Drilling and Sawing Association, but is also the Chair of Build UK, the national organisation helping the sector improve productivity, business performance and recruitment.

Julie White, managing director of D-Drill and Chair of Build UK

She is a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Council, chairs Build UK’s Education to Employment group and previously served on the CITB National Council. She is supporting Build UK’s major recruitment initiative, Open Doors 2024, which is aiming to get young

people into construction. It takes them, and those looking for a change of career, behind the site hoardings to experience construction first hand.

She said: “Having grown up visiting construction sites with my father, I know what a difference seeing our industry in action makes.

“Open Doors is a unique opportunity for young people and those looking for a change of career to go behind the scenes of sites and other workplaces up and down the country and see what a career in construction looks like.”

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FACES OF 2024

Tom Robinson with his Adaptavate sustainable plaster

Will Goodwin, Georgia Stewart and Benjamin King of Tumelo

Creating more investment transparency Tumelo was established by founders Will Goodwin, Georgia Stewart and Benjamin King who campaigned for greater transparency of their university’s £6 billion endowment fund and its investments.

After university (Cambridge), their interest in investment transparency led them into the world of shareholder voting. They soon recognised a twopronged problem with the current proxy-voting system: fund managers having little visibility over their clients’ voting preferences; investors feeling disengaged from their assets and potential impact on global markets.

They set out to create a better voting infrastructure. The company, now based in Bristol, believe its technology can create a more transparent and representative stewardship process leading to better outcomes for investors and the industry as a whole.

Last September, Tumelo announced it was enabling a new pass-through voting solution being offered by Legal & General Investment Management, making it one of the first UK asset managers to embrace this level of client empowerment.

The £2 billion Local Government Pension Scheme for Camden is the first client to take advantage of the passthrough voting partnership, allowing it to vote directly in line with its responsible investment values including CEO remuneration and climate change.

The tie-up with Tumelo enables clients such as pension schemes apply their preferred voting policy to shareholder proposals across their pooled fund holdings and applies to a large number of Legal and General Investment Management funds.

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HELPING THE UK ACHIEVE NET ZERO AMBITIONS THROUGH CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION Bristol-based, award-winning company Adaptavate is rethinking the way building materials are produced, used and disposed of.

The man behind it is Tom Robinson who began his working life as an on-site builder and plasterer before studying for a Masters in Sustainable Architecture at the Centre for Alternative Technology.

It was here he developed what is now known as ‘Breathaboard’ and from this he was encouraged to apply for an entrepreneur competition, winning him a place on the Climate Kic accelerator programme at Imperial College London.

These experiences gave Tom the tools to go from on-site builder to company builder, and Adaptavate was born.

Since then, Tom has won a number of entrepreneurship awards throughout Europe and has built Adaptavate into a successful business.

Adaptavate designs low-carbon construction products for healthy buildings and inhabitants which help ensure the longevity of the world’s fragile ecosystem while surpassing the performance of market leading products. By taking an innovative approach to the design and manufacture of construction products it is working to clean up and breathe fresh air into this traditionally conservative sector.

It aims to produce these progressive materials at the scale needed to have a significant positive impact on the health of people and planet.

Adaptavate has developed a number of innovative construction materials.

Breathaboard is a carbon-absorbing plasterboard made from lime and food crop by-products including oil seed rape and hemp, sandwiched between two layers of recycled paper. Breathaplasta is a high-performance environmentally-friendly alternative to cement and gypsum plasters.

Mixed with water and applied using conventional methods, this bio-composite product also helps to regulate moisture and improve insulation.

FACES OF 2024

Change My Face shows the future

Ben Amanna

Auriole Prince, CEO and Founder

Ben boxes clever to boost the sport he loves Ben Amanna learned to box when he was 12. It was his way of standing up to bullies and defend himself against gang violence. Boxing empowered him not to be the victim. Along the way he also discovered the values of discipline and mindfulness and fell in love with the sport.

His Coventry-base Boxraw sells boxing clothing and equipment, but more than that, Ben’s brand is built on the belief that boxing is more than a sport, it’s a way of life enabling the spirit of the sport to live inside and outside the squared ring.

His ambition is to create, shape and own the boxing ecosystem to help those who box to improve fitness, learn techniques and boost their confidence.

His Boxing is Love is a Boxraw Foundation

and registered charity which is using boxing as a mechanism for positive change around the world.

Ben says: “Boxing took me away from what would have been a dangerous life on the streets and instead taught me how to fight for what I wanted in life. It gave me the tools necessary to pursue that which I found meaningful and instilled in me a mindset that carried me through my younger years and into today.

“It did this for so many others around me and all those involved in Boxing Is Love today.

“I want to unite the world through a shared love for the sport and create the most significant social movement boxing has ever seen.”

Last year, Change My Face, an award-winning tech company based in Cheltenham, secured £50,000 from Innovate UK to tackle inclusion innovation in artificial intelligence.

Change My Face creates automagical face changing software to show the effects of lifestyle habits on the face as we age, such as sun damage, stress, diet and exercise The company’s clients include companies in health and skincare, alongside science museums, the Scottish Government, NHS, Visa, Denver Museum of Nature and Science and American health insurance company Aetna CVS. It was developed by Auriole Prince, a forensic artist for missing people. She trained with the Medical Artists’ Association of GB and the FBI Training Academy in Virginia, USA. She said: “Art and science became inextricably linked and grew into Change My Face, a technology company which is now creating AI and machine learning models using an amazing team of developers to create a way to visualise your future self with the effects of lifestyle.

“During the pandemic, our health became the focus of so much attention and we aim to play a part in improving people’s health through entertaining and engaging software.”

What Matters is the future of the planet Adam Root is founder and CEO of Bristolbased Matter, a microplastic technology and innovation company pioneering solutions for capturing, harvesting and recycling microplastics.

In August the company announced that it had raised $10 million in Series A funding to enable the company to scale its microplastic filtration technology and accelerate development of solutions for commercial and industrial applications.

Adam Root, Matter

Adam, who spent more than five years as a design engineer at Dyson in Malmesbury,

said: “Matter’s vision is to live in a world without micropollutants. We knew that as a small company intent on tackling this global problem, we’d need to work with partners who have the scale, vision and resources to help us deliver our technology as quickly and effectively as possible.

“The combined support and expertise of our investors enables us to accelerate our work, moving beyond laundry into industrialscale applications of our technology, and drive globally meaningful reductions in micropollutant emissions with confidence and speed.”

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FACES OF 2024

David Hawcock

Professor Peter Hammond (left) and Pawel Kisielewski (right)

TURNING WASTE INTO ENERGY CCm Technologies is an awardwinning company focused on resource optimisation, including carbon capture and utilisation.

Recycling valuable nutrients from waste streams within the food system provides a promising opportunity to create a lower emissions supply chain. Scaling up low carbon fertiliser production in the UK can provide farmers with a more sustainable product at a reliable price.

CCm’s technology converts captured carbon dioxide and other waste streams (such as ammonia and phosphate) into stable materials with multiple uses across global priority sectors of food/agriculture, advanced materials & energy storage.

The company was established by four founding directors: Professor Peter Hammond, Pawel Kisielewski, Gordon Horsfield and Richard Morse.

Chief Technology Officer Peter Hammond’s background is in commercial process engineering development with a particular focus on the application of carbon dioxide within the food, agricultural and petrochemical industries.

He has worked in the development of food processing plants in North and South America and on specialised phytochemical plants in Europe.

Before becoming CEO five years ago, Pawel was a senior adviser to Kleinwort Benson’s Merchant Banking group and

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Bath artist pops up on Dragon’s Den to reveal his creativity Early last year the BBC’s Dragon’s Den Dragons were blown away by a paper engineer. Never heard of such a thing? You’re not alone. But Bath-based David Hawcock is one of the most respected people in this little-appreciated art.

His reputation has led to commissions from the Football Association and music industry legends to world-renowned museums, all looking to create dramatic, eye-catching and unique products.

CCm Pellets

remains a senior adviser at Stanhope Capital with more than 25 years’ investment banking experience in capitalraising in the institutional, public and early stage private markets.

Last September CCm announced its latest trial, in collaboration with Nestlé UK and Ireland and USA-based food, ingredients, agricultural and industrial products supplier Cargill, to use a CCm Technologies process to manufacture fertiliser for two UK farms which supply wheat to Nestlé factories producing breakfast cereals and pet food.

Nestlé and Cargill are assessing whether cocoa shells from a confectionery site in York could be used to create a low carbon fertiliser. If successful, up to 7,000 tonnes of low carbon fertiliser could be produced in York and offered to farmers in Nestlé UK and Ireland’s supply chain.

David Hawcock’s Great White Shark

He is also author of a range of acclaimed moveable books, ranging from the innovations of Leonardo da Vinci to a lifesize pull-out book on the human body to pop-up books that encompass everything from children’s cartoons (Maisy Mouse) to awardwinning TV shows (Walking Dead).

David successfully pitched his pop-up paper games to the Dragons who were transfixed by his skills.

FACES OF 2024

Bertie Matthews

Flour power in the Cotswolds Matthews Cotswold Flour, based in Shipton-under-Wychwood, has partnered with a group of local farmers who have embraced regenerative farming techniques that aim to restore and improve soil health and biodiversity. Using grains from these farms, Matthews Cotswold Flour has created the UK’s first All-Purpose Regenerative White Flour.

Bertie Matthews, Managing Director, said: “The grain used in our new all purpose flour comes from farms which have been implementing a host of regenerative practices for a number of years. Regenerative Agriculture is a term that refers to a farming model of growing food that protects and improves soil health, biodiversity, water retention and quality. Farmers use a host of practices including reducing soil disturbance, implementing wide crop diversity, integrating livestock, maintaining living routes and protecting the soil surface.”

The Matthews Cotswold Flour story began in 1912, when Frederick Matthews built a mill on the River Evenlode, overlooking the picturesque Cotswold village of Shipton-UnderWychwood.

Today, the company is led by father and son team Paul and Bertie Matthews – Frederick Matthews’ great, great-grandsons.

Dominic and his Boulevard team

FROM FANCY DRESS SELLER TO MULTI-MILLION-POUND SUPERSELLER STATUS LEVEL Dominic Portman graduated in 2012 with a first-class honours degree in Psychology and went on to launch Boulevard in 2016, which describes itself as a marketplace super seller. The company now has a growing team of 70 and two distribution centres, with sales and order fulfilment run by the company’s leading tech platform, Eiger.

But his first entrepreneurial activity was selling fancy dress outfits to fellow university students, with a business named Fancy Fresher. This became Fancy Dress Worldwide, a single category e-commerce business that sold fancy dress products via the world’s leading online marketplaces, like Amazon.

From this he founded Boulevard which offers more than 100,000 products to customers online, working with product manufacturers and distributors to grow product listings on marketplaces online.

Boulevard has expanded to this scale

Dominic Portman

in just four years and offer products to customers in more than 20 countries worldwide. The company operates two distribution centres, based in Worcester.

It is now a tech-first company, using its unique internal software platform Eiger, which enables the company to sell products online and fulfil orders through its warehouses efficiently.

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AMBITIOUS LEADERS

TRAVELL BETTER TRAVE BUT TRAVEL

Justin Wateridge has visited more countries than most, and maintains travel helps him understand the world

By Nicky Godding, Editor Is travelling still a cool thing to do when we all know that flying is a big carbon emitter? Emphatically yes – because travel broadens the mind and makes us ask important questions.

The 19th century American writer Mark Twain had strong views on the topic: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness – and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.

Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

A view as true now as it was written more than 100 years ago.

However, for Justin Wateridge, Managing Director of Gloucestershire-based tour operator Steppes Travel (recognised as

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one of the best travel specialists in the World in the 2023 Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards), it's not travel at any cost, it's travel, but travel better.

He said: “When you go somewhere, go for longer, not just for a week. Try and get more out of the country during your time there. Spending your money locally gives back directly to smaller communities and economies.”

He also sees too much focus on climate and not enough on biodiversity.

“If people don’t fly to places like the Masai Mara in Kenya, or Patagonia in South America, they won’t be paying the guides and rangers there, or contributing to the management of the national parks and those who live in them who understand better than any of us the

importance of their biodiversity. This for me is massively important.”

Putting the world in perspective Travel also often provides a truer perspective of what’s going on in a country than its politicians and media put out.

“When we travel, we talk to local people and see some realities for ourselves, rather than accepting an official government line.

I’ve travelled for years and discovered early that human beings want very similar things, wherever they live in the world.

“Wherever I go I find out about local cultures which often changes my perceptions.”

Justin grew up in Zambia, where his father

AMBITIOUS LEADERS worked in the newspaper industry and his mother in wildlife conservation. “I've always had a love of Africa, its peoples, landscapes – the smell of the earth.”

His parents sent him to school in the UK, followed by university (a degree in history), and he went to work in the city after graduating.

Then on March 23 that year, the pandemic cut viciously through the travel industry.

Over the following months, dozens of travel companies and airlines went bust, but not Steppes Travel.

“I loved London and probably partied too hard, but didn't much like what I was doing.

After a few years I saw a job leading trips in China. I'd visited briefly in my year off in 1989, when Mao suits were still de rigueur, and it was fascinating going to a country that was so very different from anything that I had experienced before.”

“We are a service industry and 70 per cent of our costs are salaries, so while furlough helped, it wasn’t a panacea.”

He signed up for a six-month stint leading trips around China and found his life’s vocation.

“That’s what we’re about. There’s a huge amount of information on the internet, but a traveller won’t necessarily realise that the wonderful lodge in the middle of wherever has been cleverly photographed to leave out a big electric power plant or big road nearby. That’s what our team know. We also work with guides who really know and love their area. They're storytellers who tell you about their experiences.”

“I liked the cross-section of people I met on the groups. They were predominantly, but not wholly, from the UK and ranged from postmen to captains of industry, nurses and professors.

“I wouldn’t have met any of them in my small corner of London.”

He spent the next few years following the Silk Road from China to Pakistan, in North and East Africa and other equally romanticsounding places.

When he met his wife, he (sort of) relinquished his itinerant lifestyle. “I thought, if I can’t be Peter Pan the next best thing is to work for Peter Pan.”

I’ve travelled for years and discovered early that human beings want very similar things, wherever they live in the world

travel agents just can’t match. So much so that almost three-quarters of its business is repeat or referral.

Keeping the expertise despite pandemic challenges In this case, Peter Pan was Nick Laing, who had set up Steppes Travel in a farm office near Cirencester in 1989, and Justin’s worked there pretty much continuously since then, now running the business when Nick became chairman a few years ago.

By 2020 Steppes Travel employed nearly 50 people from its town centre headquarters offering trips to more than 100 destinations including Antarctica and India, Africa and the Galapagos Islands. It employs experienced, well-informed travel experts with knowledge that high street

While Steppes, like every other travel business, had to make redundancies (it’s now a team of 26), it was determined to keep as much expertise as possible.

Justin still travels, like he’s always done, on tours and with family. After this interview he’s off walking in Southern Tanzania with a guide. “It’s about getting out of the vehicle, spending more time in situ and appreciating a slower pace of things.

We’re also visiting a slightly different area of Tanzania.”

He’s equally enthusiastic about Britain.

“I climbed Snowdon recently with my daughter, but we also spent time in other, less visited, parts of Snowdonia which is an incredible place.”

Think and travel differently to reap the best experiences Justin warns against the Instagram culture of travel: “People want ‘that’ shot and rush to the same places – but in its way, that’s little different from the 80s. When I was backpacking everybody had a Lonely Planet guide, we’d all go to the restaurant it talked about when there were often many equally good restaurants in town.

“If you think a bit differently and travel a bit differently, the rewards are potentially a lot greater.

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AMBITIOUS LEADERS

We return to the discussion of climate change and carbon footprint, which is one of the biggest issues for the travel industry.

“We offset all our clients’ flights with the World Land Trust and want the industry to work more closely with airlines and governments to do more. We also monitor the carbon footprint of the companies we use overseas.”

culture. I'm lucky that I'm well-travelled, so I've had lots of great experiences.”

have a limited conversation, and there was a lot of rice wine.”

But there are still so many places to go.

“Steppes Travel gets its names from Siberia where Nick was travelling, hence the name, but I’ve not been to Vladivostok or done the Trans Siberian Railway,” said Justin.

India is now Steppes Travel’s fastestgrowing destination. “There’s so much to do there. Africa will continue to feature strongly and trips to Latin America are also becoming more in demand.”

So where is Justin’s favourite destination?

“I normally say the place I've last been to. I've just come back from Kosovo and North Macedonia – I love crossing borders, these arbitrary lines that governments have drawn up. Cross from one border to the other and people are similar on both sides.

He’s visited North Korea though. “Laughter was the thing that I remember about North Korea. Of course, we only got to see a very small part, but we enjoyed our time with our guides and didn’t try to challenge why we couldn’t do this or that. We left via a train to Beijing which was great because we were in a carriage with North Korean men who were going to Beijing to work.

“Different places stand out for different reasons, whether for geography, wildlife,

“One of them could speak a bit of English and I spoke enough Chinese to be able to

Go. Travel and learn. “Don’t live in an echo chamber of other people’s experiences,” says Justin. However, some people closest to him are sometimes difficult to persuade.

Having returned to Antarctica some years ago he wanted to share his experience with his family. “I’m not a great photographer but I thought I’d taken some pretty good ones and I said to my young daughters – can I show you my photographs of penguins in the Arctic Circle? Their answer was – don’t bother daddy, we’ve seen Happy Feet.”

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REGIONAL FOCUS GLOUCESTERSHIRE

GREEN LIGHT FOR GLOUCESTER’S £11 MILLION GREYFRIARS QUARTER A Gloucester city centre scheme has secured £11 million of goverment Levelling Up funding after previously being unsuccessful.

A CGI of the Greyfriars plans

Thanks to the funding, the city’s Greyfriars Quarter will see a complete revamp of the area around the Eastgate Shopping Centre, including an overhaul of the tired old shopping centre, a new market and food hall alongside a new park and gardens in the grounds of the 13th century Greyfriars monastery.

This is in addition to a multi-millionpound regeneration currently taking place across Gloucester, which includes The Forum near King’s Square and King’s Walk, which are undergoing major investment, alongside the University of

Gloucestershire’s redevelopment of the former Debenhams store into a new campus. Cheltenham has also secured £20 million in Levelling Up funding for its National Cyber Innovation Centre, part of its major £1 billion Golden Valley plans.

Top county businesses bounce back from economic challenges Gloucestershire’s top 100 businesses have soared back from the challenges of recent years according to data released late last year from Grant Thornton UK LLP. The business and financial adviser’s inaugural Gloucestershire Limited report, published in November, analysed the county’s top performing 100 companies.

This revealed a combined 55 per cent year on year increase in total EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) to £622.2 million. The report also found that these companies achieved a combined turnover of £5.4 billion last year, a 34 per cent increase on 2022.

The Gloucestershire Limited report provides a review of the county’s most successful businesses as measured by annual turnover. The businesses included in the report have a turnover ranging between £16.8 million and £346.3 million and collectively employ 25,792 people across the county.

Standout companies in this year’s report include Green Britain Group Limited, which ranked number one among the Top 100 by turnover. This sustainability-focused firm, led by Dale Vince OBE, has achieved significant growth recently, particularly within its green energy supply business, Ecotricity.

... it’s reassuring to see that there’s significant growth across a variety of sectors

The company to achieve the largest increase in EBITDA was the investment holding business Last Mile Infrastructure.

The Stonehouse firm, which designs, builds, owns and operates utility infrastructure in the UK, saw £14.8 million growth.

The county’s business support services sector achieved the highest overall revenue at £1.4 billion – a 20 per cent increase on the previous year.

Gloucestershire’s top performing businesses in this sector include Airline Investments, Howard Tenens and BRG Technologies.

The consumer sector was a close second, with overall revenue at £1.3 billion – a 39 per cent year-on-year increase. This growth was achieved thanks to businesses such as Dopano (which trades as Cotswold Motor Group), Dairy Partners and Creed Catering Supplies.

The healthcare sector grew its EBITDA by an impressive 125 per cent, driven by the success of companies such as medical device business Spectrum Medical Group.

Nick Jones, Corporate Finance Director at Grant Thornton, said: “With so many challenges in recent years, ranging from the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, supply chain issues and inflation, it’s reassuring to see that there’s significant growth across a variety of sectors.

“The increases in turnover outlined in the report mirrors the optimism we’ve seen across the wider South West in our Business Outlook Tracker survey “This recently found that more than twothirds (68 per cent) of the region’s business leaders are optimistic about their revenue growth, and almost three-quarters didn’t think inflation would impact them moving forward.”

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REGIONAL FOCUS GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Players taking part in Panna

HERA CLOTHING OWNER INVESTS IN UNIQUE HYBRID FOOTBALL START-UP The owner of Cheltenham-based streetwear brand HERA Clothing and former Chairman and Director of Solihull-headquartered gym and athleisure brand Gymshark has been appointed as Chairman of innovative sports company, KickX, with ambitious plans to scale the business nationwide and bring a new category of sport to the wider population.

KickX is introducing new categories of football to the UK that are inclusive for all players and appeal to the mass market.

It has been inspired by the popularity of hybrid sport formats like Padel Tennis across the world.

The Surrey-based sports company launched the world’s first hybrid football arena where customers can challenge themselves in a variety of football-based games including Padbol, Panna, Jorkyball, Teqball and a VR version for the first time, bringing a new dimension to the nation’s favourite sport.

Each format combines football skills with other sports, challenges and technologies to encourage skills development and technical abilities in a social and inclusive environment.

Ambassadors include former Lioness, Katie Chapman, and Para Lions captain, Jamie Clarke, who will both represent the UK in the upcoming Padbol World Cup in Brazil.

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The virtual reality element

HERA chairman Paul Richardson, who has a personal interest in sport and fitness, will oversee the company’s plans to introduce KickX into each major city in the UK. Before chairing Gymshark, Paul was a joint owner of AllSaints, expanding the brand from five to 12 stores between 2002 and 2004. Most recently, he bought 100 per cent shareholding in Hera Clothing and took the position of Executive Chairman. He is helping his daughters Holly and Georgia grow the streetwear brand in the UK, USA and Europe.

Paul said: “This is an investment and opportunity that will allow me to merge my

passions with my business experience.

We often see street football as the kick-starter for developing fantastic technical football players, KickX takes this development from the streets to a safe, social and inclusive space.”

Vik Sharma, co-founder of KickX, added: “KickX is not merely another sports centre, it’s a new category of sport that gets people moving in an inclusive, safe and innovative environment. The goal is to pivot the beautiful game so it’s appealing for all ages, genders and abilities, and the launch of the first KickX Arena is the very beginning of this story.”

REGIONAL FOCUS GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Stewart Golf’s new LFC golf trolley

Stewart Golf collaborates with Liverpool FC Remote buggy designer and manufacturer Stewart Golf has inked an exclusive collaboration with Liverpool FC to launch a special edition R1-S Push trolley.

As well as the long features list of the R1-S Push, the LFC edition features the famous Liverbird crest on the rear of the trolley and also a magnetic LFC ball marker on the handle.

The collaboration was instigated after a conversation between Liverpool FC legend Sir Kenny Dalglish and Gloucesterbased Stewart Golf boss Mark Stewart.

Sir Kenny has been a Stewart Golf customer for many years and introduced Mark to the product team at the club.

Mike Cox, Senior Vice-President of Merchandising at LFC said: “Many LFC supporters are keen golfers and it’s great to add this innovative product into the growing LFC golf range.”

Mark added: “As a lifelong red this is a very special moment for me personally, but more importantly it is a huge honour for Stewart Golf to collaborate with such an illustrious and internationally renowned brand as Liverpool FC.” The LFC R1-S Push will be sold exclusively via Liverpool FC’s online store, as well as at the Anfield and Liverpool City Centre retail stores.

Gloucestershire building company Markey Group celebrates 60 years in business Stroud building firm Markey Group has celebrated 60 years in business.

Established by the late Brendan Markey as Markey Builders, it became a group of specialist subsidiary companies and is now a well established property management, development, construction, manufacturing, student accommodation and healthcare business.

It all began in 1963 at the family home in Granville Street, Gloucester, with Brendan using the front room as his material store.

His wife May took on the bookkeeping and day-to-day running of the business.

Brendan’s sons, Paul, Tony and Tim grew up around the business, lending a hand where they could, with the subsequent family home purposely chosen to help the business grow. Over the next three

decades, the business grew from carrying out small extensions and refurbishment projects to an out-and-out construction company, with its premises moving to dedicated premises in Jersey Road.

The business predominately worked with local authorities and housing associations.

At the turn of the 1990s, Brendan’s sons, Tony and Paul became heavily involved in running the business and formed Premiere Kitchens to supply pre-assembled kitchens to the local authorities and housing associations.

Within a few years, both businesses had moved again, this time to a purpose-built factory and offices in St Albans Road to accommodate their growth and Premiere Kitchens began manufacturing its kitchens in-house.

Over the next decades, Premiere Kitchen’s growth and investment in its production line resulted in moving once again, this time to Madleaze Trading Estate and then on to the current home of the Markey Group at the Quadrant Distribution Centre in Hardwicke.

Since the early 2000s, Tony and Paul have expanded into property development and other complementary sectors forming Student Digs and Markey Building Services, which celebrate their 15th and 10th anniversaries this year, respectively.

Paul Markey said: “It’s incredible to think how far the business has come, not simply because of the amount of time that has passed, but because of all the courageous moments over the 60 years and you really do realise what has been achieved by us all.”

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BRISTOL PORT

A DEEP DIVE INTO BRISTOL PORT

The Bristol Port Company is a huge contributor to the region’s economy, but it quietly gets on with its daily business. We shine a light on its ongoing investment and activities

By Nicky Godding, Editor

The Bristol Port Company is the UK’s most centrally-located deepsea port. It is also the UK’s largest motor vehicle import destination.

Authority, part of Bristol City Council on a 150-year lease. In 2015 the council sold the freehold of the port to the company, retaining a 12.5 per cent non-voting stake.

Every year more than 700,000 vehicles are driven on and off cargo ships and parked on huge areas of land around the Royal Portbury Dock and Avonmouth Docks, both part of the 2,600-acre Bristol Port Estate, which have combined storage parks for around 100,000 cars at a time.

Since their purchase, more than £600 million has been invested in the site, and that investment is ongoing. Around 27 per cent of all UK aviation fuel is imported through the port (which is fed via pipeline to airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted), more than three million tonnes of dry goods and 25 per cent of all animal feed imports. What Bristol Port doesn't handle is fresh food.

But there’s much more to the port than that. It’s been privately-owned by businessmen Terence Mordaunt and Sir David Ord since 1991, when they bought the docks from the Port of Bristol

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There are more than 140 businesses located on the estate, it’s even got its own

police force and power supply – and almost 13,000 jobs depend on portbased business.

According to a 2020 report by Oxford Economics, Bristol Port contributed almost £87 million to the South West region’s GDP in 2019. The research revealed that for every £1 million of economic activity it generates directly, a further £330,000 is stimulated in the wider South West economy – and the port’s overall contribution to the UK economy as a whole that year was £1.4 billion.

And that figure will have increased over the last four years, as post-Covid, the port is busier than ever.

BRISTOL PORT Aerial photograph of Bristol Port

Seven hundred years of activity drives expansion There has been a port at Bristol since before the Roman occupation. The original port was close to the city centre and thrived throughout the medieval period and into the 19th Century. But by the 1800s it was in decline because as ships got larger, they were less able to navigate seven miles of the winding River Avon with its high tidal range.

In 1877 the city council decided to build Avonmouth Docks further down the river at the confluence of the Avon with the Severn Estuary to accommodate bigger ships. It later built the Royal Portbury Docks to expand further. But running successful docks required maritime knowledge and by the late 1970s the project was a huge financial drain on the council – and the local population who had to subsidise the loss-making port through annual rates bills.

When Terence Mordaunt and Sir David Ord (who both had a background in shipping and maritime finance) bought it they pledged to create a thriving enterprise at the ports for the benefit of those who depended on them for jobs and business.

They said: “We believe that a modern, commercially viable port is vital to the prosperity of Bristol.”

Fast forward more than 30 years later and they have more than achieved that aim, and remain actively invested in the project.

There are few privately-owned ports in the UK. Some, such as Portsmouth and Sunderland, are owned by local authorities, but the majority of UK ports are trust ports. These are strategically and financially independent of government and operate largely in the private sector, although they are publicly accountable to stakeholders. Poole Harbour, the Port of Dover and Port of Tyne are all Trust Ports.

From animal feed to jet fuel, all industry is here John Chaplin is a director at Bristol Port and drove me around the site. As we motor around he talks me through some of the companies based on the site: “We are the muster port for EDF Energy, which is building Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station in Somerset. Car storage is a huge source of income for us, and we continue to expand as more of the big global vehicle manufacturers engage with us – Honda, Toyota, Vauxhall – and thirdparty logistics companies such as British Car Auctions. Our technology knows where every one of their cars is parked on the site so they are easy to locate when they’ve been bought.”

We believe that a modern, commercially viable port is vital to the prosperity of Bristol

A ship carrier unloading cars at Bristol Port

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BRISTOL PORT

Ships containing anything from 4,000 to 12,000 cars each arrive at Bristol every week. every vehicle is driven off the ship and parked by stevedores employed directly by The Bristol Port Company.

Wildlife is also catered for (although not dogs, this is a dog-free zone). There’s a network of corridors within the dock estate which allows the flora and fauna to flourish and wildlife to move around. We drive past “Vole City” – a dedicated area for this endangered species.

We pass a huge storage lot, and John continues: “We handle around 100,000 containers every year.” That sounds a lot, until he tells me that Southampton does two and a half million and Felixstowe handles four million.

“We are a very small container port, but we serve an essential market,” he adds.

We drive past another huge warehouse.

“That’s for forest products – timber, paper and pulp”, says John.

Another holds steel imports, and we pass through another vast space which stores animal feed.

“We provide Southern England with all the animal feed for pigs, chickens and cows.”

On we drive, past a large construction site

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leased by civil engineering Balfour Beatty to service its work at Hinkley Point.

At certain times of the year, and depending on the harvest, the port imports and exports grain too, with every load being individually tested for bacteria, moisture content and more before being accepted into huge storage silos.

We pass by a huge plasterboard production facility owned by Belgium material group Etex, and under a long conveyor belt running over the road. Etex recently invested heavily in expanding its presence at the port,effectively doubling the size of its facility.

“The gypsum comes off the ships and is carried directly to the factory,” John explains.

Until 2018, coal also passed through the port for power generation. Now that infrastructure is all redundant and the port is looking at how it can be redeployed. “We used to deal with five million tons of power station coal every year,” he added.

And on we drive, past the port’s jet fuel facility to what feels like the edge of the world, but in fact is just the perimeter road, to arrive alongside the River Severn where there’s an old Edwardian lighthouse at the end of the promontory and the Welsh coast on the other side of the Estuary.

The demand for The Bristol Port Company is rising Is Bristol Port easy for ships to navigate into?

“Bristol is, like all locked ports, challenging,” says John. “It’s easier to enter ports such as Felixstowe or Southampton that don’t have a lock entrance but the benefit of locked posts, like Bristol, is that once the ship is in then you’re basically on a lake so it’s easy to load and unload.”

On we drive, past more warehouses containing goods destined for some of the UK’s biggest retailers, and a warehouse where a company stores communications and power cables. It’s employees travel around the world laying them on the seabed, only sailing into Bristol port to restock.

The demand for Bristol Port is rising, as is the company’s investment to adapt to meet it, including building new flood defences, infrastructure renewal, including replacing huge new lock gates, and adapting the commercial real estate for new tenants.

The Bristol Port Company quietly gets on with its daily business, only obvious to the wider public if they look down on it from their cars travelling over the M5’s Avonmouth Bridge, where the rows and rows of imported vehicles can easily be seen.

But its contribution to the region’s economy shouldn’t be underestimated.

REGIONAL FOCUS BRISTOL & BATH

WASTE MANAGEMENT FIRM CLEANS UP WITH NATWEST BACKING Bristol-based waste management firm ETM Recycling is making significant upgrades to its facilities thanks to a £7 million funding boost from NatWest.

The firm, which says it is the largest waste management fleet in the South West, will use the funding to strengthen its current recycling capabilities and create new jobs.

Founder Eddie McCormack first launched the firm’s parent company, ETM Group in 1994, specialising in highway maintenance and civil engineering. Growing frustrated with the lack of recycling options available to businesses, Eddie decided to diversify into the sector himself and started ETM Recycling in 2010.

Eddie’s two children, Andy and Amy, joined the business in 2000 and 2011 respectively. ETM Group now employs more than 250 staff and currently helps businesses across the area divert a cumulative 300,000 tons of waste from landfill each year.

The funding boost from NatWest will allow

ETM Waste Management secures funding from NatWest

ETM Recycling to expand its operations by adding new technology to its existing custom-built waste transfer centre, increasing the volume of waste the team are able to process by streamlining and speeding up the process.

helping us ensure as little of Bristol’s waste ends up in landfill as possible.

Amy McCormack, commercial director at ETM Recycling, said: “We’re so proud of what we’ve built so far and have no intentions of slowing down. Continuing to invest back into the business is crucial in sustaining that growth and ultimately,

Mark Forbes, relationship director at NatWest, added: “ETM Recycling is a core part of Bristol’s business community, and the team are making great strides in improving access to affordable and easy recycling options across the entire region.”

“This move will allow us to significantly upgrade our current facilities, speed up our operations and adopt new techniques.”

Bristol construction firm named UK Growth Business of the Year Bristol-based construction firm Sweet Projects has been named the UK Growth Business of the Year at the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards.

The Filton-based business won the Growth category ahead of 12 growing UK businesses from different sectors, with judges impressed with the company’s financial and workforce performance.

“To be successful and bring home an award like this was amazing,” said Andy Heyes, MD of Sweet Projects, which also has offices in Corsham and Slough.

“We’re so proud to represent the South West in these awards, and to see how far we’ve come in three short years is

an outstanding credit to each and every person we work with.

“It’s the culmination of hard work across the company, and this national recognition is great for the business, and just as great for our people – the most important part of our business.”

The Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards are now an established part of the national annual business awards landscape.

They have become one of the UK’s largest and most admired awards programmes, celebrating the best of the best of British business.

Sarah Austin, director of the British Business Excellence Awards, said: “Sweet Projects is

Sweet Projects celebrate their win

an incredibly high-performing business that has gone from zero to incredible numbers in such a short space of time.”

In the past year, Sweet Projects has grown from 60 employees to 110 people across multiple UK sites, and with turnover doubling from £62 million to £130 million.

Sweet Projects had to prove a robust plan of activity and processes to the British Business Excellence Awards judging panel, covering sustainable growth, development of people and responsible business practices to deliver ongoing and future financial success and business.

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REGIONAL FOCUS BRISTOL & BATH

I thought it would be fantastic for customers looking for fun things to do and it would help the small business hosts and side hustlers to grow their experiencebased businesses

Dominic Mills, Founder of Yuup

YUUP GENERATES £3 MILLION IN INCOME FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES Bristol local experience company Yuup has delivered £3 million income for local independent businesses in less than three years to help local communities thrive.

Since its launch in Bristol in April 2021, and expansion into the West Midlands the following year, Yuup has grown into a community of more than 500 experience hosts.

Yuup, founded by Dominic Mills, particularly champions indie businesses, from bread-making workshops to foraging adventures. But it’s not just about creating

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memorable experiences, says the firm, but about building connections and fostering a sense of community.

For some hosts, Yuup experiences serve as their primary source of income, for others it provides an extra stream of revenue.

The inspiration for Yuup came when Dominic was looking for a treat for his wife. After becoming frustrated at how hard it was to find and book an original experience, he knew he wouldn’t be the only one.

He said: “After much Googling, I found many inspiring creators and small businesses offering experiences but they were hard to find and very often there wasn’t an online booking option. It was very much 'contact me, get a voucher, and then organise the experience offline'.

“I spotted an opportunity to create a platform bringing all these incredible people together into a single community. I thought it would be fantastic for customers looking for fun things to do and it would help the small business hosts and side hustlers to grow their experience-based businesses.

“I was also excited by the prospect of people who have never previously hosted experiences joining the platform to turn their passion into an experience to share with others while earning additional income for themselves.”

Before launching Yuup, Dominic had worked for a large US tech consulting company. After leaving, he started a digital agency called Auros in Bristol, which he later sold to a London-based agency.

He was also a non-exec director of a community interest company called Bristol Media (now Bristol Creative Industries).

REGIONAL FOCUS BRISTOL & BATH CGI of the new Vectura building at Emerson’s Green Bristol

Matt Wilkinson and his Oat Float

New £58 million Vectura development on Bristol & Bath Science Park gets green light Biotech firm Vectura, which specialises in inhaled drug development solutions, has been granted planning permission for its new 10,000 sq metre facility in Bristol – an Inhalation Centre of Excellence.

The Chippenham-based company, which makes medical inhalers, hit the headlines earlier this year when it was acquired by tobacco giant Philip Morris in a £1 billion deal.

The new £58 million building at Bristol & Bath Science Park, which will be completed next year, will enable Vectura to expand operations, and provide new career opportunities for research and development scientists and engineers in pharmaceutical and device development, as well as in manufacturing and laboratory services.

Michael Austwick, Vectura CEO, said: “The new-build will enable our already successful pharmaceutical company to continue its vital

work, providing innovative inhalation and other advanced drug delivery solutions that have the potential to improve the lives of patients and consumers around the world.

“For nearly 25 years, Vectura has been providing a combination of formulation science, device technology and pharmaceutical development expertise.

This new facility will help us to build on this successful track record, increasing workspace capacity and attracting talent to the area.”

Councillor Ben Burton, cabinet member responsible for corporate resources at South Gloucestershire Council, said: “This new research and development facility will bring additional high-tech employment opportunities to our area and I’m pleased to see that Vectura’s plans for the new building include a number of environmental and sustainability considerations.”

Bath live music venue Moles closes after 45 years, but Bristol Beacon reopens One of the UK’s best-known live music venues, Moles in Bath, has closed after 45 years.

The subterranean venue, on Bath’s George Street, blamed the cost of living crisis, rent and rate increases, and the spiralling costs of stock and utilities. The venue noted that 120 other music venues closed last year – more than 15 per cent of the sector.

The 220-capacity Moles was an important grassroots venue for bands on their way to stardom. The Smiths, Radiohead, Oasis, Eurythmics, Bastille, Mumford & Sons and Ed Sheeran all played there. In a statement, owners Phil Andrews and Tom Maddicott, said: “Unless bands have these stages to play, where will they hone their talents and become these huge artists that fill these arenas and stadiums around the world?”

But down the road, Bristol Beacon, formerly known as the Colston Hall, has completed a five year, £132 million redevelopment and reopened its doors in December to wide acclaim as the South West’s largest concert hall.

Refill shop on wheels wins sustainability award A Bristol business which helps its customers reduce their plastic use by bringing packaging-free groceries to them, is one of just 28 small businesses globally, and only four in the UK, which have won a share of £360,000 from global accounting software company Xero.

Oat Float won the Innovating for Sustainability prize, and received £10,000 at the accounting software company Xero’s inaugural Beautiful Business Awards.

Launched in 2021 in North Bristol, Oat Float is a refill shop on wheels, helping customers reduce their plastic footprint. Founder Matt Wilkinson is passionate about reuse – many of the bottles, tubs, bags and jars in our kitchen or bathroom cupboards can be refilled many times over.

He said: “We simply don’t need new packaging each time we buy something – it is an unbelievable waste. So we bought a 1970s electric milk float and converted it into a mobile zero waste shop.

Oat Float was created to make zero-waste shopping easier.”

Oat Float, which now has a schedule of more than 40 stops across the city and has more than 150 products on board, will use the money to build delivery subscription technology and upgrade its float to be able to deliver more to its customers.

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REGIONAL FOCUS WORCESTERSHIRE

River Severn Partnership wins £3.75m funding to boost wireless innovation The River Severn Partnership (RSP) has been awarded £3.75 million in government funding to support wireless innovation and technology in some of its key economic sectors.

The steep streets of Clovelly didn’t worry Airband

AIRBAND SCOOPS BEST COMMUNITY PROJECT AT INCA AWARDS Airband, the Droitwich Spa-based broadband provider which is building superfast connections to coastal and country communities, has been recognised by the Independent Networks Co-operative Association for the Best Community Project, after bringing superfast broadband to a pretty Devon village.

Clovelly is one of the UK’s only privatelyowned villages. Perched on a cliff-top, its steep, narrow streets are also home to just 300 residents, who until now were unable to access a fast and reliable broadband connection.

Working with Connecting Devon and Somerset, the project required 500 trips up and down Clovelly Hill to painstakingly lift, preserve and return the village’s 12,000

cobblestones so cabling could be installed to provide superfast broadband.

Redmond Peel, Airband CEO, said: “It is one of the most challenging broadband installations we’ve ever undertaken, and we’re incredibly proud to have brought superfast broadband to the homes and businesses while preserving the famous cobbled streets.”

Councillor Rufus Gilbert, Connecting Devon and Somerset Board Member and Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery and Skills, said: “Rolling out full-fibre broadband in Clovelly and ensuring that the entire community has access to the network was a monumental and unique undertaking, but Airband was up to the task.”

The Partnership comprises the eight English and Welsh councils that cover the River Severn catchment area including Worcestershire, and is one of 10 UK Innovation Regions to gain funding.

The Innovation Region project will encourage Advanced Wireless Connectivity technology into rural industries, water management and public services, where partners are regional and national leaders.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy, Infrastructure and Skills at Worcestershire County Council said: “The funding will help us work as a region to accelerate the adoption of new digitally connected products and services across priority sectors including water management, agri-tech and food production. It will also enable us to explore new ways to deliver public services.”

Dr Umar Daraz, River Severn Partnership Innovation lead board member, said: “This will accelerate commercial investment in 5G and other advanced wireless technologies by aggregating and demonstrating demand across the River Severn catchment area.”

The RSP area covers 6,000 square miles in England and Wales where 2.6 million people live.

Sanctuary Housing takes over Johnnie Johnson Housing Older people’s housing provider Johnnie Johnson Housing is to become a subsidiary of Worcester-based Sanctuary Housing after the merger was approved by both housing associations boards.

The completion will be subject to obtaining consent from the organisations’ lenders.

Craig Moule, Sanctuary Group Chief Executive, said: “Not-for-profit housing and care providers deliver a vital public service to society – we invest in maintaining and improving housing stock, provide a security of tenure that is affordable, develop new affordable homes and deliver goodquality care.

Johnnie Johnson Housing has a portfolio of almost 5,000 homes across the North West, North East, Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

“As one of the largest providers in the sector, we use our size and strength to invest and develop and to be efficient, while

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maintaining local, community services.”

Yvonne Castle, Johnnie Johnson Housing Chief Executive, said: “We know that through joining Sanctuary we will be able fulfil our ambitions and invest more in our residents’ homes than we could on our own.”

Yvonne has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer with the role being taken on by Kathryn Fox-Rogers as managing director of the JJH subsidiary.

REGIONAL FOCUS WORCESTERSHIRE

SLICKER RECYCLING WINS NATIONAL AWARD National oil and waste recycling firm Slicker Recycling has lifted an industry award for its outstanding service to the UK’s leading independent garage network.

The Worcester business collects and re-refines more than 80 million litres of used lubricating oil annually.

Slicker Recycling was chosen ahead of a long list of approved partners for its successful six-year long association with the 600-strong network of UK independent garages.

Throughout the partnership, Slicker Recycling has met the waste management needs of Servicesure members. Through an efficient process, collectively members have saved up to 100,000kg of carbon emissions every year, whilst reducing their waste management spend.

Sean Thorpe, National Sales Manager at

Left to right, actor Shaun Williamson, Mike Parker and Sophie Blackburn from Slicker Recycling with Paul Dineen from Servicesure Autocentres

Slicker Recycling said: “It’s always a proud moment to win an award which recognises long-term success and commitment. We are truly grateful to be recognised by Servicesure’s members.

“Not only are we providing an outstanding used oil collection service, but through our carbon-efficient waste-oil-to-base-oil approach, we support the Servicesure Autocentre network by reducing their

Ben Truslove, joint managing director at John Truslove with Scott Parks, Van Kings owner

carbon footprint and help them contribute to the circular economy.

“We also provide them with a number of hazardous waste management solutions which adhere to the internationallyrecognised waste hierarchy, which prioritises recycling and re-use.

“Overall, the award is a terrific milestone for us.”

“As a result we have about a dozen vehicles here at any one time, so with the different stock every week it’s a constantly rotating display of what we can do.”

Mr Parks, 29, launched his new business 18 months ago and soon realised he needed showroom premises.

Van customising firm off to racing start with new showroom A van customising business has opened its first showroom in Redditch.

Scott Parks, the owner of Van Kings, has signed a five-year deal to lease a 2,704 sq ft unit in Brook Street at £24,000 per annum.

Scott explained that he is applying a decade of experience in the vehicle sales industry to his new business, catering for an explosion in demand for customised Ford Transits.

He said: “The market for customised vans,

particularly Transits, is just huge at the moment, and the last six months things have gone crazy.

“It can be the motor trade, businesses, sole traders or families – five or six-seater vans are just so popular that we’re having to operate a waiting list to cater for demand.

“We take the vehicles in at our new showroom in Brook Street, send them to our offsite bodyshop for work and then bring them back here.

Ben Truslove, joint managing director at John Truslove, helped Scott secure the premises. He said: “These Brook Street units have been recently refurbished to a very high standard and work extremely well to showcase Van Kings’ work.

“This a win-win all round, as a big part of our role is working closely with new businesses to help find premises that work for them, then matching the right tenants with the right landlords.

“Scott has really tapped into a hugely popular niche in the auto sales market and knew what he was looking for in terms of premises.”

Van Kings was advised by SME Solicitors in Worcester.

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REGIONAL FOCUS WORCESTERSHIRE

Worcester Six Business Park

WORCESTER SIX PROVES HIT FOR COUNTY An engineering company is set to double in size after signing a lease on new premises in Worcester.

Sierra CP Engineering Ltd, which designs and builds engine and vehicle test facilities, is set to move to Worcester Six Business Park this spring Sierra CP Engineering was looking for premises closer to Worcester which would enable it to extend its manufacturing area as part of ambitious growth plans to increase staff numbers and revenue.

Tom Hyde, of Sierra CP Engineering, said: “We have been based at our current site for 20 years, and in the last 15 years we have seen our revenue grow from £3 million to £15 million per annum.

“We are keen to build this momentum further but have outgrown our current premises and are very limited in what we can get out of the door.

“Our new unit at Worcester Six Business Park will provide us with ample space

to expand as we look to accelerate our growth plans.”

Fisher German identified the site for Sierra CP Engineering and negotiated the lease.

Worcester Six will also be home to a national transport company. Stop Start Transport Limited, currently based in Berkeley Business Park, Worcester, has relocated its headquarters to Cabot 38 within the business park as part of its growth and investment plans in the region.

Chris Pullen, MD at Stop Start, which has been part of the Listed Swedish investment firm Storskogen Group AB, since 2022, said that strong growth across the business required it to find larger premises.

The company, which delivers high-value bathroom products nationwide for some of the biggest brands in the country, employs about 100 staff and with the expansion, plans to continue hiring more local members of staff over the next two years.

“We’ve been contemplating moving for the past couple of years, but seeing the high specification at Cabot 38, as well as its proximity to junction six of the M5, tipped us in favour of moving,” he said.

“We’ve been at our existing site for 15 years, but we now need somewhere that gives us the space to grow over the next 10 years and Cabot 38 provides that. This is a significant investment and part of Storskogen’s strategic plans for Stop Start and we are looking forward to moving in.”

Worcester Six is being developed by commercial property developer Stoford.

It has already attracted a number of major businesses to the region, including Siemens, Kohler Mira, Kimal, IONOS, ZwickRoell and Alliance Flooring Distribution.

Once fully developed, it will provide 2.1 million sq ft of accommodation. It already benefits from more than 850,000 sq ft having been delivered or committed across the scheme.

Kidderminster-based smoke control specialist acquired Total Integrated Solutions (TIS), a life safety, security and communications systems integrator based in Mansfield, has acquired Nationwide Specialist Projects.

The deal was backed by Key Capital Partners, a leading investor in mid-market small and medium-sized enterprises.

NSP provides design-led, innovative

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life-critical solutions to ensure the rapid dispersion of smoke in commercial and multiple dwelling residential settings.

TIS has experienced rapid organic growth since Key’s investment in 2021. The acquisition of Nationwide Specialist Projects will enable TIS to expand its current fire offering to new and existing customers over a broad range of settings.

Key assisted the management team through the transaction, providing further equity investment alongside debt financing from TIS’ existing corporate lender Thincats.

James Twigg, CEO of TIS, said: “This acquisition is a decisive step forward, leveraging our strong market offering to realise our vision of bringing processes and innovations that improve the way the world is protected.”

REGIONAL FOCUS COVENTRY & WARWICKSHIRE

West Midlands Rail

NEW PARTNERSHIP WILL DELIVER A BETTER INTEGRATED AND LOCALLY ACCOUNTABLE RAIL NETWORK West Midlands Rail Executive (WMRE) and Great British Railways Transition Team have started work on a more locally accountable and integrated rail network in the West Midlands.

The collaboration supports the ambitions outlined in the Trailblazer Deeper Devolution Deal which was agreed between the West Midlands Combined Authority and the government last year.

The partnership will give local leaders more influence over the railway and integrate rail into the wider West Midlands transport network with bus and tram, allowing customers to better plan and pay

for journeys across the network.

Through West Midlands’ existing Swift platform, a fully integrated fares and ticketing structure will be developed. Other changes to make buying rail tickets simpler and easier to understand are also being worked on.

Mal Drury-Rose, Executive Director of the WMRE said: “We’ve made significant progress on integrating West Midlands Railway with other public transport services. However, this new partnership will further improve customers’ experience at stations, on trains and as they move between bus and tram.”

CW Growth Hub chief backs campaign to give local authorities more power Craig Humphrey, the chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire growth hub, is backing a campaign to give local councils legal powers to help economic development in their regions.

the autonomy and operational control to deliver against their objectives and those set by government to promote opportunities and growth across Coventry and Warwickshire.

With the integration of local enterprise partnerships into local democratic institutions or stand-alone organisations, the Institute of Economic Development has launched a manifesto urging local authorities to be given statutory powers over economic development.

“But quite often, economic development can become the victim when budgets are being tightened which can be a backward step in job creation and attracting investment to an area.

He said: “It is more than six months since we became an independent organisation with our new shareholders – Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council – and it is important we still have

“The ideas put forward by the IED to ask for local authorities to be given statutory powers for economic development and to continue the Growth Hub model led by upper tier local authorities is welcome and is exactly the model we have in Coventry and Warwickshire.”

Onshape puts OX Delivers on track to deliver low-emission transport breakthrough An automotive start-up that has been dubbed ‘the Uber for global farmers’ is integrating software company PTC’s Onshape software into its electric trucks.

Founded in 2020, Warwick-based OX Delivers designs electric trucks to withstand the developing world’s harshest environments.

The company’s purpose-built low-emission vehicles, developed using PTC’s platform, will offer small rural farmers a reliable, costeffective way to get perishable crops to market on time.

Dependable transportation can mean the difference between earning enough cash to plant the next crop or economic disaster as goods rot by the road before ever reaching a buyer, the start-up said.

It is currently running a pilot project in Rwanda, giving local businesses a chance to buy space on a truck to move their goods to their customers.

All the feedback from the drivers and users in this trial is being sent back to OX Deliver’s 13-strong engineering team in Leamington Spa. The team will use that data to build a vehicle that is robust and environmentally friendly.

Work on a new chassis is the current focus of OX Delivers.

This will see it move from a front wheel drive to a rear wheel drive, a necessary change for the Rwandan market.

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REGIONAL FOCUS COVENTRY & WARWICKSHIRE

Octopus Energy moves to Friargate Octopus Energy, the UK’s secondlargest energy supplier, is opening an office in Coventry city centre.

The deal with Coventry City Council will see Octopus occupy more than 10,000 sq ft of space, across one floor of the Grade A office building.

It will also involve moving 150 staff to Friargate from the company’s Leamington office.

The West Midlands secures funding to train in new technologies

WEST MIDLANDS SECURES £10.3M TO DEVELOP SKILLS FOR REGIONAL ECONOMY The West Midlands has secured more than £10 million in new skills funding.

Led by Solihull College and University Centre, colleges across the region, working with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, will use the money to develop and deliver training that will help train skills needed to land jobs industries such as electric vehicle and battery technology, sustainable construction, and the creative/gaming sector.

The investment will be used to expand the regional electrification and engineering offer, develop skills provision in low carbon/ sustainable construction, support the professional development of teachers to embed green skills in all curriculum areas, deliver digital skills training to hard-toreach communities and improve employer engagement.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA Chair, said: “A key part of my mayoral mission is to ensure local people have the skills they need to succeed.

We’re fortunate to be home to a range of

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excellent providers offering a remarkable range of provision – which we continue to improve.”

“We welcome this additional funding from the Department for Education which will help colleges and universities fulfil their ambitions and take our provision to the next level.”

Rebecca Gater, principal and chief executive, Solihull College & University Centre, said: “The further education colleges and training providers in the region are working collaboratively with the WMCA, Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, and the Warwickshire Skills Hub to deliver an integrated response tailored to the specific needs of our local and regional economy.

“Funding will enable us to invest in cutting-edge facilities, high quality resources, and equipment that ensures the curriculum we offer meets the needs of employers, improves efficiency and productivity, and equips local people with the skills they need to succeed in current and future careers.”

Octopus is expected to occupy space in Two Friargate by next month, initially taking one floor but with the prospect to keep growing their footprint in following years.

The company has held a presence near Coventry since 2019, when Octopus acquired Co-op Energy, and inherited their team and office in Leamington Spa. Moving to the city allows Octopus to recruit new talent from Coventry’s two universities. The hiring practice mirrors its recruitment in other cities like Manchester, Leicester, Brighton and London.

Two Friargate is Coventry’s newest Grade A office building and the second building to be developed as part of the wider Friargate Business District and next to Coventry Railway Station.

Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Chief Marketing and Product Officer at Octopus Energy, said: “As a local to Coventry, I – along with many of our team – was very keen to find a great home base for our Leamington people, keep building our West Midlands team, and maintain a growing presence in the area.

“The Friargate office will attract more green jobs into the city, and give more options for young people looking to stay in the area after university.”

REGIONAL FOCUS COVENTRY & WARWICKSHIRE

Mark and Joanna Farr at Purple Planet Packaging Hyperbat successfully develops automated pilot line

Coventry packaging firm offers plastic-free cups after signing deal An environmentally-friendly packaging company has signed a deal with a UK manufacturer to supply trailblazing plasticfree cups.

Purple Planet Packaging, run by Mark and Joanna Farr, is working with Wrexhambased Green Rock Manufacturing Group to create its own Planetware products, starting with a 100 per cent recyclable, fully compostable disposable cup.

The company has grown from £120,000 turnover to £1.3 million since 2019, when Mark and Joanna bought the company.

The latest development marks the next phase in its growth, with the company planning to create new jobs and expand its headquarters in the West Midlands.

The new cup, which has PEFC certification and a certified plastic-free barrier, is already attracting orders from a range of customers including hospitality businesses, schools and colleges across the UK. Mark said “Considering the staggering 6.85 million disposable cups discarded daily in the UK, our ‘Made in Britain’ Planetware line is set to be a gamechanger.

“Our alliance with Green Rock Manufacturing Group underscores our commitment to nurturing the UK’s manufacturing potential.

“We have deep ties to the hospitality industry in Coventry, Warwickshire and the wider West Midlands and our vision also includes forging strong relationships with other UK businesses.

“This product will be the first of many when it comes to the Planetware brand and we’re really excited by this next phase of our development as a business.”

Purple Planet Packaging currently employs seven staff and this is expected to grow to 11 by 2025.

£11m battery production project creates 50 jobs, with more on the way A project aimed at scaling up the UK’s battery pack manufacturing and supply chain has been hailed a major success.

with the promise of more as it enters into its first commercial agreement to supply battery packs for a global customer.

The £11.3 million H1perChain project, funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK in Coventry, has developed an automated pilot line for module/pack assembly, cell joining and in-line testing, which it says delivers a step-change in high performance battery costs and scalability.

Jon Bell, Project Lead at Hyperbat, said: “We wanted to develop a process and emerging supply chain capability for manufacturing high-performance batteries in the UK.”

Led by Hyperbat, a leading UK manufacturer of high-performance electric vehicle battery packs, and working with consortium partners Unipart Manufacturing, WAE (Williams Advanced Engineering), Coventry University and Direc-Tec, the challenge has also come up with a world-class laser welding joining process for cylindrical cell formats, hundreds of skills development opportunities, and a digital platform to connect the battery value chain.

More than 50 skilled jobs have been created at the Coventry production facility,

The project needed to learn how to reduce costs, increase performance and meet lead times, and Jon believes this is well on the way to achieving with the pilot line.

“If the UK is to compete in the electrification race, we must have a domestic battery-making capability and a supportive supply chain in place,” added Jon. “We’ve onboarded 36 UK suppliers so far.

We want to increase this to 200 by the end of the year. This will include firms making busbars, aluminium castings, injection moulding specialists and those supplying consumables.”

Rugby-based Revive scoops top prize at British Franchise Awards Rugby-based Revive has won a top award at the 2023 British Franchise Awards.

Revive, which offers a mobile service for minor bodywork and alloy wheel damage to domestic and commercial customers across the UK, took home the Leadership and Culture Award at the event.

It is one of the UK’s leading mobile paint repair businesses, operating through a nationwide franchise network and is a member of the Institute for the Motor Industry.

Terry Mullen, managing director of finance and operations at Revive said: “We are so proud to win this award. It means a great deal to be recognised by the British Franchise Association for the work we have done to build a strong and positive culture across the whole network.

“Our focus on leadership and culture right at the start of our journey has enabled us to support our franchise owners to grow strong and successful businesses of their own.”

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REGIONAL FOCUS SWINDON & NORTH WILTS CGI of 1 Newbridge Square. Swindon. FI Real Estate Management has completed a major refurbishment of offices and retail to help regenerate Swindon’s business district

SWINDON PLANS FOR LONG-TERM ECONOMIC FUTURE What is the future for Swindon? That’s the question that businesses, local council leaders and the community are discussing after the town set up Swindon Futures Commission to look at its economic future.

The Commission will publish its report early this year to help pave the way for future growth and investment.

The 12 Commissioners have experience across urban research, development, diversity, equity and inclusion, sustainability and finance. They are led by Martin Boddy, Emeritus Professor of Urban and Regional Studies at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, and the project was initiated by Business West.

The Commission has secured cross-party political support and is working with the borough council – it is independent and not politically aligned.

Martin Boddy said: “In economic terms, Swindon has an outstanding history as one of the strongest performing urban areas nationally, attracting international investment and providing jobs, high quality, affordable housing and local facilities for its fast-expanding population.

“There are challenges. The flow of international investment has shrunk – as it has nationally. There are communities on some of the older estates which have clearly missed out on the benefits of past success. Much of the town centre

and main shopping area is no longer fit for purpose and crying out for new investment.

“Looking to the future however, Swindon has fantastic potential to attract new businesses and investment, to expand opportunities for its established communities and meet the challenges of climate change. The Commission will work to develop a vision, a framework for future possibilities; shaping plans, boosting investment, raising Swindon’s image and profile and providing opportunities across the whole town.”

Colin Skellett, Chair of Business West and Chair of the Swindon Futures Commission added: “Swindon has several challenges when it comes to economic growth, yet there are also significant opportunities. For example, its redevelopment potential, the transport infrastructure, affordable house prices and job opportunities.

“We hope this Commission will provide a launchpad for the next generation of investment, businesses and jobs.”

Cllr Jim Robbins, Leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “Swindon’s future is not just a local issue. The town has played such a significant role in the UK’s economy.

This much-needed Commission convenes a group of stakeholders across politics, community and business to identify what we need to do – in the long term – to enable Swindon to reach its potential.”

How the railway shaped Swindon The arrival of the Great Western Railway to Swindon in 1843 transformed Swindon from a small market town to a busy railway hub which would, for the next 100 years, be one of the biggest railway engineering works in the country, at its peak directly employing more than 12,000 people.

The last steam locomotive – the Evening Star for British Railways – was completed in 1960, and in 1963 a large part of the old carriage works was closed and sold for redevelopment. The Railway Works finally closed for good in 1986.

Despite this, Swindon continued to grow, attracting major employers.

While Honda closed its factory in 2021 (the site is now undergoing redevelopment into a major logistics and business park), BMW’s factory still produces body pressings and sub-assemblies for the MINI. Other major private employers include WH Smith, the Nationwide Building Society, insurance company Zurich and tech company Intel. The UK Space Agency and The National Trust also have their headquarters in the town.

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REGIONAL FOCUS SWINDON & NORTH WILTS cells at a perfect growing temperature for horticulture throughout the year.

These positively pressured greenhouses are engineered to flex with the movement of the landfill as it settles.

Fully encapsulated, they are isolated from the landfill and the environment, preventing the ingress of contaminates, pests or disease.

Crapper’s plans for a new food production centre at Royal Wootton Basset

WHERE THERE’S MUCK – THERE’S A SUSTAINABLE WAY TO PRODUCE FOOD A new development, which has the potential to see landfill sites across the country transformed into low-cost energy and affordable fruit and vegetable super production centres, is being proposed by Crapper and Sons Landfill as part of the future vision for its Royal Wootton Bassett site.

The climate friendly Sustain initiative plans to use methane generated by its landfill site to power and heat positivelypressured inflatable greenhouses. These will be used to grow fruit and vegetables for the local community year-round, which could create up to 130 new jobs.

Based on the concept of the ancient midden where waste, including animal dung, would be piled outside homes to break down, providing heat, material to burn and composted biomass, the Sustain Super-Midden is designed to turn landfill sites into energy, heat, food, and fertiliser generating centres for the benefit of the local community.

Under the proposed plans landfill methane, which is currently safely tapped and burnt off, will power engines to generate electricity and heat. In a worldfirst, this will be used to keep flexible greenhouses situated on the sealed landfill

CO2, produced as a by-product of the energy from gas process, will be fed directly into the greenhouses to enhance and control the growing environment.

Ultraviolet light ripening can be accelerated or slowed down to meet local demand.

The aim is for the proposed greenhouses at the Brinkworth Road site to supply 80 per cent of all fruit and vegetable requirements for Wootton Bassett, Malmesbury, Purton and Brinkworth, consuming up to 4,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, equivalent to boiling 57 million kettles of water.

In time, the company says, food waste will be collected for anaerobic digestion when the food deliveries are made. This will be used to generate low-cost energy and fertiliser for use in the greenhouses, perpetuating the sustainable circular solution.

Spare electricity from the methane-toenergy and energy-from-waste plants will be used to support green industrial development and recycling, providing local employment.

Parking company expands into Pennsylvania Swindon-headquartered parking company The Metric Group has opened premises in Pennsylvania and increased its headcount there.

The Metric Group designs, manufactures and services parking hardware, software and infrastructure, and for the past decade has sold across the USA through an exclusive distributor.

It has now taken back full control of its

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Stateside operations and aims to grow its 80-strong customer base.

Victor Abrams, a former Metric Group employee, has rejoined the company as technical lead.

He said: “It’s great to be back with the Metric Group and see the company investing in its future in the USA.” Metric’s head of international sales,

Graham Darling, added: “This is an important milestone in Metric Group’s history, and we hope our investment in new premises and personnel will signal to our clients here just how important they are.”

“We have a tech legacy spanning more than 140 years, and we work with customers across the globe, so we have unrivalled intel on what makes the best user experience.”

REGIONAL FOCUS SWINDON & NORTH WILTS and £185,000 which will support a range of improvements to the Swindon Railway Conservation Area. This will include new signage to tell the fantastic stories of the area and help people find their way around.

Swindon’s Health Hydro will benefit from £400K to repair roof

Swindon heritage projects awarded almost £700,000 in additional funding Three heritage projects in Swindon’s town centre have been awarded £685,000 from Historic England.

work builds on the council’s planned £6.5 million restoration and development of the pioneering Victorian health facility.

The funding includes £400,000 for urgent roof and repairs at the Health Hydro. The

There is also £100,000 to fund masonry and window repairs at the Carriage Works

All three projects are key elements of the Swindon heritage action zone, a £7.6 million investment by the council and Historic England to breathe new life into the Railway Village.

Councillor Marina Strinkovsky, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Heritage, Art and Culture, said: “While we’ve already done a lot of work to make sure our heritage is preserved for future generations to enjoy, we still have a long way to go.”

ICONIC LEISURE CENTRE TO BE REFURBISHED – AND WAVE MACHINE TOO The refurbishment of Swindon’s iconic Oasis Leisure Centre has been backed by councillors. The leisure centre first opened in 1976 but was closed by its operator GLL in 2020 because it needed major capital investment. GLL surrendered the lease to SevenCapital.

More complications for the future development of the site came the following year when it was listed, which will increase SevenCapital’s development costs.

Last year the company successfully obtained listed building consent for a replacement covering for the domed roof and it has been working with Swindon Borough Council on a commercial approach to use the land surrounding the leisure centre.

Specialist valuers Avison Young have been liaising with SevenCapital on behalf of the council. SevenCapita now proposes to refurbish the Oasis and bring it back into use before any further development takes place.

In return, the council will sell the vacant North Star site, which used to house the former Clares factory, and land around the

Swindon’s Iconic Oasis Leisure Centre

outside of the leisure centre, for a minimum of £6 million.

has recognised this and is committed to making it work.”

The proposal would be subject to SevenCapital obtaining planning permission, entering into a building contract, completing the refurbishment of the Oasis and securing a new operator to run the leisure centre.

SevenCapital’s Group Managing Director, Damien Siviter, added: “We want to create a leisure centre that Swindon can once again be proud of, but we also have to make sure running costs are not prohibitive to potential operators.

The developer has also indicated that the Oasis Leisure Centre’s much-loved wave machine, which it originally said would not be part of the refurbishment, will now be included.

Councillor Kevin Small, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “The Oasis used to draw people to Swindon from far and wide because of the fantastic Domebusters and the wave machine.

“The leisure centre created Swindon’s very own tropical paradise and was unique at the time. The wave machine was integral to that design and so I am delighted SevenCapital

“We have to strike a balance between trying to make it as energy-efficient and sustainable as possible, while also keeping what made the Oasis so special in the first place.

“The Leader of the Council spoke incredibly passionately about the importance of the wave machine and, on reflection, we misjudged how much it was loved by local people.

“We can confirm that the refurbished Oasis will contain a wave machine. We will make it work.”

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CAREER AHEAD

02

Savills appoints new head of office in Cirencester

Savills has appointed experienced property agent, Tom Waltham, to head its residential sales office in Cirencester.

Tom has worked in the residential property sector for 12 years, specialising in the sale of prime property. He has held senior positions for both local independent agencies and national and international firms.

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Leading stadium figure takes on non-exec role

Coventry Building Society Arena has appointed Jacky Isaac to its board as a Non-Executive Director. Jacky has been a leading figure at the stadium for more than 15 years and played a key role in the venue’s success. The appointment will see her move away from day-to-day operations but enable the venue to still benefit from her expertise. Over the last 12 months, Jacky has supported the business through the transition period to its new owner, Frasers Group.

New Executive Chair of EPSRC named

Professor Charlotte Deane has been appointed Executive Chair of the Swindon-based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Professor Deane is currently Professor of Structural Bioinformatics at the University of Oxford and Chief AI Officer at Exscientia plc. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Deane served on SAGE, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

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Increase in bookings sees sales team expand

With conference bookings up 50 per cent in the last year, The British Motor Museum, one of the leading Midlands conference and events venues, has appointed Tawanda Mabhumbo as Sales Manager. A seasoned sales and customer service professional, Tawanda joins the team from the hotel industry, having worked as a Meeting and Events Executive for Leonardo and a Senior Groups, Conference and Events Sales Executive for Hilton.

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05 Bristol

DWF announces new managing partner in

Legal business DWF has appointed partner Mike Renshaw to the role of managing partner at its Bristol office.

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05

Prior to his role at DWF, Mike built a defendant insurance team at BLM in London and led its insurance-focused offices in Bristol and Southampton before joining Keoghs as head of its Southampton office. Mike takes over a team of 100 at DWF’s Bristol office from Simon Mason, who is retiring from the business at the end of February.

CAREER AHEAD

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Evelyn Partners continues expansion of Bristol financial planning team

Wealth management company Evelyn Partners has made three appointments.

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Bristol’s Solarsense appoints new Commercial Director as it looks to double turnover When Solarsense moved to Employee Ownership status last year it was, for founder Stephen Barrett (above left), a succession plan that put his vision for the company and the people who worked for him ahead of a remunerative buyout.

Now he’s recruited Commercial Director Ashley Wood (above right) to help him ensure that move is matched by growth in this fast-expanding market.

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Appointment satisfies demand for domestic electrical courses.

An independent provider of trades courses in Bristol has marked 10 years in business with a key appointment, to satisfy demand for a new range of domestic electrical courses.

South West Construction Academy has appointed Paul Smithies to lead its new offering. The academy, set up by husband and wife Shane and Nicola McCallum (left and centre in photograph with Paul, right) in 2013, believes it is the first training provider in the South West to offer these domestic-focused courses.

Paul is a former Wiltshire College tutor who previously spent 16 years on the tools and running his own business.

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Bronwen Lancaster joins the team from law firm Irwin Mitchell as a Partner, Joy Wisniewski moves from Hartsfield in Bristol to become an Associate Director of Financial Planning and Chris Iles moves from Schroders Personal Wealth in Bristol to join as a Financial Planner.

Photo shows Chris, Bronwen and Joy with Evelyn Partner’s Bristol office Managing Partner Richard Mikdadi (second left).

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Five new appointments as county firm Minster Micro continues growth

Kidderminster IT firm Minster Micro Computers has welcomed developer Samuel Agbeja to its Applications and ERP Team and boosted its Infrastructure and Cyber Security department with the appointment of Sukhi Singh. Business analyst Asantewah Ofori will lead a project with Birmingham City University and Innovate UK. Catherine Clayton and Katrina Sneyd join as workflow and contract administrators respectively. The company has been winning clients and focussing on new markets.

Photograph above shows: front (left to right) Katrina, Susan Marlow (Minster Micro managing director) Catherine and Asantewah Back (left to right) Samuel and Sukhi.

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UWE Bristol appoints Professor Andrew Simpson as Dean of Bristol Business School

UWE Bristol has appointed Professor Andrew Simpson as Dean and Head of Bristol Business School.

Andrew spent the last 10 years at Sheffield University Management School where he was chair of management.

Prior to undertaking his PhD in statistics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Andrew worked in consultancy in the SME sector.

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Pioneering building material company appoints head of operations after major investment

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Bristol-based Adaptavate, which is pioneering industrial processes to make carbon negative building materials, has welcomed Matt Roughton as head of operations. Matt was previously the associate director of operations at GDS Instruments. Adaptavate recently announced a £2 million round of investment to support the global development and industrialisation of carbon negative construction materials.

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LATEST DEAL ACTIVITY

THE LATEST DEAL ACTIVITY ACROSS THE REGION NOVEMBER 2023 | £1m

OCTOBER 2023 | £172m

OCTOBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

Andrew Forbes Surveyors (Bristol)

Education software provider Tribal (Bristol)

Temple Homes Property (Bristol)

has been acquired by Begbies Traynor Group (Greater Manchester)

is set to be acquired by

has been acquired by

Ed-tech company Ellucian (United States)

Bristol Property Centre (Bristol)

Advisers Bank of America Merrill Lynch,

Advisers: GS Verde

Limited, Shore Capital, MHP

RBC Capital Markets, Kirkland & Ellis International LLP, Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider, William Blair International, Taylor Wessing

OCTOBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

OCTOBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

NOVEMBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

Accounting software provider Data Interconnect (Wiltshire)

Material maker Acoustic Polymers (Gloucestershire)

IT and network solutions firm IBIT Solutions (Coventry)

Advisers: Canaccord Genuity

has been acquired by

Digital finance transformation specialist BlackLine (United States)

Advisers: Shaw & Co,

Taylor Wessing Limited, BPE Solicitors

has been acquired by

Manufacturer Tiflex (Cornwall)

Advisers: Thrings, Bishop Fleming

has been acquired by

Digital transformation company Techsol Group (Cardiff )

LLP

NOVEMBER 2023 | £27M

OCTOBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

OCTOBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

Security technology company GBE Converge Group (Gloucestershire)

Legal firm Kitsons (South West)

Machine testing form Avon Dynamic Calibration (Bristol)

has been acquired by

Facilities management company Mitie Group (London)

has merged with

Boyce Hatton to create a new entity called Kitson Boyce

has been acquired by

Product testing company NMi Group (Netherlands)

Advisers: Roxburgh Milkins

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LATEST DEAL ACTIVITY

NOVEMBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

OCTOBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

DECEMBER 2023 | £1.251m

Ecosurety (Bristol)

Dock Solutions (Gloucestershire)

Future Build Recruitment (Brighton)

has sold its WEEE & battery compliance scheme to

has completed a management buyout

International circular economy company Reconomy

has been acquired by

Labour supply group Hercules (Gloucestershire)

Advisers: GS Verde Group

Advisers: Shaw & Co

OCTOBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

DECEMBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

NOVEMBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

Steele Financial (Bristol)

EV charging app Bonnet (London)

Distribution company J R Harding & Sons (Somerset)

has merged with

has been acquired by

has been acquired by

Streets Chartered Accountants (Lincolnshire) to create Streets Steele Chartered Certified Accountants

Energy supplier OVO Energy (Bristol)

DECEMBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

NOVEMBER 2023 | £Undisclosed

OCTOBER 2023 | £30m

Utility company Shell Energy Retail (Warwickshire)

Pipe manufacturer United Fiberglass of America (United States)

Smoke alarm manufacturer FireAngel (Warwickshire)

has been acquired by

Manufacturing firm Hill & Smith Holdings (West Midlands)

Alarm company Intelligent Safety Electronics (Singapore)

Advisers: MHP Group

Advisers: PwC, Shore Capital, SPARK

Energy supplier Octopus Energy

Supply chain specialists CubeCold Europe (Netherlands)

Advisers Crowe UK

has been acquired by

is set to be acquired by

Advisory Partners, Hill Dickinson LLP, Pinsent Masons LLP, Houston

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TECH PANEL

WHO ARE THE TECH COMPANIES OF TOMORROW? OUR EXPERTS REVEAL THEIR PICKS Our new feature focuses on up-and-coming companies that are breaking into new markets through their innovative use of technology How do you spot the next emerging technology company?

It’s a topic which sparks much debate among The Business Magazine team however, like most tough questions, it pays to speak to those in the know – people who work

with technology companies regularly, be it through funding, mentoring or advising them professionally on how to overcome obstacles impeding the next stage of their growth.

Each edition we ask three tech experts from

around the South West and West Midlands for tech companies to watch.

The criteria is loose, however the companies should have a turnover of less than £1 million a year and be breaking into new markets or using technology in an innovative way.

James Black, Innovation Manager at Warwick Manufacturing Group

With autonomous vehicles an everincreasing reality on our roads, there is a gap to provide robust safety solutions.

Baro Vehicles was founded in 2015 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire and envisions a world without road accidents. The company develops devices for automated vehicles to enable companies to rapidly develop and test self-driving systems. It recently secured an Innovate UK grant to develop a modular safety system. With a growing client book including automotive OEMs, Tier 2 companies and other start-ups, it is strengthening this vital new supply chain.

e-scooters or EVs – in your building’s garage. Zenway helps property managers provide an electric mobility service as an amenity exclusively for residents.

It leverages IoT technology so tenants can hire an e-bike with the push of a button.

For potential tenants choosing properties, it’s a big plus and also contributes to wider ambitions for future net zero cities.

We are expecting big things for creators Mohamed Makni and Sam Pattuzzi.

Warwick-based Flux Aviation is building a future for aviation that is clean, quiet, and affordable. It develops high-performance electric motors and batteries that will electrify passenger and cargo aircraft. Its technologies will enable zero emission aviation from two-seat trainer aircraft up to 50-seat regional airliners. Its core innovations focus on electric motors and battery modules that have been designed specifically for aviation applications.

London-based Zenway.app is on a mission to unlock sustainable mobility in real estate. Imagine you can choose from multiple high-end e-bikes, e-cargo bikes,

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As a safer, lighter, and stronger alternative to conventional battery packs, The Structural Battery Company, based in Bedfordshire, has patented an innovative sandwich panel design incorporating standard cylindrical cells that can absorb mechanical load whilst storing electrical energy. Working with a niche vehicle manufacturer, the team integrated structural batteries into a carbon fibre monocoque chassis to create a supercar that is 200kg lighter, with batteries that contributed 50 per cent to the overall torsional stiffness of the car. Having proven the concept with the supercar car, there are other exciting applications ahead.

TECH PANEL

Richard Yorke, Director of Cyber Cheltenham (CyNam)

Lexverify is a Birmingham-based start-up, and a National Cyber Security Centre for Start-ups alumni. It has developed an AI-powered risk management and compliance product. Full disclosure I'm one of the Angels that have invested in them.

Tulpa.ai is developing a platform that brings together human and machine intelligence to tackle complex, critical tasks. Effectively artificial intelligence, but with humans put very much at the centre.

Red Maple Technologies, based in Cheltenham, is a cyber security company with heritage in the national security and intelligence sector. Primarily based in the services and consultancy industries, the company has launched a number of new projects over the last 18 months which are starting to gain traction.

North Green Security, also based in Cheltenham, is a highly-regarded cyber

security and resilience start-up providing cyber security as a service and managed security services to clients. The team are passionate about solving the skills gaps and focus a lot of their efforts on training and upskilling. They are developing an ‘Academy’ platform and do awesome work in schools to inspire the next generation.

Daniel Bond (Partner) and Tom Parry (Senior Manager) of business advisors and accountants Hazlewoods

Bristol-based Wanderlands is an environmental consultancy that offers pioneering sustainability solutions for UK clients.

Putting transparency and traceability (two of the key challenges currently faced in the carbon offsetting space) at the forefront, they have recently launched a Habitat Bank - a blockchain-secure platform that maximises the quality and integrity of connecting users to local natural capital projects.

Users can invest in verified carbon offsets and biodiversity units that comply with government standards. The platform is also in a strong future-proofed position for new nature market opportunities.

Qontrol is a rising player in the young field of quantum photonics infrastructure.

It underpins photonic quantum computing, neuromorphic photonics and other advanced integrated optics technology through its bespoke electronics control platform.

The Bristol company’s deep integration within the quantum photonics market has allowed it to stay uniquely ahead of the curve, and it is now the trusted partner to a global customer base of 100 major technology organisations.

Green Financial Services further solidifying its industry leadership.

Conectar’s focus on leveraging AI technology for analysis has proved a success in providing qualified leads to diverse industries in a competitive landscape.

Bath-based T-Cup, a leader in organisational wellbeing, uses machine learning to better understand of team dynamics and individual growth.

Conectar, an emerging B2B lead generation company, uses AI technology for datadriven strategies, offering precise targeting from vast datasets and better return on investment..

Its Team Connection pillar fosters empathy and support, reducing employee attrition and increasing team satisfaction. Its Unlocking Potential pillar uses machine learning to increase self-awareness and proactive wellbeing measures among users.

It has made strides in niche markets like insurance broking and green energy solutions, with a recent partnership with

T-Cup’s strategies have impacted on over 500,000 lives, underscoring its relevance in today’s workforce.

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Medical cannabis

MEDICAL CANNABIS GROUP SECURES MAJOR EURO CONTRACT Celadon Pharmaceuticals, the first UK cannabis-based medicine group to win the right to sell cannabis to the pharmaceutical industry, has secured a contract with a European medicinal cannabis company.

The contract, Celadon's third, could generate revenue to the West Midlandsbased company of up to £26 million

over the three-year term, with the first delivery anticipated in the second half of 2024. There is an option to extend the contract by a further two years.

At full value, the contract is more than 10 times the size of Celadon's two previous contracts.

Interest in medicinal cannabis across

Europe continues to be strong and the number of suppliers that meet quality standards is limited. Germany remains the highest-growth segment of the market, with limited domestic supply and high-quality requirements.

Medical cannabis is a broad term for any cannabis-based medicine used to relieve symptoms.

Bristol software firm named UK’s 40th fastest-growing technology company Bristol-based Deazy, which describes itself as a marketplace of development talent, has grown a phenomenal 750 per cent during the last four years and been ranked number 40 in the 2023 Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK.

companies where and when they’re needed is bound to be experiencing fast growth.

It is the second consecutive year it has been placed in the listing.

Rankings in the Deloitte Fast 50 are decided on percentage revenue growth over the last four years.

Deazy’s founder and CEO, Andy Peddar, said: “The more that technology dominates the enterprise, the more that those enterprises need fast access to the latest tech talent and skills to keep projects on track and get new initiatives off the ground.

There is a global shortage of developers, and with practically every industry needing unique software to grow, and experienced people to develop it, a company providing development talent to

“A lack of tech talent has been an issue for years, but it feels like we could now be approaching crisis point,” he added.

“A combination of Brexit, GenAI, the lightning pace of technology progression, a lack

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Deazy connects companies with development teams to provide broad technical expertise and greater capacity and flexibility when needed.

of industry diversity and long-term issues around the education system’s ability to create strong candidates have created a perfect storm.

"Organisations need to address this in the longer term and plug gaps in the short-term to ensure projects don’t suffer.”

And in a sector dominated by men, it’s interesting to discover from the Deazy website that coding was, in fact, invented by a woman.

Ada Lovelace, daughter of the infamous “mad, bad and dangerous to know” romantic poet Lord Byron, grew up to be a mathematician and is credited with writing the first paper on "computer programming", published in 1843 (yes really).

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Winners at the Tech South West Awards showcase innovation A record-breaking 400 tech leaders attended the fifth Tech South West awards before Christmas, which showcased innovation from across the region including AI tools to tackle online hate speech, satellite navigation systems and space observation technology.

Dan Pritchard, co-founder and CEO of Tech South West, said: "The South West is a bustling hub of innovation across a range of tech specialisms, and it’s great to celebrate the people and teams behind the meteoric rise of the sector.”

Bristol-based Kelpi carried home five category awards – the first organisation ever to do so.

The company has developed technology to replace single-use plastic packaging with bioplastics derived from seaweed.

Kelpi, established in 2020, won Best Start-up, the Innovation Award (with QLM Technology being Highly Commended), and the Sustainability category (Highly Commended: Oort Energy), alongside the Tech Company of the Year Award for companies with revenues up to £5 million.

The Tech South West Award, which celebrates one individual or organisation from all the category winners, also went to Kelpi.

Neil Morris, Kelpi’s CEO: “This has been a fantastic opportunity to network and talk to other brilliant companies that are flourishing in the South West.

Award (which this year received the most entries of any category) for its development of a patented system to detect and quantify emission rates of greenhouse gases. Kelpi was Highly Commended.

Software firm Ghyston won the Workplace Culture Award, with Storm Consultancy receiving a commendation.

Bristol tech hub Future Space won the Supporting the Sector Award.

The Tech South West Awards

“What we’ve done in the South West is create this ecosystem, this ability to bring different disciplines into one place, and really start to transform the world through entrepreneurship, innovation and new businesses.”

The AgriTech Award, which shines a light on one of the region’s key sectors, went to Salisbury-based Small Robot Company for its autonomous farming robots, with Nanoland Global being Highly Commended.

Accountancy firm Bishop Fleming returned as headline partner of this year’s awards, having supported the event since its inception in 2019.

Pippa Clarke, head of technology, innovation, and growth at Bishop Fleming, said: "There is so much innovation happening across the region and it's fantastic to bring the community together to celebrate."

QLM Technology won the Tech for Good

Ben Cooper, funding and support lead at Tech South West, said: “The quality of entries and winners this year speak for themselves.

"As we seek to grow the angel investor community in the region and provide enhanced support for growing organisations via our newly-launched Growth Forge, it’s the energy and dynamism of the sector – and the people who make it – that show why tech in the South West deserves more attention, funding and celebration.”

The Tech Company of the Year for companies with revenues more than £5 million went to Bristol-based logistics company Huboo.

Fran Solo was Highly Commended in the Women in Tech Award, alongside Lynsey Bridgewater of AND Digital.

Tech South West is a membership organisation that supports the South West tech sector to grow, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange across the ecosystem.

Bristol’s Isambard-AI will be UK’s fastest supercomputer following £225m investment The University of Bristol has secured £225 million of government investment to create the Isambard AI, which will become the UK’s most powerful supercomputer.

allow researchers and industry to make Artificial Intelligence-driven breakthroughs in fields such as robotics, big data, climate research and drug discovery.

at the University of Bristol, said: “Isambard-AI represents a huge leap forward for AI computational power in the UK.

Isambard-AI will be 10 times more powerful than the current fastest supercomputer in the UK, reaching up to 200 quadrillion calculations per second (a quadrillion is one thousand trillion). This capability will

Hewlett Packard Enterprise will build and deliver the new system.

“Today Isambard-AI would rank within the top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world and, when in operation later in 2024, it will be one of the most powerful AI systems for open science anywhere.”

Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, Director of the Isambard National Research Facility

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MANUFACTURING

Electric vehicle batteries make up around half the cost of a new electric vehicle, so reducing the cost of their production is crucial to lowering the cost of EVs to parity with combustion engine vehicles.

The National Automotive Innovation Centre, in the Professor Lord Bhattacharyya Building at the University of Warwick

MILLIONS OF POUNDS AWARDED TO UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK TO TURBOCHARGE UK’S EV BATTERY PRODUCTION The University of Warwick has been awarded millions of pounds to boost British production of crucial materials for electric car batteries.

The £12 million funding has been awarded by the Faraday Battery Challenge to the High Value Manufacturing Catapult at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and CPI at NETPark (North East Technology Park), in County Durham.

It will be used to create the new Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre (AMBIC).

The award comes after the government unveiled its advanced manufacturing plan, including a first battery strategy, aimed at

making the country a world-leader in zero emissions technology.

In the latest plan, more than £2 billion has been earmarked for the automotive industry, including batteries, while £975 million will go to the aerospace sector.

The government says the battery sector, in which it is looking to invest £50 million, could create 100,000 jobs by 2040, with thousands of further jobs available in the wider sector. the aim is to establish a globally competitive battery supply chain by 2030.

The centre at Warwick will focus on how batteries can be made to work more efficiently, as well as on equipment and skills development.

The funds are part of a wider investment strategy by the Faraday Battery Challenge and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult to ramp up Britain’s battery production and infrastructure to boost the UK’s domestic battery supply chain.

Professor David Greenwood, CEO of the WMG High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre said: “Cathode and anode active materials make up more than 50 per cent of the value of an automotive battery cell.

“For the UK to take its great academic research into production, and to capture the billions of pounds of resulting economic value in the UK, we need facilities which allow Britain to scale up and fully evaluate new materials.

"This investment, alongside the combined skillsets of CPI and WMG will provide that capability for the UK.” Katherine Bennett, CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, said: “The next generation of battery technologies are critical to the green energy transition and a major opportunity for UK manufacturing.

“Realising that potential will require combining our collective expertise and this investment from the Faraday Battery Challenge is a brilliant example of that in action.”

West Midlands Gigafactory in advanced talks with leading Asian battery manufacturers

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The West Midlands Gigafactory joint venture (a public private joint venture between Coventry Airport Ltd and Coventry City Council) is in advanced discussions with several Asian battery manufacturers about future investment at the Coventry site.

available UK site with planning permission granted for a large-scale battery production facility with capacity for up to 60GWh per annum – enough to power 600,000 electric vehicles, and it’s located at the heart of the UK’s manufacturing industry.

The West Midlands Gigafactory’s Coventry location is the only

Councillor Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and

THEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

Climate Change at Coventry City Council said: “We are now in advanced discussions with leading Asian battery manufacturers who want to develop a presence in the UK. We hope, with the support of the government, that we will secure an investor and further strengthen our region’s leadership credentials in the shift towards electrification.”

MANUFACTURING

Italian aerospace firm Civitanavi establishes first UK office in Bristol Aircraft systems manufacturer Civitanavi has chosen to open its first UK office at Filton 20, the 30acre mixed-use business park in north Bristol.

Civitanavi Systems was founded as a start-up in Italy in 2012 and has since expanded to three other locations in the country, serving customers in the aerospace, defence and industrial sectors.

As part of its long-term growth strategy and commitment to its civil and defence clients, it has now opened its first UK facility in the heart of Bristol’s aerospace and defence sector in Filton.

The 4,851 sq ft ground floor office suite in Brandon House includes a laboratory and manufacturing facilities.

Among Civitanavi’s projects with UK customers has been its supply of inertial systems for BAE’s combat air demonstrator Tempest.

Alan Kaile, managing director of Civitanavi Systems UK Ltd, said: “Through Civitanavi Systems UK we will respond to the needs of our domestic UK and international customers, and serve a dynamic market in our company’s core industrial sectors, particularly in the creation of systems in the field of high-level assured position, navigation and timing systems.”

AIS Receives King’s Award for Enterprise from Lord Lieutenant AIS (formerly Advanced Insulation Systems) was presented with the King’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade by Edward Gillespie OBE, the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire.

The King’s Awards for Enterprise carries on Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy of recognising outstanding UK businesses.

The Awards programme is now in its 57th year and maintains its reputation as the most prestigious business award in the country.

The award won by AIS recognised

Edward Gillespie OBE, the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire with Andrew Bennion Managing Director at AIS (holding the award), and the AIS team

the company’s outstanding short-term growth in key markets including China, Brazil, the United States, Malaysia and Ghana.

By diversifying its portfolio, the Quedgeley-based manufacturer successfully strengthened its position in these regions and notably, much of this success was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Made Smarter national roll-out to boost digital transformation for SME manufacturers Made Smarter, a programme helping SME manufacturers access technology and digital skills, is to be rolled out nationally after being launched in the North West in 2019.

Made Smarter has worked with 2,500 manufacturers and funded 334 technology projects, which are forecast to create 1,550 jobs, upskill 2,772 existing roles, and increase North West GVA by £242 million.

The government has now committed to expanding the Made Smarter Adoption Programme to all nine English regions in 2025-26.

The successful blueprint has since inspired Made Smarter adoption programmes in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands, East Midlands and West of England.

The announcement means hundreds of thousands more SME manufacturers will get access to technology advice, leadership and skills training, as well as grant funding for digital internships and technology projects.

The commitment, alongside plans for £4.5 billion in funding for British manufacturing, will also help boost productivity, growth, and decarbonisation for SME manufacturers across the country.

Juergen Maier, a former Chief Executive of Siemens UK and author of the Made Smarter Review added: “I am delighted that the Made Smarter programme, kicked off by the manufacturing review I had the privilege to lead in 2017, is now being expanded England-wide and with promised continuity to 2030. It is exactly this sort of policy continuity that our manufacturing sector is looking for and I know it will stimulate investment and productivity.”

eXmoor Pharma opens new manufacturing facility in Bristol eXmoor Pharma has opened its new cell and gene therapy centre facility in Bristol. The 65,000 sq ft facility will support the production of multiple therapies for clinical trials.

Funding for the new centre came from a £35 million financing round announced last May, from new investor Kineticos Ventures and existing investor MVM Partners.

The new Cell and Gene Therapy Centre, features a mixture of manufacturing cleanrooms, process and analytical development, quality control laboratories, and associated support spaces.

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CYBER & IT

GLOUCESTERSHIRE'S £1BN GOLDEN VALLEY CYBER PROJECT MOVES CLOSER The £1 billion Golden Valley cyber project in Cheltenham has moved a step closer after plans for an innovation district were submitted to the council.

The ambitious plans are designed to attract science and technology businesses to the town, building on the existing specialist cluster in cyber, AI, deep tech and future computing and quantum sectors in the region.

Gloucestershire is reportedly already home to the largest number of cyber businesses in the UK outside London.

The site spans 47 hectares and includes more than one million sq ft of commercial space.

New homes will also be an important element, with the scheme set to provide more than 1,000 low-carbon properties to rent and buy.

CGI of the Golden Valley plans

Separate detailed proposals for a new National Cyber Innovation Centre will be submitted this year following the £95 million funding agreement for the landmark building struck late last year.

GCHQ's Paul Killworth, deputy chief scientific adviser for national security, reportedly said: "The opportunity offered

by Golden Valley will lead to a sea-change in national security relations between government, academia and industry.

The development will also be a key

part of the transformation of the intelligence community's science and technology effort. GCHQ already plays a prominent role in these sectors both locally and nationally, and it looks forward to participating in this exciting development.”

Developer HBD (Henry Boot Developments) will deliver the Golden Valley project, alongside Cheltenham Borough Council and local partners, after buying out its joint venture partner, Factory X last December.

Record number of schoolgirls and cyber specialists gather amid UK digital skills crisis A record number of Gloucestershire Year 8 schoolgirls, government cyber specialists and business leaders gathered in what was billed as the largest ever cybersecurity workshop in the UK. Now in its third year, and hosted by Cheltenham’s non-profit cybersecurity cluster, CyNam, the #EmPowerCyber2023 event held just before Christmas was the biggest yet aimed at inspiring females to pursue a career in cyber.

A thousand Year 8 schoolgirls from 29 schools from across the South West region attended the event near GCHQ, as the government declares a digital skills crisis in the UK. Described by The Public Accounts Committee as a shortage that “should send a shiver down the government’s spine”, the committee revealed last year how

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Students enjoying the #EmPowerCyber event

government had less than half the tech professionals needed.

The number of women in cybersecurity has declined from 22 per cent to 17 per cent for the first time in three years according to this year’s cybersecurity skills gap study from the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology. Just 14 per cent of women are in senior cybersecurity roles with only 12 per cent of female graduates at undergraduate level, and 23 per cent at postgraduate level.

Charlotte Smith, Cyber Skills Growth Lead at CyNam, and regional engagement lead for delivering the CyberFirst schools’ programme said: “Empower is a unique opportunity for the region’s students and teachers to engage with the cyber industry away from the classroom in a truly immersive experience. It leaves a lasting impression that shapes further teaching and enables unique long-lasting relationships to be built.”

Jacqui Lees, the Net Zero and Social Value Director at AtkinsRéalis, which supported the event, said: “Events such as #EmPowerCyber are an important way to drive career interest in cybersecurity, helping to grow female representation in this vital industry. AtkinsRéalis’ cyber security consultants, along with others, engaged the students in activities to give them a good understanding of the many aspects of cybersecurity.”

APPRENTICESHIPS

Engineering apprentices

NOT TAKING ON APPRENTICES? YOU’RE MISSING A BIG OPPORTUNITY When the biggest professional companies such as KPMG, Deloitte and Google embrace apprenticeships – you know they’ve become mainstream

By Nicky Godding, Editor National Apprenticeship Week runs from February 5-11. Every year the week highlights the work that colleges, universities, training providers and employers are doing – and celebrates apprentice successes.

And when some of the biggest professional companies such as KPMG, Deloitte and Google embrace apprenticeships alongside employers in the more traditional sectors such as construction, engineering, manufacturing, care work, beauty and hairdressing – you know they have become mainstream.

The benefits to young (and often older) people are obvious – they offer applied learning on the job, allowing apprentices to earn a wage and avoid student debt.

While the top 10 apprenticeship subjects include traditional job roles such as business administration and early years education, accountancy, engineering, manufacturing and hairdressing – digital and IT apprenticeships are becoming increasingly popular as the demand for technology-related expertise grows (apprentice starts at technology companies

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were up almost 16 per cent last year).

There are more than 600 different apprenticeships available in the UK with attainment levels ranging from Level 2 – intermediate through to Level 3 (advanced), Level 4 or 5 (higher) right up to Level 6 or 7 which are equivalent to a degree.

More SMEs plan to hire an apprentice this year And it’s not just the bigger companies which see apprenticeship training as one answer to the skills shortage.

A report published last year by apprenticeship training company Multiverse revealed that 34 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses plan to hire an apprentice in the year ahead.

Multiverse provides apprenticeship programmes to employers across the UK and since launching in 2016 it has trained more than 10,000 apprentices.

Its research shows that two-thirds of people see apprenticeships as a positive

way to hire talent from a diversity of backgrounds. By helping employers expand their hiring criteria beyond traditional degree requirements and find candidates from under-represented backgrounds, apprenticeships play an important role in widening access to careers and improving diversity in the workplace.

But it’s becoming harder to recruit apprentices. Last year, a survey by independent pay and employment research company IDR, revealed that employers were having more difficulty recruiting apprentices than graduates.

One of the reasons cited in the research was that employers are quick to offer incentives in their reward packages to graduates, but just one organisation surveyed said that it offers recruitment incentives to apprentices (in the form of a £3,000 signing bonus).

Perhaps one reason for that is a high apprentice drop-out rate, which is reported to be almost half of those who start an apprenticeship.

APPRENTICESHIPS

UCAS launches new apprenticeships service as demand hits all-time high “Skills and labour shortages continue to be a real problem across the UK and all sectors of the economy.

We need to get apprenticeships and vocational education right if we’re to tackle these challenges”

Hundreds of thousands of students interested in becoming an apprentice can explore all their options in one place through Cheltenham-based universities admissions service UCAS’s new apprenticeships service, which launched late last year.

Students can search for an apprenticeship at any time throughout the year, as and when employers are hiring, with vacancies updated in real time.

To mark the launch, UCAS released new survey findings which reveal

and community. A support network and mentoring throughout their apprenticeship is also important.

Calls to reform the apprenticeship levy getting louder

unprecedented demand for apprenticeship opportunities, with nearly 60 per cent of young people in Years 9-12 considering an apprenticeship.

Earning a wage is the main advantage for 42 per cent, while learning new skills is the biggest benefit for 34 per cent.

Yet survey respondents said they wanted more information about how much they will earn, how to choose an apprenticeship and how the application process works.

South West and West Midlands companies named in Department of Education’s Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers for 2023 BAE Systems, Bristol

Speaking at the annual Association of Colleges annual conference last November, Amanda Spielman, the Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills, said: “It does look as though fewer than five per cent of 16–18-yearolds are going into apprenticeships, even though we know there is a lot of unsatisfied demand out there.

The government is keen to promote apprenticeships, but the apprenticeship levy, introduced in 2017, has been widely criticised for being complicated.

It is seen by many employers as being inflexible and the administration complicated.

Clarkson Evans, Cheltenham

“And of those who do start, an increasing proportion aren’t finishing. This is partly down to economic factors. But poor provision and a lack of information and guidance are playing a part too. Improving provision needs to be a priority.”

The Chartered Institute for Professional Development (CIPD), highlighted that the levy had failed to reverse the decline in employer training more widely, which was one of the policy objectives for introducing it in the first place.

Babcock International, defence company, across the South West and West Midlands

So how can employers improve their retention rate? Lifetime is a leading UK apprenticeship training provider in hospitality, but its findings are relevant across every sector. It says a clear recruitment process, structured progression and nurturing confidence are key. An efficient screening process is also needed to make sure candidates are not just eligible but suitable for the role too. Creating cohorts of apprentices is a good way to create a sense of shared experience

It has called for the government to reform the levy into a Flexible Skills Levy, to boost employer investment in training and skills development, and to improve business support services for SMEs. Lizzie Crowley, Senior Policy Adviser at the CIPD, said: “Skills and labour shortages continue to be a real problem across the UK and all sectors of the economy.

We need to get apprenticeships and vocational education right if we’re to tackle these challenges.”

Mitchells & Butlers, West Midlands

PKF Francis Clark accountants, the South and South West Jaguar Land Rover, Coventry Bishop Fleming accountants

Avon and Somerset Police CrossCountry Trains, West Midlands

South West and West Midlands companies named in Department of Education’s Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employers FD Works, Bristol South Cerney Outdoor, Cirencester Lander Tubular Products, West Midlands

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Worcestershire Annual Apprenticeship Award winners

THE BEST APPRENTICESHIPS IN WORCESTERSHIRE RECOGNISED AT ANNUAL AWARDS EVENING More than 300 people from across the county celebrated at the West Midland Safari Park at the 2023 Worcestershire Apprenticeships Awards.

Eleven winners were crowned, with the highly coveted Worcestershire Apprentice of the year named as Cameron Gallamore from aerospace component manufacturing Doncasters and Worcestershire Apprenticeship Employer of the Year announced as Open GI. This is the ninth year that the event has been organised by Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership and Worcestershire County Council and the team are planning further events and campaigns to highlight the impact and value of apprenticeships and the difference the Worcestershire Apprenticeships programme has made in the county.

This year’s winners included Stourport High School, which won the School of the Year. Training Provider of the Year was Pershore College and Apprenticeship Ambassador of the Year was Michelle

Wood from housing and care provider Sanctuary.

Intermediate Apprentice of the Year went to Katie Davies from Sanctuary.

Higher Level Apprentice of the Year went to Ciara Murphy from Kidderminster-based facilities management company Phosters (FM) Ltd, with Degree Level Apprentice of the Year won by Georgia Little from Citizen Communications, also based in Kidderminster.

Outdoor and camping company Olpro won SME Apprenticeship Employer of the Year, with Worcester-based insurance software company Open GI winning Worcestershire Apprenticeship Employer of the year.

Gary Woodman, Chief Executive of the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “I continue to be impressed by everyone involved in making apprenticeships a success in the county. I look forward to building upon this success as we celebrate 10 years of Worcestershire apprenticeships this year.”

£50m to boost apprentice numbers in key growth sectors In his autumn statement, the Chancellor announced funding of £50 million over the next two years to pilot ways to increase the number of apprentices in engineering and other key growth sectors.

Make UK, the membership organisation for UK manufacturers, said this will

provide the right support for the many manufacturers who have long called for better support from the government to invest in training. It said: “We look forward to working with the government on how this pilot can work in practice and we can increase the number of apprenticeship starts in our sector.”

Renishaw apprentice Ruqayyah Girach

Renishaw career support is wide ranging says apprentice A 19-year-old engineering apprentice at Gloucestershirebased global engineering company Renishaw has won the “Best Dual Skill Apprentice” at Gloucestershire Engineering and Training.

Ruqayyah Girach is now working towards her level three engineering technician apprenticeship.

She said: “I get so much support from Renishaw, which gives me opportunities to further my career through different routes.

I’m currently working towards my Technical Certificate in advanced manufacturing and engineering and an NVQ in advanced manufacturing and engineering.”

Renishaw has been offering apprenticeships for 40 years.

Last year it opened a science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) outreach facility at its New Mills headquarters.

The company has now opened applications for 64 apprenticeship roles across its Gloucestershire and South Wales sites.

Simon Biggs, Early Careers Manager at Renishaw, said: “Many of our previous apprentices are now in senior roles, including Gareth Hankins, Director of Group Manufacturing and Executive Board member.”

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TAYLOR WIMPEY STRENGTHENS COLLABORATION WITH COLLEGE IN WARWICKSHIRE AFTER APPRENTICESHIPS SUCCESS “The facility at the college made you feel like you were working on site ...”

Taylor Wimpey apprentices with Petra Gordon (far left) and Darren Varney (far right) from WCG

A national developer has strengthened its collaboration with a Warwickshire college after the success of an apprenticeship training scheme.

Taylor Wimpey has been working with Moreton Morrell College, which is part of college group WCG, to develop its apprentice bricklayers.

The training scheme saw all eight apprentices qualify within 18 months rather than the usual two-year programme with many gaining Distinction. Now a further 13 have been enrolled on to the Level 2 Bricklaying qualification.

As part of the collaboration, Taylor Wimpey

created a training facility at Moreton Morrell College to enable bricklayers to practise their building skills.

The success of the programme has led to an expansion of the existing facility to support the training of further apprentices, with plans to create a full-scale house on the college site to support the apprenticeship programme.

Michelle Reid, Divisional Apprenticeship Manager at Taylor Wimpey, said: “The training plan Taylor Wimpey has put in place for the bricklayer apprentices has worked well and the apprentices enjoyed the experience and have all gone on to be qualified.”

Robert Sone, 22, from Bidford-on-Avon, was among the first apprentices to complete the course at the college. He achieved a Distinction in his end point assessment and is in the process of a transitional year with Taylor Wimpey before starting work as a direct bricklayer.

He said: “The course was good and everyone was really helpful and motivational. The facility at the college made you feel like you were working on site. It allowed you to get used to the surroundings and be well prepared for getting out on site.

John Billings, Head of Work-Based Learning for Construction at the college, said: “We were incredibly impressed with the first cohort of apprentices we trained from Taylor Wimpey and the future of the bricklaying profession is in safe hands.”

New engineering apprenticeship training facility opens in Gloucestershire A new training facility has opened, bringing engineering apprentice training back to the Forest of Dean.

The apprenticeship scheme in Cinderford is being run as a satellite of Gloucestershire Engineering Training’s main site at Barnwood, Gloucester and will enable young people to complete their first year of full-time training in Cinderford, with subsequent years of one day a week training at Barnwood.

Students will learn machining, welding and electrical skills from the training charity, which is managed by industry professionals.

Warren Thomas, Gloucestershire

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Engineering Training CEO, said: “There has been no engineering training support in the Forest of Dean for some considerable time and we needed to resolve this. The Cinderford centre will support young people keen to follow engineering as a career path, without them having to travel to Gloucester in their first year.”

Gloucestershire Engineering Training’s Chairman, Tristram Southgate, said “Engineering is facing a demographic timebomb as many of our skilled engineers approach retirement and we need to increase the number of people joining our profession. We see the Cinderford site as a really important step in doing this – bringing

back traditional skills training provision to an area with a good base of engineering businesses.”

The centre has been set up with the assistance of Accxel, which has its own construction skills training on the same site. Forest construction company KW Bell renovated the building in less than four months.

Gloucestershire Engineering and Training is supported by some of the county’s biggest engineering companies including Renishaw, Ontic Engineering, Trelleborg, Safran Landing Systems, SPP Pumps, Suntory, LB Bentley and Grail Engineering.

APPRENTICESHIPS

CARPENTRY APPRENTICE WINS NATIONAL APPRENTICE OF THE YEAR AWARD

Hazlewoods apprentices

Hazlewoods recruits record number of apprentices Fifty school leavers and graduates started AAT, ACA and ACA/CTA apprenticeships last September at accountants Hazlewoods.

They joined 138 apprentices already at the Gloucestershire headquartered firm.

Amy Brown, of Tombs Developments, won National Apprentice of the Year Award

A carpentry apprentice employed by Cheltenham building company Tombs Developments has won the National Intermediate Apprentice of the Year Award.

Amy decided to get qualified in a trade often perceived as male-dominated and is now in the second year of her apprenticeship which she is undertaking through Gloucestershire College, Tombs Development director, Dominic Cook, said: “We are hugely proud of Amy and all that she has achieved since joining us.

“When we employed Amy she had no experience in construction, but this didn’t hold her back. Her dedication and desire to learn and produce excellent quality work have ensured that she has progressed very rapidly.

“She is now a valuable member of our small team. Being able to trust Amy to work independently and to a good standard is a huge bonus to us as employers. She embodies the concept that hard work and

dedication really do pay off.”

Sam Olaleye, Training Co-ordinator at Gloucestershire College, added: “From the beginning, it was clear that Amy was a dedicated craftsman in the making. Her commitment to honing her skills has been remarkable.

"Carpentry is a trade that demands precision, patience and creativity, and Amy has consistently exemplified these qualities at the highest level. I look forward to witnessing her future achievements.”

Amy said: “My favourite thing about the apprenticeship is getting stuck in and being hands-on. I am not one to sit at a desk, so the fact that I can learn and apply my skills on the job and get stuff done has worked really well for me. After I complete my apprenticeship, I plan to stay on and gain more experience as a qualified carpenter.”

Gloucestershire College works with more than 1,000 employers delivering apprenticeships and other training.

Investing in training and development and accelerating careers has long been a focus at Hazlewoods, which has established links with schools across the county. But in September, it welcomed new recruits from as far afield as Pembrokeshire, Lancashire and Essex.

For those starting out in their careers, Hazlewoods’ salaries start at £20,000 for school-leavers joining the Level 4 AAT Apprenticeship, and £25,000 for graduate entry-level.

HR Director, Sue Golding, said: “We feel that both Gloucestershire and Hazlewoods have much to offer to potential new recruits from the local area and increasingly those from further afield who may be looking to relocate.”

Marketing Director, Alison Townsend, added: “By increasing the number of apprenticeships available we want to support the local economy and help ensure Gloucestershire is seen as an attractive and appealing place to work and live. We are committed to creating more opportunities to encourage local school-leavers and graduates to remain in the county – while flying the Gloucestershire flag to attract new recruits to move into the area.”

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APPRENTICESHIPS

DEGREE APPRENTICESHIPS ON THE RISE, BUT IS THEIR FUNDING UNDER THREAT? More young people are looking at degree apprenticeships, according to the latest government figures. There were 41,340 Level 6 (Batchelors) and 7 (Masters) degree apprenticeship starts in 202223, a nine per cent increase on the previous year which account for nearly a sixth of all apprenticeship starts.

Gloucester Rugby and Superdry.

The Cheltenham-based Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) has published The Complete Guide to Higher and Degree Apprenticeships (2020/21), a collaboration between the National Apprenticeship Service and Which? University, revealing that around 87 universities now offer higher and degree apprenticeships.

“We started with the Nursing Associate programme in 2016, however the most popular ones with all businesses – and also public sector organisations – are in management and leadership – the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship, or CMDA for short, and also the Senior Leader Apprenticeship, where people can gain a masters level qualification, and where they can also work towards an MBA. We have been running both these programmes since 2018.

High profile employers offering degree apprenticeships include Bristol-based Airbus and BAE Systems, with others in the construction, defence, financial services and automotive fields.

The University of Gloucestershire has almost 1,000 apprentices on 17 apprenticeship standards, including in nursing and social care, cyber security and business where it has partnered with a range of organisations including the NHS,

Professional Apprenticeships is “outstanding” says Ofsted Bristol-based Professional Apprenticeships has received an Outstanding rating from Ofsted in all areas.

Professional Apprenticeships co-founder Carina Bush, said: “We’ve worked so hard to deliver the best recruitment,

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Dr Polly Pick, Director of Business Engagement and Partnership at the university said: “We have good relationships with our NHS partner trusts and so have substantial numbers around health and social care.

“These management and leadership qualifications benefit organisations of all sizes, allowing them to develop the talent in their business and ensure they have well trained future leaders. High quality leadership development is essential if organisations are to improve their productivity, innovate and grow.”

training and support to our apprentices and employers, and the whole team is immensely proud of this achievement.”

Ofsted said: “Apprentices thoroughly enjoy their training because leaders take great care to match them with an employer that will develop their character and interests. Apprentices quickly develop deep and complex new knowledge and practical skills.

As a result, apprentices become highly valued and useful members of staff, quickly carrying out meaningful tasks independently.”

Other universities across the region also offer higher level apprenticeships in a range of subjects, including the Universities of Coventry, Worcester and Warwick.

Degree apprenticeships are, like other apprenticeships, covered by the apprenticeship levy, but there have been reports that the chancellor has drawn up plans to recruit the use of levy funding for degree-level apprenticeships because of affordability concerns.

Speaking after the Autumn Statement in November, Anthony Painter, Policy Director at the Chartered Management Institute, said: “The UK skills gaps, including the significant shortage of skilled managers in our economy, will not be addressed without a longer-term approach to upskilling our workforce at every age and stage of people’s working lives. Quality, standardsbased training such as management apprenticeships have been shown to deliver significant productivity gains and are playing their part in delivering high-performing businesses that grow our economy and world-class public services.”

“ ...the whole team is immensely proud of this achievement”

Professional Apprenticeships receive outstanding rating

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

BRISTOL AIRPORT TO INVEST MORE THAN £60 MILLION IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT HUB PROJECT

Bristol Airport has begun work on its largest capital project ever and is investing more than £60 million in building a public transport interchange hub and 2,000 space multistorey car park.

The company says the project will enhance services and accessibility for Bristol Airport passengers.

Dave Lees, CEO of Bristol Airport, said: “This project is transformational for our customers.

It is the largest single capital investment project since the terminal opened in 2000 and will take 18 months to complete.”

The project forms part of Bristol Airport’s overall multi-million-pound development plan enabling 12 million passengers a year to use the airport – creating thousands of new jobs and encouraging inward investment.

The new multi-storey car park will adjoin the existing one.

CGI of the planned car park development

First all-electric Premier Inn powered entirely by renewables opens in Swindon The first all-electric Premier Inn powered entirely by renewables has opened in Swindon.

Premier Inn owner Whitbread says the hotel will be the first of a new generation of new-build hotels that will operate with 100 per cent renewable energy.

The hotel has already been shortlisted for Built Environment Project of the Year in Edie’s Net Zero Awards. And lessons learnt from the design and build will be used in the construction of future Premier Inns, the company said.

Richard Aldread, Whitbread’s head of construction in the UK and Ireland, said: “By welcoming guests to our first all-

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electric budget hotel in the UK, we are opening the doors on the future.

“We have ambitious plans to expand the number of Premier Inn bedrooms towards our long-term potential of 125,000 rooms in the UK and Ireland, up from 83,500 currently, and this should not happen at the expense of net zero commitments.

“Premier Inn Swindon Town Centre is our first all-electric hotel without connection to a mains gas supply and is the culmination of years of hard work and commitment to designing and operating lower-carbon hotels – which has helped us reduce direct operational emissions by more than 50 per cent since 2016. It represents a significant milestone as we endeavour to bring our

The leader of Swindon Borough Council, Jim Robbins, cuts the ribbon to the new Premier Inn

operational emissions to zero by 2040.”

Jim Robbins, Leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “I’m proud to see Whitbread take the lead and invest directly in Swindon with a large new sustainable hotel on a site that was once an old council office building, especially as it aligns with our own Achieve Net Zero Mission.”

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

CGI of Cotswolds Designer Outlet

Construction company appointed to deliver new Cotswolds Designer Outlet Work is finally under way on construction of the Cotswolds Designer Outlet at Tewkesbury, after property developer Robert Hitchins appointed Bouygues UK to build the first phase.

Work started in November ahead of a planned Spring 2025 opening.

Cotswolds Designer Outlet is central to Robert Hitchins’ longterm vision for this 300-acre site and follows last year’s opening of a flagship Dobbies Garden centre.

Robert Hitchins has also completed a £20 million investment into crucial infrastructure arond the site, which has helped pave the way for new homes currently being delivered in the area.

The construction project is expected to create more than 300 jobs, while the outletcentre could create up to 500.

Robert Hitchins says it has had long-term aspirations to create a premium retail outlet in this location, which benefits from strong connectivity by road, with Tewkesbury Railway Station at Ashchurch just a five-minute walk from the site.

LOOKING FOR A NEW OWNER: AIRPORT GOES UP FOR SALE Cheltenham Borough and Gloucester City Councils are to put Gloucestershire Airport up for sale.

Airport Director, Jason Ivey, said: “The airport’s a real asset for the county and with the right investment it can play an even greater role in unlocking regional growth and supporting exciting projects like the Golden Valley development.”

The existing 300-acre Gloucestershire Airport site was formed in 1936 and originally named Staverton Airport. In 1993 Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough Councils formed Gloucestershire Airport Limited.

The airport is now one of the UK’s busiest general aviation airports, ranking in the Civil Aviation Authority’s top 15 airports for aircraft movements.

It has its own fire station and two business parks spanning a combined 700,000 sq ft, including the recently-completed CGX Connect business park. Aviation-related businesses, such as Babcock and Safran Group, call the airport home.

Councillor Rowena Hay, leader of Cheltenham Borough Council, said: “The future of the airport and the contribution both the airport and the businesses located there make to the regional economy is well recognised.

“The timing is now right for both councils to bring in a new owner to take it forward.”

Councillor Richard Cook, leader of Gloucester City Council, added: “Both councils are committed to preserving the airport as a centre for aviation for Gloucestershire, especially given its extensive heritage. It plays an important role within the region and we hope that a new owner will take it to the next level.”

The airport received a much-needed multi-million pound investment in 2021, funded by the Gloucestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough Councils.

These upgrades meant the north-south runway could be closed, freeing up more than 300,000 sq ft of surplus land for development.

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REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION Andover town centre has secured levelling up funding from Government Image: David Bainbridge

WHERE WILL THE COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SECTOR BE IN 10 YEARS’TIME? Commercial real estate is experiencing torrid times, but the UK needs a healthy sector to drive the economy. How can it shape up for the future?

By Nicky Godding, Editor Whatever sector your business is in, it will need real estate to operate – from offices to shops, distribution centres, industrial space and leisure. Work from home? You’ll need access to a data centre to store work in the cloud, and handle all your digital communications.

commercial real estate sector will boost the UK’s regions, something the government is keen to be seen to be doing. Every pound spent in the sector has the potential to generate an almost equal amount to UK GVA, through direct and linked spend and employment.

Real Estate Europe, a wedge continues to be driven between market price expectations and book valuations.

Fears over “catching a falling knife” are expressed by many of the 1,000 or so industry leaders canvassed for the report.

The commercial real estate sector contributes significantly to our economy, underpins job creation and regeneration across towns and cities, and has an important role in realising net zero ambitions. So says the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Offices have traditionally taken the largest share of the commercial property investment market, but the Covid pandemic caused the value of office real estate to tank, with investor interest pivoting towards the industrial and logistics sectors.

The ULI warns there are mixed expectations for debt and equity availability in the coming years when capital will be required for refinancing and upgrading real estate to meet the higher ESG requirements being demanded.

But with rising interest rates, a drop in consumer confidence affecting retail investments in particular, and growing commitments to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, commercial property is being challenged in a way it hasn’t been for a generation.

These are forecast to outperform retail and offices in terms of capital growth over the next five years, although rental growth is expected to turn positive for all property types this year – except for the beleaguered shopping centre market.

But macro-economic environments can change quickly, says Simon Rubinsohn, Chief Economist at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Unlocking the potential of the

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According to the Urban Land Institute (ULI) 2024 report Emerging Trends in

“For years, the sector benefitted from lower interest rates, and while that’s probably in the past, I think interest rates will drop from their higher level, though

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

which could represent a quarter of the workforce. And those workers range from bricklayers to quantity surveyors.

This is a big issue for those requiring labour to manage the pipeline envisaged by operators in the sector who are plainly aware of the challenge.

“That’s why we’ve seen wages rise in the construction sector in particular.”

And who will pay to upgrade old buildings to costly new ESG requirements? “The government is offering some money – but who’s going to pay for the rest?” questioned Simon.

So the gap between prime and secondary values is widening. And that’s going to worry UK policy makers, adds Simon.

not to where they were,” he said.

But there is optimism in some quarters. While investors consider how geopolitical issues are affecting UK investment decisions, they may be comforted that, for the moment, the underlying strength of occupier demand remains.

The challenges for real estate from environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies Despite economic and financial headwinds, ESG is the issue most likely to affect the UK’s real estate sector, say industry experts.

New regulations, demands from investors and changing occupancy requirements all play their part in how existing buildings are adapted and upgraded, and new ones built – alongside rising construction costs and a shortage of skilled workers.

Simon Rubinsohn said: “It’s a demographic issue. The construction sector has an ageing workforce – another half a million workers could exit the industry over the next decade or so,

If the value of a mortgaged property begins to fall because it can’t meet new environmental requirements, there’s a potential issue around financial stability.

The government is trying to help.

Some towns across the region have secured investment from its Levelling Up Fund, designed to contribute to local infrastructure, regeneration and make the environment more investment-ready for the private sector. Andover, Croydon, Gosport in Hampshire, Gravesham in Kent and the Isle of Wight have all been beneficiaries from its £1 billion funding.

Who will be the winners and losers?

What will our towns and cities look like in 2030?

It’s easy to dismiss city centres as being in serious demise. But last November HMV reopened on London’s Oxford Street – Madness opened the store (the 1970s band, in case you were wondering, not the act of reopening).

First opened by Sir Edward Elgar in 1921, the store closed in 2019, but reopened after securing more favourable rent and business rates.

Why has owner, Canadian music entrepreneur Doug Putman, taken the risk? “People need a reason to visit a store. For us, it’s a great selection, and if you can’t make it a fun shopping experience, no one will come.”

Other stores are opening in regional towns and cities. The Original Factory Shop, The Range (which bought the defunct Wilko brand), are picking their locations with care.

They’re not experiential, but they meet a need during a cost-of-living crisis.

More up-market brands are seeing opportunities on the high street, again too.

The more progressive real estate industry players understand the need to repurpose outmoded assets and are talking more about co-location – combining different uses in a single building or location.

Those who have invested in data centres, the life sciences and leisure sectors are likely to do well, alongside anything that’s commercially linked to residential. Public money won’t be available on the scale needed to build what’s required so what were previously referred to as “alternative real estate” categories, such as build-to-rent and student housing are a slow-burn but growing area nonetheless.

John Lewis is considering making office space a part of its retail offer, as is Marks and Spencer – both to make better use of their vast real estate portfolio.

And Simon thinks that as the sector recovers from what has been a dearth of transactional activity in general, those alternative sectors will come to the fore.

With the real estate sector, it all comes down to confidence – in valuations, geopolitics, initiatives to mitigate climate change and marketplace fundamentals.

According to the ULI, decisions will soon need to be made on when to call the bottom of the market, putting serious cash aside to work on a “brownto-green” repositioning strategy (i.e. decarbonising existing buildings).

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COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

COOL CO-WORKING S PA C E S

Want to get away from the rat-race but be more productive?

There’s a co-working space near you No long leases, your own business network right next to the coffee machine and water cooler, great productivity and often a really cool and attractive working environment. What’s not to like about shared co-working spaces?

According to global insurance company Gallagher, two-thirds of UK businesses are now adopting a hybrid-style working

routine for workers originally based in their company’s town or city centre offices.

And despite some initial doubts, threequarters of UK business leaders now say that employees work more efficiently in a hybrid model.

We went looking for some of the best coworking spaces across the region.

Blok, Bristol BLOK in Bristol, being developed by West Country real estate company Boultbee Brooks, is being refurbishment to offer a ‘New York loft landing’ in central Bristol.

The offices are on Castle Park, eight minutes’ walk from Temple Meads train station.

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Alongside co-working spaces, facilities include a gym, wellness space and showers, concierge service and coffee shop. There are also 181 bike spaces, EV and bike charging points, roof terrace and landscaped courtyard.

COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

The Workplace, Cheltenham Workplace offers cool workspaces in the heart of Cheltenham. Launched in 2016, the idea for the spaces grew from the owner’s knowledge that start-ups and small companies in Cheltenham had no flexible place to call home.

In large cities the likes of WeWork had arrived, whereas Cheltenham had similar demographics without any good quality provision.

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COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

Future Space at Frenchay is award-winning Part of UWE Bristol’s University Enterprise Zone, Future Space has welcomed new innovators and entrepreneurs through its doors over the last year and is gearing up to expand by an impressive 10,000 sq ft of lab and workshop space this year.

Tenants are attracted to Future Space due to its on-site support from the University of the West of England, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Launch Space Incubator, the Health Tech Hub and the Centre for Print Research.

The Wheelhouse, Elkstone near Cheltenham Elkstone Studios is a thriving new workspace hub, opened last year, consisting of immaculate farmyard conversions with a food hall, cafe, retail space, fitness, event space and EV charging – all overlooking countryside but literally a minute away from the main A419 between Swindon and Gloucester.

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COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

Oak House Workspace, Worcester Opened in April last year, this 2,200 sq ft workspace offers hot desks, meeting rooms and breakout spaces. The space is owned by sister company ISO Quality Services Ltd. It has even got a soundproofed podcasting room for online meetings, training or podcasting.

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COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

Clockwise, Cheltenham Amazing views over the Cotswolds and a roof terrace too. Plenty of break-out space, art from the Saatchi gallery and soundproofed booths for private meetings.

The Workshed A workspace with a difference. This is based in the former Brunel Railway Carriage Works in Swindon, right next to Swindon’s main train station.

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COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

Working in style in Bath The House of St John’s is a beautifully restored Grade One listed building in the centre of Bath. It now houses a variety of private offices, dedicated desks, meeting rooms and a stylish event space. High-end fittings, ultrafast broadband and a team of staff alongside a lounge and bar, make this the perfect place for hybrid working.

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COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

1 Mill Street, Leamington Spa This co-working space celebrated its third birthday just before Christmas. It’s got meeting rooms, a podcast studio, coffeehouse and bar.

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COOL CO-WORKING SPACES

Berkeley Square, Bristol has the best views Origin Workspace is a premium coworking, meeting and events space set on the historic Berkeley Square in the heart of Bristol.

Major investment in county business centres A seven-figure sum has been spent on refurbishments in the first stage of a project at the eight sites throughout Warwickshire, which offer more than 250,000 sq ft of commercial space.

Around 200 SMEs are located at Eliot Park Innovation Centre, Centenary Business Centre, Pool Road Business Centre and Bermuda Innovation Centre, all in Nuneaton, Holly Walk House in Leamington, Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre and Great Central Way in Rugby and Smallbrook Business Centre in Bidford-on-Avon.

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Championing Regional Business

Editorial

The region’s most influential B2B magazine, in print and online for news, features, interviews and business sector analysis.

Print Editor

Events Head of Events

2024 Print issues will be published in January, March, May, July, September and November

Nicky Godding nicky.godding@thebusinessmagazine.co.uk

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Laura Clarke laura.clarke@thebusinessmagazine.co.uk

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NEXT ISSUE: MARCH 2024

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The Business Magazine is published by The Business Magazine Group Ltd. Our readers are business owners, senior executives, directors, key influencers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and those working in further and higher education and government departments and business support organisations. Any opinions expressed by those quoted in this magazine are their own and do not necessarily represent or reflect those of The Business Magazine Group Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form of advertising or promotion without the express written permission of the Managing Director, Managing Editor, or Print Editor.

ISSN 2516 – 0389 (Print) ISSN 2753 – 4561 (Online)