Business & Innovation Magazine - Issue 13 May 2019

INSIDE: 60 top

INNOVATIONS

#

TAKE-TWO

INTERVIEWS:

ADRIAN GILLMAN, JOHN GILLMAN & SONS

NEIL GRUNDON, GRUNDON WASTE MANAGEMENT

BUSINESS FINANCE

HAVE YOU GOT VENUE ENVY?

Editor-in-Chief

Nicky Godding

Tel: 07966 510401

nicky.godding@nkmedia.co.uk

Commercial Director

Kirsty Muir

Tel: 07971 912020

kirsty.muir@nkmedia.co.uk

Chairman, NK Media Ltd

James Palmer

Regional Account & Events Manager

Rosemary Henderson

Tel: 07889 227432

rosemary.henderson@nkmedia.co.uk

Marketing & Events Co-ordinator

Lizi Clapham

Tel: 07955 855817

lizi.clapham@nkmedia.co.uk

Customer Services enquiries@nkmedia.co.uk

Accounts accounts@nkmedia.co.uk

Magazine Design

Brace Creative Agency www.brace.co.uk

Magazine Printers

The Manson Group www.mansongroup.co.uk

Chief Photographer

Rob Lacey www.roblaceyphotographer.co.uk

Contributing Editor

Anita Syvret

www.syvretmedia.co.uk

Contributing Writer

Ian Mean

Sub Editor

Joyce Matthews

Nicky Godding Editor-in-Chief

07966

I really thought that the United Kingdom would have made a decision on Brexit by now. Silly me. The nightmare on Downing Street continues.

As our MPs continue to argue, many ignoring their constituents, and taking no collective responsibility for the situation in which the country finds itself, business has no option but to press on.

Many companies across this region have tied up large amounts of cash in stockpiling products, and logistics companies must be rubbing their hands in delight as they gaze upon their profitable, chock-full warehouses. In any situation there are always winners.

Business & Innovation Magazine continues to reveal business opportunities – and there are many. This issue features our second 60 Top Innovations listing. We published our first in 2017. The number 60 is fairly random because we wanted to highlight the fact that lists don’t stop at 50 or 100, and in truth we could have listed 200 innovations across the region, there is so much going on and so many fabulous, innovative and inspiring ideas flying around.

Our second feature focuses on business finance. To develop an idea and grow it into a business, you need access to finance. Luckily these days there are many more options than just your local bank manager and we list them all, illustrate some of the options and report on businesses which have successfully secured finance to help them expand.

So let’s keep on innovating, take a few (well-informed) risks and don’t let those pesky politicians get us down.

Business & Innovation Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine published by NK Media Ltd. Our readers are business owners, senior executives, key influencers, entrepreneurs, innovators and those working in further and higher education, and government departments. Any opinions expressed by those quoted in this magazine are their own and do not necessarily represent or reflect those of Business & Innovation Magazine, or of NK Media Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form of advertising or promotion without the written permission of the Editor-in-Chief or Commercial Director.

ISSN 2514 - 7609

Member of the Professional Publishers Association

IN THE HEADLINES

CONSTRUCTION AND COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

P61

THE MEAN VIEW

DO YOU HAVE VENUE ENVY?

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATIVE LEADERS

Adrian Gillman of John Gillman & Sons celebrates 50 years of his business

TOWN SHOWCASE

P22

P35

P57

TEWKESBURY

BANBURY

LEAMINGTON SPA

NEIL GRUNDON, GRUNDON WASTE MANAGEMENT ON MAKING WASTE VALUABLE

NEED MONEY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? WE SET OUT THE OPTIONS

P85

P103

TOP 60 INNOVATIONS

#TAKE-TWO

YOU REALLY CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT

They sound too good to be true. Cakes made with natural ingredients that are super low in sugar, don’t contain milk or butter and which taste so delicious that when they launched in Selfridges, it took just one mention on social media for them to sell out.

Fitbakes was launched in 2017 by Brazilian-born Ella Rauen-Prestes after a successful 20-year career in telecoms.

A cake-o-holic for much of her life, when she moved to the UK she was delighted that most Brits were too.

She also discovered our British trait of guilt. Our cakes are full of fat and sugar which we know we shouldn’t eat in abundance, and after that first rush of divine satisfaction as cake crumb hits taste bud, many of us feel wracked with guilt. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

“Back in Brazil, healthy substitutes were the norm, you’d always find stevia in the sugar pot or have a glass of coconut water instead of squash, so I grew up learning how to make healthier versions of all the foods we loved to eat,” explained Ella.

She began baking in her Cheltenham kitchen. Fast forward less than two years and the business has taken off.

“Back in Brazil, healthy substitutes were the norm, you’d always find stevia in the sugar pot or have a glass of coconut water instead of squash, so I grew up learning how to make healthier versions of all the foods we loved to eat”

Now she has a strong social media following (more than 25,000 followers on Instagram and rising), three angel investors (but she still owns nearly three quarters of the business), a growing order book and is about to outsource the baking, having until now produced all the cakes herself in a professional kitchen.

The majority of Fitbake cakes are sold online, so she has invaluable data about her customers. “We sell direct, so we know

who they are, where they are and a bit more. This gives us insight into where we are most likely to achieve faster growth.”

The sky really is the limit for this business, especially as she is talking about selling Fitbake products to some airlines too.

Ella is ambitious for her brand and others are too. “Five days after we first contacted the Department of International Trade, they sent my husband on a trip to the Dubai Food Show where he met some major European food retailers.”

With the phenomenal growth of lifestyle eaters, who aren’t diabetic or have real allergens, but who do want to know what is in their food, Fitbakes seems to have hit on a small but important and growing niche market.

Ella Rauen-Prestes and her Fitbakes

Bicester to become home to the UK’s first automotive resort

Bicester Heritage, based on a former RAF base, and now home to more than 40 specialist automotive businesses with a collective turnover in excess of £40 million, is planning to develop the UK’s first automotive resort which it says could become one of the country’s top 20 tourist and leisure destinations.

Bicester Heritage (which occupies just five per cent of the site) will now become a component of a larger landmark development called Bicester Motion.

Property and construction consultancy Ridge and Partners has been appointed to design and develop the masterplan.

The Bicester Motion concept includes a 344-room hotel and conference development, and an additional 770,000 sq ft of operational business and leisure accommodation across the site.

Dan Geoghegan, Chief Executive of Bicester Motion, said: “The automotive industry is in a fascinating state of flux owing to changing customer habits and requirements, alongside the technology shift in drivetrains and autonomy.

“Bicester Motion will enable both new and existing manufacturers to interact more effectively with their clientele. It will offer a lifestyle experience beyond just cars on tracks or visiting a showroom.”

The automotive world is changing, says Dan, and he wants Bicester Motion to offer a unique resort with multigenerational appeal.

And the location couldn’t be better. Dan added: “Oxfordshire receives more than 27 million visitors per annum. Seven million of which head to Bicester Village, a stone’s throw away, with arguably the most desirable national and international demographic to the automotive industry.”

Phenomenal rise in sale of gin helps new distillery flourish

In the headlines

Gin sales hit another record high last year with the juniper-based spirit breaking £2 billion in annual sales for the first time.

That’s according to a new report by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association.

During 2018 Brits bought more than 73 million bottles of gin (breaking all previous records), with sales worth £2.1 billion.

Add this to the latest value of British gin exports and in 2018 this uniquely British spirit was worth a staggering £2.7 billion.

That’s good news for the many independent distilleries popping up across the region, including Shakespeare Distillery in Stratfordupon-Avon, which has moved to new premises on Drayton Manor Drive.

This distillery is also launching a gin school, giving budding distillers the chance to make their own gin, which can be bottled, sealed and labelled to take home.

“It’s an exciting time for us after moving to our new home. Our award-winning Stratford Gin, which was created by our distiller Simon Picken, has been incredibly successful since we launched it in 2015”

Peter Monks, Director at Shakespeare Distillery, said: “It’s an exciting time for us after moving to our new home. Our awardwinning Stratford Gin, which was created by our distiller Simon Picken, has been incredibly successful since we launched it in 2015 and there’s also our Mulberry Gin which is made by combining mulberries with the gin and leaving it to steep for several months.”

The move and purchase of a new still was helped by Warwickshire County Council and Business Growth Adviser, Jagdish Soor, who helped the firm secure a substantial grant award from Warwickshire County Council’s Small Capital Grant scheme.

Anneka Nicholls and Ekaterina Leret from Shakespeare’s England, with (back, left to right) Jagdish Soor from Warwickshire County Council, Simon Picken and Peter Monks from Shakespeare Distillery.

Bumble Hole Foods opens new egg boiling plant

In the headlines

A company which processes up to six million eggs a week (yes, we checked, it really is six million a week) has completed its new egg boiling and egg mayonnaise factory.

Bumble Hole Foods’ 7,500 sq ft plant in Bromsgrove will enable the company to increase capacity and offer variations of products and packing options. It also enables the company to offer new packaging formats, reducing plastic usage and carbon footprint.

LIFE SCIENCES: MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN BREXIT

The UK life sciences sector is worth more than £70 billion to the UK economy, with small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for around 80 per cent of businesses and nearly a quarter of all UK life sciences employment.

there is an increased awareness that investment in life sciences should mean more people will survive for longer.

The investment was made possible by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, which partfunded this project.

Bumble Hole started off as egg producers in 1961. By the 1980s the company had developed a line of pasteurised egg products and began to look at other opportunities. Thanks to a government grant, it began boiled egg and egg mayonnaise production in the mid 1990s.

Since then the company has made significant investments in its innovation and product quality centre. This enables the testing of all products during production. The team also works with customers to develop new recipes and blends.

Bumble Hole now operates from the most modern egg processing food factory in the UK, with full BRC grade AA, Soil Association and Marks & Spencer A list approval. Bumble Hole Foods’ turnover rose more than 17 per cent in 2017.

This magazine covers life sciences extensively, but to the wider population, life sciences can be difficult to fathom. What is it? Why is it so important? The importance of widening awareness of the sector was discussed at a special debate in Oxford. Life after Brexit: the challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s life sciences sector.

Organised by Oxford law firm Royds Withy King at the Ashmolean Museum, the panel included Professor Chas Bountra, Pro ViceChancellor of Innovation at the University of Oxford, Bill Haynes, Vice-President at Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford, Priya Mande, Chief Operating Officer at PsiOxus Therapeutics, Stephen Conway, Director of Research Services at the University of Oxford and Claus Andersen of Royds Withy King. Lord Wood of Anfield chaired the panel.

Life science innovations are fundamental to the delivery of healthcare. From pathology to genetics and cancer therapy, it is the scientific study of all life, from plant to human. Our readers know this, of course, but many others don’t fully appreciate the potential that innovation has to improve lives.

And when someone in the UK gets diagnosed with cancer every 90 seconds,

Greater understanding of the benefits of life sciences would also help another critical issue currently facing the sector: skilled scientists from Europe leaving the UK to head back home because of Brexit.

There are too few skilled people in the sector and more needs to be done to encourage young people to follow a career in life sciences, which is why raising public awareness remains so important.

Brexit does threaten the UK’s science community, but interest in the UK remains strong because this country is widely perceived to be a good and transparent place to do business.

Perhaps one upside of Brexit could be that the UK becomes more agile with regard to funding. Bill Haynes of Novo Nordisk admitted that European Union research contracts can be cumbersome.

Professor Bountra said: “Cracking the big problems requires novel partnerships. We want to remain a magnet for talent and we also want to maintain our collaborations with countries across the world.”

“Cracking the big problems requires novel partnerships. We want to remain a magnet for talent and we also want to maintain our collaborations with countries across the world”

“Thanks to a government grant, Bumble Hole began boiled egg and egg mayonnaise production in the mid 1990s”

Professor Chas Bountra addressed the audience on the issue of life sciences.

“I used to get a buzz from checking our lorries were all jammed full before they left our premises. It’s a different business now. You have to look at margins not volume

FIFTY YEARS LOOKING FORWARD

John Gillman & Sons is one of Gloucester’s best-known independent electrical retailers, but there’s a lot more to this 50-year-old business than meets the eye

By Nicky Godding

Adrian Gillman, Chairman, John Gillman & Sons

If you grew up within a 30-mile radius of Gloucester, the chances are that at some time over the last five decades, your family will have bought a fridge, oven or other electrical appliance from John Gillman & Sons.

This friendly, reliable company had excellent service engineers and you could buy spare parts to keep an older machine going for longer. Fifty years on (the business is celebrating its half century this year), little has changed in that respect.

However, John Gillman & Sons is now more than its successful Gloucester-based retail showroom (now at St Oswald’s Road), fundamental though that remains to the business.

The Group is also the largest domestic appliance supplier in the UK, with a £100 million plus turnover, and owns a major e-commerce business for domestic electrical appliances based in Tewkesbury. Last year Domestic Appliances Online (DAD) distributed more than 400,000 appliances across the UK, including brands such as Hoover, Miele, Zanussi, Bosch, Siemens, Beko, Hotpoint and Montpellier, the fastest growing consumer brand in the UK which is owned by the Gillman family.

The fastest-growing consumer brand in the UK

Montpellier, a separate business operating alongside DAD and John Gillman’s Electrical, was set up by the family just over five years ago. It designs and manufacturers ovens, fridges, washing machines and dishwashers, and is now a major supplier of kitchen equipment to housebuilders such as Bellway, Taylor Wimpey, Bovis, Redrow and MF Freeman.

The basic components of most domestic electrical appliances haven’t changed. For instance, the first domestic fridge

was manufactured in the early 20th century. It had a compressor and an electronic sensing device. It’s how you put them together which differentiates the quality, according to the company’s Group Chairman, Adrian Gillman. “The equipment’s appearance, insulation, thickness of the metal and the finish of the interior all make a difference to the finished product. Using high quality conponents to make an electrical appliance will make a big difference in how it handles your food, clothing wash or the dishes.”

Montpellier manufactures its equipment in Turkey and China, and also has product made in Lithuania. A good part of the company’s business comes from housebuilders and universities, independent retailers and multiples. The Montpellier brand is also sold in Costco and Dixons.

In a market where margins are tight, the company remains competitive by setting itself apart. “We design and manufacture all the products in the Montpellier brand, and invest significantly in their research and development,” said Adrian. “We are the first to have a hang-on-thewall drier. It’s not just about designing capability and reliability into a washing machine or fridge, it’s also about colours and energy-saving.”

All the divisions are headed up by family members. Annabelle, Adrian’s sister, looks after the group’s accountancy and is Company Secretary. His brother Robert heads John Gillman’s retail showroom, with his daughter working alongside him.

Richard (Robert’s son), works in operations and John (Adrian’s son), heads up the service division. Lee (Adrian’s other son) is Managing Director of Montpellier.

As well as being Group Chairman, Adrian heads up the e-commerce and distribution arm of the DAD business.

The family also has shares in a housefittings company and uses the company’s Glasgow base as a hub when distributing products to Scotland.

Family entrepreneurs drive business growth

Adrian has always been quick to see new opportunities.

“When we were still a small shop we bought from a distributor, but their products and service were awful,” he said. “I thought we could do better, so we jumped on the bandwagon.”

The same approach launched the company’s thriving distribution business, DAD, and also drove the launch of the IceKing fridge brand in 1995, when Adrian and Robert put more than a decade of refrigeration knowledge to better use by manufacturing their own products. This paved the way for the Montpellier brand 20 years later.

“As a retailer and distributor, we were dealing with some of the UK’s most well-known brands,” explained Adrian.

“I can spot good engineering because I spent 11 years repairing faults. We had the expertise to design and manufacture kitchen appliances, so we became an original equipment manufacturer.”

IceKing has been a huge success and is still manufacturing fridges and freezers.

John Gillman & Sons

John Gillman & Sons

It’s the people that matter

Gillman & Sons

Whatever the size of a business, it’s the people that matter, said Adrian. “Customer services is a massive investment for all parts of our business and it should play a big role in any company. Equipment needs servicing and appliances break down. Our service team is well trained, some of our engineers have been with us for years and know our customers well.”

Staff are also important to the business, which employs 202 people. “You are only going to get the best out of your staff if you treat them with respect and courtesy,” said Adrian. “And some of our staff have been with us for many years.”

The secret of Adrian’s business success

“I didn’t go to university or college. None of us did. The only qualification I have to my name is a City and Guilds in refrigeration. Has it stopped me progressing to where I want to be and where I see myself going? No.

“It’s taken hard work and determination from all of us for our company to be successful. And a bit of luck. No one is that clever that they can do it without a bit of luck. Even James Dyson.

“I am not an accountant or a marketeer or a solicitor. While I can read a profit and loss statement quite happily, when it comes to specific knowledge, we use experts.

“Some people underestimate the capability and importance of using professionals. A decorating company will decorate my house better than me because that’s what they do. I am a true believer in using the right people for the job.”

Adrian’s approach to business can be summed up in a short anecdote he shares at the end of our interview. “When I first got married, I hung some wallpaper in

A family business for 50 years

John Gillman & Sons

Originally a service and repair business established by John and Erika Gillman in 1969, the company expanded and diversified into national distribution, retail and domestic and commercial appliance servicing.

The company’s Group Chief Executive is Robert Gillman, who joined in 1969. He was followed by his sister Annabelle, who is now Group Company Secretary, and brother Adrian, who is now Group Chairman.

Tragedy hit the family business early. John Gillman died when his children were 25, 21 and 18 respectively.

By then all three siblings were working in the business. “I’d joined at 15, straight from school,” said Adrian. “I was learning the refrigeration side of the business and my older brother Robert worked on washing machine repairs and servicing.”

As the second generation grew in confidence, the business expanded, taking on the exclusive distribution

my house, but I cut it wrongly. Every night when I was watching the evening news, I could see that bit of wallpaper. It annoyed me. I hadn’t got it right, because I didn’t know how to. I never wallpapered again.

of other brands. The business moved to larger premises, first on Bristol Road in Gloucester, then Madleaze Trading estate and Mill Place.

By 2009 it had outgrown all its sites and was looking for larger premises. “I came upon the site at Northway, Tewkesbury,” said Adrian. “It had been a Summerfield cold store depot. We discussed it as a family and bought it outright.”

On January 2, 2010, after a major redevelopment of the site, Gillman’s staff transferred from Bristol Road.

“When we moved to Northway nine years ago, we all thought the site was far too big for what we wanted. But within three years we had to build a 30,000 sq ft extension and are now working to around a 94 per cent capacity with an overflow warehouse down the road.”

Adrian’s goal is to develop the Montpellier and DAD brands. “My brother Robert is better at the retail side than me. He’s patient and enjoys meeting customers. I’m more of a business-to-business man.”

What Adrian does best is run and grow a business. “I enjoy seeing the sales of products that have been researched, designed, developed, marketed, manufactured and sold by us and I keep track. How are we doing? Are we doing OK? What do we need to improve? How do we do that?

“I used to get a buzz from checking our lorries were all jammed full before they left our premises. It’s a different business now. You have to look at margins not volumes. Whatever the feelgood factor of a full lorry, it always comes back to margins and investment in customer service. Get those right and you’ve got a good business.”

“The new owners (who are still friends of the family) redecorated, and if they made a mistake, I didn’t notice it. I learned to do what I do best and leave everything else to the professionals.”

Adrian is now looking to the future. “This will probably be my last year before I make some lifestyle changes. After working in this industry for 42 years, it’s now time to slow down or stop, whichever advice comes first. But it’s been a storm.”

“Some people underestimate the capability and importance of using professionals. A decorating company will decorate my house better than me because that’s what they do. I am a true believer in using the right people for the job”

John

John Gillman & Sons

INVESTMENT AND PRODUCT LISTING IN MIDCOUNTIES

A farmer who created a ‘Foggy’ pasty has secured a £10,000 investment and exclusive product listing in all 52 Midcounties stores in Gloucestershire, after winning The Co-operative’s inaugural Food Glorious Food competition.

Deborah Flint from St Briavels in Lydney, was crowned victorious after impressing judges with Cinderhill Farm’s Sausage Roll of Exceeding Enormity and Foggy pasty at a Dragons’ Den-style pitch.

The Food Glorious Food competition highlighted Gloucestershire food and drink and was open to producers, farmers looking to diversify or simply someone with a great foodie idea.

The judging panel included former Gloucester and England rugby player and Celebrity MasterChef winner Phil Vickery, and farmer and BBC’s Countryfile presenter Adam Henson, along with Paul Williamson from Hillside Brewery and Birminghambased Miss Macaroon founder Rosie Ginday MBE.

E-learning business sold on to second private equity company

Kallidus, the Cirencester-based e-learning consultancy has been sold to Apse Capital.

Kallidus was acquired by FPE Capital in 2017. It subsequently backed the company’s acquisition of recruitment management software and applicant tracking system Advorto to take the business into the recruitment sector.

Henry Sallitt, Managing Partner at FPE said: “It has been fantastic to see Kallidus grow as it benefits from major investment into a software platform and expanded product offering.”

Kallidus saw growth of six per cent in 2017, with turnover rising to £8.5 million.

Rob Caul, CEO at Kallidus said: “We believe we will benefit from Apse Capital’s expertise and support in our next stage of growth.”

The global e-learning market is expected to reach a value of around £45 billion by 2023.

Deborah was one of 10 finalists to pitch to the judging panel. All 10 contenders, including Ella Rauen-Prestes from Fitbakes and Phil Penwarden from the Cheltenham Wine Company, received listings in Midcounties’ stores in the county.

Deborah said: “We’ll be using the £10,000 investment to buy some muchneeded additional cold storage and expanding our team.”

Phil Ponsonby, CEO at The Midcounties Co-operative, said: “The standard of entries was incredibly high, and Deborah’s stood out to us as an innovative and delicious product. Her sausage roll and Foggy pasty use the highest quality ingredients sourced from her own farm and other local producers and she is committed to helping her community by employing local people. Deborah and Cinderhill Farm truly represent everything that our Best of our Counties initiative stands for.”

The Midcounties Co-operative Food Glorious Food campaign was run in conjunction with Hartpury University and College, peer to peer lending platform Folk2Folk and The Gloucestershire Growth Hub.

Corin acquires USA orthopaedics business

International orthopaedic company Corin Group, which has its headquarters in Cirencester, has bought USA-based OMNI Orthopaedics Inc, a pioneer in roboticassisted total knee replacement.

Founded in 1999 by a team of medical device engineers, OMNI is now at the forefront of roboticassisted knee replacement.

Last month Corin was listed in the top 10 of The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 league table which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastestgrowing profits.

“We’ll be using the £10,000 investment to buy some much-needed additional cold storage and expanding our team”

£10,000

CO-OP FOR CINDERHILL

Phil Vickery, Rosie Ginday, Deborah Flint, Adam Henson, Phil Ponsonby and Paul Williamson

Unique Cleaning seeks to drive innovation through robotics

Regional round-up

A commercial cleaning business wants to harness the power of robotics to expand its business.

Steve Taylor established Unique Cleaning in 2017 and set himself goals which include using only organic and animal cruelty-free products by the end of this year and having an electric-only fleet of cleaning vehicles by 2023.

Steve said: “I became interested in this sector while working as a business development manager for another cleaning company. I felt that there was a lot I could do to develop a business and decided to set up on my own. When I looked into the industry, I was inspired by how much potential there is to automate the commercial cleaning sector.”

He received support from the county’s Growth Hub. The Gloucestershire Research and Innovation Project is a package of services to help accelerate and commercialise a company’s innovation plans.

Inspired by iRobot, a leading global company that designs domestic cleaning robots, he is now hoping to work with the multi-disciplinary Bristol Robotics Laboratory to take his ideas further.

Industrial cleaning robots are expected to experience strong growth, according to the International Federation of Robotics World Robotics 2018 Service Robots report.

In 2017, in the USA, it was estimated that six million robots were sold to perform domestic tasks, including vacuum cleaning, lawn-mowing and window cleaning — 31 per cent more than in 2016.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE SUCCESS IN THE NATIONAL RURAL BUSINESS AWARDS

Two Gloucestershire businesses are celebrating after winning 2019 Rural Business Awards.

Held at Chateau Impney, Droitwich Spa, the awards recognise and celebrate the success of businesses operating in the UK’s rural economy; a sector which in England alone contributes £229 billion to the nation’s GVA (Gross Value Added) – about a fifth of the country’s economic activity.

Best Rural Food Business was won by Jolly Nice, a farm shop at Frampton Mansell near Stroud. Hillside Brewery, based at Longhope near Gloucester, won the Best Rural Drinks Business.

The Rural Business Awards are supported by Amazon and judged by an independent panel, drawn from the rural business sector, public sector agencies and charitable organisations.

“The Rural Business Awards shine a much-deserved spotlight on the innovators, creators and inventors in rural communities across the UK,” said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager at Amazon.

Anna Price, who co-founded the awards, alongside Jemma Clifford, said: “We are overwhelmed by the

“We are overwhelmed by the success of our Rural Business Awards, which with support from Amazon, have done much to champion countrysidebased firms across Britain”

success of our Rural Business Awards, which with support from Amazon, have done much to champion countrysidebased firms across Britain.”

The evening also saw the launch of a new Rural Business Group, a not-forprofit, Community Interest Company, following a roundtable meeting at 10 Downing Street.

Hillside Brewery wins Best Rural Drinks Business at the Rural Business Awards

Jolly Nice wins Best Rural Food Business

STYLE FOR SOLDIERS WINS NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR SHIRTMAKER EMMA WILLIS

One of the UK’s best-known shirtmakers, Emma Willis MBE, has been recognised for supporting the rehabilitation of veterans and service personnel.

Emma founded Style for Soldiers in 2008 to provide bespoke clothing and walking sticks for Armed Forces members as part of their rehabilitation.

After hearing a BBC Radio 4 documentary about recovering veterans, Emma realised that donations of clothing could provide a vital boost to their wellbeing and confidence.

She also recognised the benefit highquality suits could have for veterans in securing job interviews and marking the transition to civilian life.

Style for Soldiers was set up to design suits specially for service personnel, with assistance from leading English brands such as Marks & Spencer, Russell & Bromley, and Lock & Co Hatters. The charity has provided more than 750 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and several hundred

“Style for Soldiers’ has also been supported by HRH The Prince of Wales, with leading fashion models including David Gandy serving as ambassadors ”

hats to veterans, as well as facilitating work placements and holding regular events bringing together members for peer support, with the charity working closely alongside the NHS Veterans Trauma network.

Style for Soldiers has also been supported by HRH Prince Charles with leading fashion models including David Gandy serving as ambassadors for the charity.

Emma is the latest recipient of the Points of Light award, which recognises outstanding volunteers making a change in their community and inspiring others. She received her award from the Prime Minister at Downing Street.

Best foot forward for Gardiners as it picks up national award

Quedgeley-based footwear and clothing distributor, Gardiners, scooped the award for Best Use of Technology/E-tailer of the Year 2019 at the annual Footwear Industry Awards.

During the past 12 months, Gardiners has made considerable investments in its warehouse management system, dropshipping and virtual distribution administration, enabling the business to offer a unique service to high street retailers.

National Sales Manager, Mark Pownall, said: “We’re very effective at extending the high street offering through virtual distribution

Highways England has revealed its preferred route for the A417 near Gloucester to upgrade the last stretch of single carriageway linking the M5 with the M4 to dual carriageway – commonly known as the ‘“Missing Link”.

But delivery of the project will be subject to confirmation of funding within the second Road Investment Strategy, which will cover the period between 2020 and 2025.

The new dual carriageway will be complemented by an extra climbing lane at Crickley Hill for slow-moving traffic. A new section of road built through Shab Hill to the east of the existing A417 will re-join the road near the current location of Cowley roundabout and a new junction will be created at Shab Hill with links to Birdlip and the A436. The Air Balloon roundabout and Cowley roundabout will be demolished.

Richard Graham, MP for Gloucester, said: “The proposed changes to the A417 are the biggest and most important investment in Gloucester’s infrastructure by this government. It’s important that everyone – charities, environmental groups and residents alike – work together with Highways England to make a success of the detail and timing, so that the road is open to traffic in early 2024.”

and e-commerce solutions and I’m proud of the relationships we’ve created by having this unique offering.

“We’re growing our capabilities across all areas of the business to offer the best consumer experience.”

Preferred route for A417

“missing link” revealed, but project still awaits funding

Emma Willis

Host: Sean Collins, comedian, Ash Kapoor, Business Development Director and Mark Pownall, National Sales Manager, Gardiners. Presenting the award: Simon Dernie, Little Brogues

BUSINESS AND INNOVATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE…

We are proud to be one of the leading providers of business degrees with a professional basis in the UK.

Over 30 years we have established an innovative portfolio of business and computing programmes to reflect the rapid progress of computing technology and the needs of business, industry and public organisations as well as education and social life.

In 2018, the University of Gloucestershire School of Business and Technology moved to a brand-new, state-of-the-art home at our Oxstalls campus in Gloucester. It accommodates not just the staff and students of the Business School but also all of the University’s support services for

business, the GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership, and the University’s award-winning Growth Hub formed in partnership with GFirst LEP.

The University’s goal is to bring together, for their mutual benefit, students studying business, staff teaching and researching business, and business people using Growth Hub services. Students benefit through regular contact with business partners, gaining insight and experience about the realities of modern business. Business partners benefit by being able to contribute to developing the employability and

business insight of graduates starting out on their business careers.

Professor Kamal Bechkoum, Head of the University’s School of Business and Technology, said: “We pride ourselves on having industry experienced academic staff and a business-focused student body. Embedding these within businesses has achieved extraordinary things in the past and building on this is a key focus going forward. Our new building has been specifically designed to inspire learning, support new businesses and develop the University’s partnerships with existing companies.”

New engineering courses launch in Cheltenham

The University’s School of Business and Technology will start offering degree-level programmes in a range of engineering specialisms this September, led by Dr Salah Al-Majeed, Head of Engineering Technologies.

The aim is to establish a leading and highly sustainable Engineering Technologies community, recognised for its high-quality engineering offering; one that fosters new talent and innovation and supports the growth of our students and engineering employers locally, nationally and

internationally. The vision is to provide high quality engineering education, research, outreach and engagement programmes that enable our students to achieve their career goals, boost the productivity of the employers we work with and promote a strong, sustainable engineering future for the region.

Programmes are being developed in close collaboration with Industry and FE Partners including with support from Gloucester-based Gloucestershire Engineering Technology (GET) who

have been providing work-based learning in engineering for 40 years. All the Engineering Technologies courses and programmes are designed to incorporate a strong industrial pathway, reflecting the needs of the evolving engineering industry. Some of the firms involved in supporting this include BAE systems, Airbus, BT, GE Aviation and Raytheon among others.

For more information about our new Engineering courses, visit glos.ac.uk/engineering

University to be part of new Institute of Technology

The University of Gloucestershire has been successful in a £21 million joint bid to set up a Government-backed Institute of Technology in Swindon, Gloucestershire, with Swindon College and New College Swindon.

The news comes just two weeks after the University announced the launch of a suite of degree programmes in a range of engineering specialisms starting this September, and further emphasises the University’s growing role offering higher level technical education to address skills gaps in key STEM areas.

Stephen Marston, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Gloucestershire, said: “Winning the Institute of Technology bid for Swindon is brilliant news for students, businesses and the whole community. Working with our partners, we are committed to delivering a step-change in the availability of high quality professional and technical education in advanced manufacturing

University programmed robots support independent living

Computer technologists at the University of Gloucestershire are working with Service Robotics Ltd to develop healthcare robots to monitor and assist the daily life of the elderly.

The AI-driven robot is combined with a friendly service agent who provides live video support on the robot screen, via simple voice command. The Genie robot itself also acts as a companion, answering questions and providing personalised content and reminders, using Artificial Intelligence and knowledge of the user.

This combination provides a deeply personalised service which supports independent living, meaning elderly people can spend longer living at home, by themselves. They are designed to help people manage their health, reminding them to take medication, and offering peace of mind to their families. With this in mind, the Genie robot has the potential to play a significant role in

the future of healthcare provision in the UK.

The robots incorporate dementia and elderly care technologies to provide reminiscence and memory stimulation. Genie will ask ‘do you remember this trip last year?’ and will show family photos and videos on the screen.

University lecturer, Zayd Dawood, has been consulting with Service Robotics Ltd on software strategy and acting as an academic adviser on the project, looking into the possibilities of integrating the robot not only for the company’s own platform, but how it could be used in a wider academic context. Zayd is also looking at the practicalities of what kind of apps would be beneficial for the robot.

Zayd Dawood, Academic Course Leader in Digital Media and Web Technologies, said: “The public has become versed with the terms 3D cinema, virtual reality

and engineering, life sciences, digital technologies and creative media.”

“The IoT will allow us to greatly expand the availability of higher and degree apprenticeships and standalone degree programmes in STEM subjects to meet the needs of employers across Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire.”

and augmented reality – but we’re now entering an era of technology that is driven by robots and AI. It’s great to be working with Service Robotics Ltd and with an advanced system. The robots will enable the university to teach the next generation of technological development and we’re looking forward to making some apps on the robot, almost like an Alexa on Legs.”

The project will deliver 150 robots as part of a pilot study to establish the effectiveness of companionship between robots and humans.

For more information about the business of innovation at the University of Gloucestershire, visit glos.ac.uk/business

A company which manufactures printed circuit technology, has shipped a 26-metre long multilayer flexible printed circuit, believed to be the longest ever produced.

The printed circuit was manufactured by Trackwise, based in Alexandra Way, Tewkesbury and will be used for distributing power and control signals across the wings of a solar-powered, unmanned aerial vehicle. The circuit is one of more than 50 supplied by Trackwise into the vehicle.

The company manufactures specialist products using printed circuit technology for applications including telecommunications, aviation, automotive and defence.

Chief Executive, Philip Johnston, said: “There are many new applications emerging for long, lightweight flexible printed circuits but aerospace is a natural fit: weight savings, high reliability and cost-effectiveness are critical. We’re also seeing growing interest from a variety of sectors including medical and automotive.”

Trackwise’s 26-metre long multilayer flexible printed circuit

TEWKESBURY: THE MEDIEVAL TOWN WITH MODERN AMBITIONS

Tewkesbury is a town with a big heart and it could be about to get a lot bigger. It also feels like a town with two personalities.

Close to the confluence of the mighty River Severn and the River Avon lies Tewkesbury Abbey (founded in 1087) and the Abbey Mill. These historic buildings form the backdrop to the town centre.

The flip side to the town are its industrial estates, which lie close the M5 motorway, one of the country’s most important transport arteries.

Historically, Tewkesbury is probably best known for the decisive Battle of Tewkesbury, fought in 1471, which resulted in victory for the House of York.

The town centre is a mix of medieval and Tudor buildings on wide central streets, behind which are intriguing alleyways and shops. The many independent retailers give the town its unique personality.

Tewkesbury also has its own marina which in the last few years has undergone

a £750,000 refurbishment including the building of new pontoons and facilities.

The town’s industrial estates, which sit either side of the M5, host successful companies such as global technology company L3 TRL, and sister companies Moog Aircraft Group and Moog Industrial.

Other major businesses include Kenard Engineering Ltd, which manufactures precision components for the aerospace, energy, oil and gas industries, Freeman Technology, which specialises in powder flow testing solutions, and global supplier of hydraulic and seals, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions.

Another well-known name in Tewkesbury is Sapa, a major force in the UK aluminium fenestration industry. Now backed by the Norwegian aluminium company Hydro, it designs and markets aluminium building systems.

Domestic Appliance Distributors and Montpellier are also major employers in the town. You can read our interview with Chairman Adrian Gillman on page 10.

It’s a record-breaker for Trackwise world’s longest PCB

Tewkesbury, a medieval town with 21st century ambitions

Multi million pound refurbishment gives town a hotel to be proud of

A £10 million refurbishment during the last two years has made Tewkesbury Park Hotel into one of the most beautiful venues in Gloucestershire.

The extensive renovation resulted in the addition of the Cotswolds Suite, luxury historic suites, spa rooms, meeting rooms, an orangery and a cocktail lounge. The health club, guestrooms, main foyer and reception were also completely refurbished.

Despite gorgeous views overlooking the Cotswolds, the hotel (which also has an 18-hole golf course and indoor swimming pool), is only five minutes from the M5.

“The town centre is a mix of medieval and Tudor buildings on wide central streets, behind which are intriguing alleyway and shops. The many independent retailers give the town its unique personality”

Another major Tewkesbury business is Idemia (the result of the merger between Oberthur Technologies and Safran Identity & Security), which currently has more than 300 UK-based employees on two sites, including manufacturing operations in Tewkesbury. An expert in digital identification, UK customers come from financial institutions, mobile operators, public security, healthcare and the government.

No review of Tewkesbury would be complete without mention of Cotteswold Dairy, the 81-year old business which collects milk from dairy farms across the Cotswolds, processes and sells it to customers within a 180-mile radius. Cotteswold Dairy doesn’t rest on its laurels and has made some major investments into its Tewkesbury site over the last few years.

Something’s growing in Tewkesbury

Ashchurch Garden Community in Tewkesbury is one of five new garden towns recently unveiled by the government. The project, which could deliver up to 10,195 homes, will receive £750,000 of funding to fast-track specialist survey and planning work necessary for the town’s development.

Tewkesbury Borough Council submitted its bid to the government to become a garden town last November, explaining that the town is ideally located surrounding Junction 9 of the M5 and highlighting the critical role it plays in the growth of Gloucestershire.

There are also plans to develop a factory outlet and garden centre on a 52-acre site at Ashchurch. The project, put forward by Gloucestershire developer Robert Hitchins, won planning approval in 2016. The site lies next to a petrol

station on the A46, close to the M5 and the Ashchurch Industrial Estate. Significant work is under way on this project ahead of a major planning application that will be made later this year.

The town also welcomed its own business Growth Hub last year. Based inside Tewkesbury Borough’s Public Services Centre, businesses can also access relevant council services, such as planning alongside business support and advice.

The Hub offers support to all businesses, from pre-start to existing companies and organisations looking to grow.

Also supporting the smaller businesses in the town is Basepoint Business Centre, on Tewkesbury Business Park, just five minutes from the M5’s Junction 9. The centre provides flexible serviced and managed offices.

Tewkesbury uncovered

Tewkesbury Park Hotel

When Design Meets Engineering

How to Turn Great Ideas into Great Products…

Vicki Strachan, head of the newly opened Oxfordshire office of leading intellectual property firm Mathys & Squire, talks to Phil Staunton, Managing Director of D2M Innovation Ltd, a design consultancy that helps turn great ideas into brilliant newly manufactured products that sell.

Manufacturing is the stage at which a product finally comes to life and, after many months or even years of planning, designing and re-designing, this is an exciting time in the journey from concept to market. That said, it can also be a daunting stage and one in which speed to market remains key.

Phil Staunton, who founded D2M Innovation in 2010, has over 10 years’ experience of supporting start-up businesses and SMEs develop and launch innovative, new products onto the market. He now specialises in strategic planning of product development to minimise risk and therefore maximise the chances of success.

Talking to Vicki, Phil explains, there are up to 18 main stages of work you are likely to progress through, and his advice is: “Do not compromise on shortcuts that may create bigger issues further down the line. Bear in mind that, often, you will have to choose between quality, cost and time to completion, so make sure you know which are most important to you.

“Make sure that you inform the manufacturer of any particular standards or certification that your product needs to comply with and, ideally, select a manufacturer that is used to working to the standards of the countries where you plan to sell your product.

“The right manufacturing partner is the key to the success of your product, and before you embark on the process of selecting your manufacturer, you will need

to have a manufacturing specification for your product, which is a complete representation of the product which provides any suitable manufacturer with the right information for production.”

Phil recommends using a checklist, like the one opposite, to make sure you don’t miss anything important.

Another thing worth considering before the manufacturing specification is completed, is whether or not to consider registered design protection for the product in its final form. This can provide powerful protection for the appearance of your product, and unlike patents, can be put in place quite quickly to guard against copies of your product entering the market very shortly after yours. Not only can this severely affect your own sales, but if the copies are of poor quality your brand can also be badly damaged.

Ultimately, though, Phil adds: “You are not the first entrepreneur following this path. You will probably make mistakes during this process. Learn from these, be reactive, and don’t give up!”

Vicki Strachan heads up Mathys & Squire’s Oxford office. She works with a range of start-ups, helping them to get their businesses off the ground and into the market. The firm’s global team works closely with the founders to ensure that their IP strategy aligns to their business objectives and enables them to manufacture and protect their products and ideas worldwide.

If you have any questions, or for more information on how we can help your business take off, please contact Vicki Strachan on vjstrachan@mathys-squire.com

Manufacturing Checklist

□ Anticipated RRP (Recommended Retail Price) or cost indications

□ Anticipated volumes if different from standard

□ All components known at this stage

□ Materials for each component

□ Anticipated production method/s

□ Different colourways

□ Textures if known

□ Weight of the product

□ Dimensions of the product

□ Any performance required along with limits

□ Any specific anticipated tolerances

□ Packaging design

□ Compliance

□ Assembly explosion view

Economic briefing co-hosted by Hazlewoods

and HSBC

More than 100 senior business leaders from across the region joined Hazlewoods and HSBC for a business breakfast with keynote speaker Mark Berrisford Smith, Head of Economics for HSBC UK Commercial Banking. Mark’s presentation, ‘Brexit endgames and global slowdown’ provided some great insight into the global economy and its trade, labour markets, housing markets and much more.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB LACEY

Would you like to feature your business event, launch or party in our business events section?

Simon Carey from Barnwood Group with David Williams from Hazlewoods, Peter Evans from Barnwood Group and James Whittaker from Hazlewoods

Neil Bermingham from NGB Cheltenham with Paul Bence from Bence Group

Keynote Speaker, Mark Berrisford-Smith, Head of Economics for HSBC UK Commercial Banking Geoffrey Scott from Auto Sleepers Group with Jenny Scott from NXD and Nicky Godding from Business and Innovation Magazine

Hugh Wilkinson from HW Chartered Surveyor, with Ruth Dooley from Hazelwoods and John Pitcher from Castlehead Investments

Eamon McGurk from McGurk Group and Ben Lang from Stonewood Builders

Mike Smith from Permali Gloucester Ltd, with Steve Breckon and James Channon from HSBC

Alun Jones from Prima Dental with Scott Lawrence from Hazlewoods

Adam Walding from Leeways Packaging, Mark Wilton from HSBC and Jack Griffin from Leeways Packaging

Refreshingly different banking

Handelsbanken is renowned for its local relationship banking and primary aim of delivering the best possible service.

Graham Hammond, Corporate Manager at one of Handelsbanken’s two Oxford branches, explains: “Handelsbanken is best known for providing personally tailored banking solutions. We take the time to get to know our customers and their objectives to provide the best personal advice and service we can, and we take a holistic view, meaning that whether a customer’s requirement is for corporate or personal banking, we can deal with all of their needs under one roof and understand the whole picture.’’

Demand for Handelsbanken’s modern day take on traditional banking has helped the bank grow to serve over 200 British communities. For customers of Handelsbanken, the branch is the bank. Not only are employees empowered to make credit decisions and deliver solutions locally, but they are also available to handle a customer’s day to day banking requirements in person, rather than through call centres.

This is perhaps just one of the reasons that Handelsbanken has come top for customer satisfaction for ten years running in an independent survey of British banks (EPSI Rating 2009-2018) and has been named as the most recommended provider for SME banking by the Competition and Markets Authority’s Independent Service Quality Survey (Feb 2019).

In his role, Graham spends much of his time getting to know new customers and build relationships with the aim of becoming their trusted banking advisor. He says “I enjoy dealing with people and helping them achieve their goals by creating personally tailored solutions that meet their specific needs.”

Graham continues “We offer a wide range of products and services for businesses;

from everyday banking and cash management, trade finance, asset finance and invoice discounting, to financial planning and investment management for companies. The fact there are no product targets or incentive bonuses in Handelsbanken means we can focus solely on what is best for the customer, not what is best for the bank at any particular time. Our main focus is to always deliver the best possible service we can.’’

One Handelsbanken business customer commented: “We use Handelsbanken for one reason, service; the fundamental ability to pick up the phone and talk to a senior person dedicated to our account about whatever issues may emerge saves us an enormous amount of time. In addition, Handelsbanken understands our business. We recommend them unreservedly.’’

To have a chat about how Handelsbanken may be able to help with your business or personal finance requirements, pop into one of the Oxford branches or contact Graham on 01865 204918 or grha03@handelsbanken.co.uk

Graham Hammond, Corporate Manager, Handelsbanken Oxford West Way

“Business owners in particular tell us they appreciate having a direct line to their account manager, and the fact that the majority of decisions are made locally here at the branch, by people they know, and whom know their business and the local marketplace.’’

Graham Hammond, Corporate Manager Handelsbanken Oxford West Way

BLENHEIM LAUNCHES SEARCH FOR BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS

For the second year, Blenheim is running a start-up scheme for entrepreneurs and new businesses, aimed at boosting their chances of success.

Working in partnership with FAB Accelerator, Oxford’s first business accelerator programme, the Oxfordshire estate has put together a programme designed to support locally-based firms.

busy marketplace to showcase their products,” said Blenheim CEO Dominic Hare.

Last year’s competition attracted more than 50 entrants.

Neve’s Bees, which produces completely natural beeswax skincare products, and designer and artist Kathryn Croxson, who creates clothing accessories and homeware, had their products on sale at Blenheim Palace.

REGIONAL ROUND-UP OXFORDSHIRE

480 Oxfordshire companies gain scale-up recognition

The number of fast-growing ambitious businesses is increasing across Oxfordshire.

There are now 480 companies in the region that meet the definition of scaleup because they have increased turnover or employment by more than 20 per cent annually.

Oxfordshire scale-ups are employing a total of 49,000 staff, and their turnover is worth £5.2 billion. This is according to new research by the ScaleUp Institute based on the latest 2017 ONS data.

The opportunity is open to any business which is less than two years old or has fewer than five employees, is based within 20 miles of Blenheim and can provide something which could be stocked in their shops.

Successful candidates will pitch their ideas to Blenheim’s senior management team over the summer.

“Blenheim is committed to providing start-up businesses with support and a

Julie Macken of Neves Bees says: “The exposure we have gained from being in the shop has increased our brand awareness many-fold and the kudos of being associated with such a high-end outlet has opened many doors.

“In addition to this, the extra revenue from selling in a large outlet has enabled us to invest in our new gift packaging, allowing us to enter a far bigger marketplace. We are now developing a range of Neve’s Bees products using Cotswold Lavender with exclusive designs for Blenheim Palace which we hope will secure a longer-term future for us with Blenheim.”

Oxford University’s social enterprise helps business fight poverty

Oxford University’s first social enterprise spin-out has been launched.

The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), has been named sOPHIa Oxford. It now has an exclusive worldwide licence with the Business Multidimensional Poverty Index, developed in partnership with the Costa Rican business association Horizonte Positivo.

sOPHIa will help businesses measure poverty among employees, their families, contractors and supply chain. This will help them understand what they need to do to support them better.

Jamie Coats, President of sOPHIa Oxford, said: “Corporate leaders pursuing purpose and profits want objective measures to be able to respond to poverty within their companies.”

In the area, the top five scale-ups by employment growth are Virtua, Silbury, AgilityWorks, Oxford Economics and YASA Motors, while the top five for turnover growth are Oxford Nanopore, Rebellion, Gigaclear, Circassia and Virtua.

Across the UK there are more than 36,000 scale-ups, an increase of nearly four per cent from 2016.

ScaleUp Institute Chief Executive Irene Graham said: “Scale-ups are twice as innovative as large firms, employ twice as many apprentices, are twice as likely to be operating in international markets, and create high quality jobs.

“Eight out of 10 expect to scale again in 2019, generating £1.5 billion more in turnover and creating an extra 7,000 jobs.”

While they are ambitious about their growth, scale-ups continue to face major challenges. In Oxfordshire they particularly highlight access to international markets and talent as key issues. They also want easier access to local professional services and stronger connections to public sector support opportunities, notably for innovation.

“Blenheim is committed to providing start-up businesses with support and a busy marketplace to showcase their products”

Blenheim Shop

Passionate about Product Design…

With a highly technical team of Industrial Designers, project managers, mechanical, electronics and embedded software engineers, OPD work closely with both local, national and global companies to develop new technologies and design and deliver innovative, market-leading products.

OPD have built a considerable portfolio of achievements, giving rise to a particular expertise in high specification industrial products, scientific instruments, high volume consumer products, as well as healthcare and biosciences. They have also recently increased their experience in sectors as diverse as motor control systems, wireless device design and optical systems development.

“By getting involved from a very early stage with our clients, we gain a much deeper understanding of their business needs and aspirations, resulting in an ability to influence the strategic roadmap and core IP.”

One of OPD’s latest projects is a good example of this approach…

downstream activities become far more predictable. No one likes surprises and unforeseen changes at a late point in a project, especially in product development when time to market is critical.

“We consider ourselves to be a team of creative and technical problem solvers” explains Managing Director Rupert Wilkinson. “All manner of projects come through our door each with its own unique considerations. Sometimes it’s very compressed time frames, others have challenging specifications or sensitive costs. Each one needs a bespoke strategy”

Working with Ocean Optics, a wellrespected company in the field of optical measurement, OPD have helped them push their technology into a new sector to produce their first handheld, wirelessly connected, spectrometer platform. Developing the industrial design, mechanical and electronics engineering and embedded software and helping to arrange the manufacture paved the route to market for this new product which was also the recipient of a Red Dot Design award. Years of design experience mean that OPD understand the importance of the early stages of design. Building a product on a solid foundation and addressing the risks early on in the project helps the

Continual investment in software and hardware has also played a part in OPD’s growth. Advanced analysis tools such as Mould Flow simulation and Finite Element Analysis (FEA), not only inform the design process but also identify and predict potential failures before they happen. Similarly the purchase of a high end Polyjet 3D printer lets the team immediately prototype designs in thousands of possible grades of materials to closely simulate the functional and aesthetic properties of the materials, giving clients a really good idea of what the end product will look, and work-like from early on, and ultimately speeding up development.

The whole design process is geared around product delivery so that clients can realise their investment as quickly as possible. Breaking projects into a series of sprints enables rapid development and helps to de-risk the process which is underpinned by ISO 9001. OPD is also versed at working with patent attorneys to make sure new ideas are properly protected and can be fully exploited. Close links to a trusted global supply chain, means OPD can offer the option for “turnkey” product delivery, with end-to-end design management, ensuring our clients get the best quality at the best price.

Developing technologies and core IP, creating stylish products that are easy to manufacture, and speeding up the overall design process, is what makes the team at Oxford Product Design tick

“Rather than just designing a device, our approach considers the entire product architecture as a platform”

Rupert Wilkinson, Managing Director Oxford Product Design

DIGITAL BUSINESSES ARE REGION’S TOP TECH START-UPS

An Oxford-based digital health business and a photograph verification company based at Harwell, have been identified as two top tech start-ups in the region.

Vitaccess, based at the Oxford Centre for Innovation in New Road was one of just 10 companies nationally winning a Tech Nation Rising Stars Awards, having expanded its workforce by 500 per cent in just 18 months.

The other regional winner was Serelay, based at Harwell Campus. Serelay enables mobile device users to capture verifyable photos and videos, and platforms receiving these to query their authenticity of content, time and location.

As awareness rises of the role that manipulated photographs can play in the dissemination of false information, or “fake news”, Serelay can quickly verify the content, time and location of any Trusted Media Capture compliant photo or video.

Vitaccess’s success follows a number of achievements in 2018 when Chief Executive Officer, Dr Mark Larkin, was named Regulatory Tech Founder of the Year in the BMWi UK Tech Founder Awards.

He was also named runner-up in the Technology Excellence Awards at the Oxfordshire Business Awards and shortlisted as Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 in the Natwest Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

Vitaccess produces real-time data on how diseases and treatments impact on people’s everyday lives based on information from smartphone apps.

Having launched the business in Switzerland in 2014, Dr Mark Larkin set up his headquarters at the Oxford Centre for Innovation in 2017, expanding his team from three employees to 18 in less than two years.

HT2 Labs wins Queen’s Awards for Enterprise

A pioneer in digital learning has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for innovation. HT2 Labs won for its Learning Record Store.

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise recognise business success. The awards acknowledge outstanding achievement across four categories: innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity through social mobility.

HT2 Chief Executive, Ben Betts, said: “This is the result of many years of work and dedication, often pursued in the face of great uncertainty. We are proud to push the online learning industry forward towards a next generation of learning system that truly exploits the power of data. To do this in a way that is open source and available to everyone is ground-breaking.”

Learning Locker is the world’s mostwidely installed learning record store, existing as a big learning data warehouse used to store, sort and share digital learning activity. Available in both Open Source and Enterprise editions, the LRS enables organisations to pool data from many systems into one.

White Horse Plastics helps bring water to African villages

Faringdon-based injection moulding company White Horse Plastics has helped bring life-saving technology to African countries.

The company has designed and produced the tooling and injection moulds of the award-winning product for eWaterPay, a company offering a low-cost pay-as-you-go water system using mobile technology and a proprietary design moulding.

On a continent where more people have access to mobile phones than to clean

Regional round-up

drinking water, eWaterPay helps ensure accessibility to clean water in communities that need it most.

Its technology tracks water collection revenue to ensure all stakeholders contributing to the operation and maintenance of a water system can be held accountable.

Rob Hygate, Chief Technical Officer at eWaterPay said: “We are now poised to develop full production moulding runs for the global marketplace.”

A total of 103 eWatertaps have now been deployed in seven villages in The Gambia, working closely with the Ministry of Water. Two villages in Tanzania followed suit, working with DFID, Babati District Council and Water Aid.

Text alerts via the eWatercare app enable water supply operators to carry out repairs within five hours. People buy eWATERcredit using mobile money or app transfer. eWaterpay is aiming to transform the lives of 2.1 billion people by providing sustainable access to water.

2019 South and Vale Business Awards

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils hosted its second annual business awards at Williams Conference Centre in Didcot. The South and Vale of White Horse in Oxfordshire is home to a buoyant economy, from advanced engineering companies to independent retailers.Finalists, sponsors and judges attended a drinks reception in the exclusive surroundings of Sir Frank Williams’ private collection of Formula One cars before a gala dinner and awards presentations. www.vale4business.com/svba/

PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB LACEY

Andrew Nellist and Lucy Nash from Royds Withy King with Jemima King and Rachel Porter from Richardsons

Cllr Mike Murray, Suzanne Malcolm & Cllr Paul Harrison

Lisa Rudzki, Lottie Ford, Robert Bond and Lorrie Fry from Reaction Engines

David Williams from Bidwells with Paulette and Michael Elliott from Huduma and Mark Burrows from Harwell Campus Adrian Sweeney, Lauren Carey and James Dell from Planet IT

Paul Monaco and Nick Jones from Focus Oxford Risk Management and Nick King from South and Vale Business Awards

Andrew King from Richardsons with Andy Cowie from James Cowper Kreston and Nicky Godding from Business & Innovation Magazine

Guests compete to win before dinner

Ursula Gunn-Carter and Cameron Rathwell from HSBC with Simon Bassett from Royds Withy King and Dr Roger Mould from HSBC

Stuart Crook from Wellers and Hayley Dicks from HSBC

Simon Smith and Christina Nawrocki from Wellers with Andrew Nellist from Royds Withy Kings and Debbie Austin from Wellers

Kirsty Muir from Business & Innovation Magazine with Cameron Rathwell from HSBC and Nicky Godding from Business & Innovation Magazine

Breast milk bank expands thanks to White October

SOLAR CELL TECHNOLOGY SECURES GERMAN INVESTMENT

Oxford PV, which is leading the next generation of solar sell technology, has signed an exclusive collaboration agreement with leading photovoltaic equipment supplier Meyer Burger AG. The agreement will help speed up development of mass production technology for perovskite-on-silicon solar cells and modules.

Silicon, the mainstream solar technology, is reaching its efficiency limit. Oxford PV’s perovskite solar technology will allow silicon solar cell and module manufacturers to significantly improve the performance.

Meyer Burger will take a significant stake in Oxford PV of up to 18.8 per cent of capital with the option to double the investment by the end of 2020.

Hans Brändle, Chief Executive Officer at Meyer Burger said, “Perovskite tandem solar cells are viewed in the solar industry as the next generation in solar cell technology, enabling the reduction of the cost of solar energy to unprecedented levels. We are pleased to collaborate with Oxford PV, the leading global company

“Meyer Burger’s investment in Oxford PV validates the credibility and market readiness of our technology. Perovskite PV will transform solar power generation”

for perovskite tandem solar cells, speeding up the time-to-market for this promising technology.”

Christian Langen, Chairman of the Board at Oxford PV, added: “Meyer Burger’s investment in Oxford PV validates the credibility and market readiness of our technology. Perovskite PV will transform solar power generation.”

Oxford PV has raised £3 million in its latest funding round, with a major new investment from Goldwind, the leading provider of integrated renewable energy solutions in China, and investment from existing shareholders including Equinor and Legal & General Capital.

CALA Homes to transform former paper mill into new homes and industrial units

Regional round-up

Work has started on the transformation of the former Wolvercote Paper Mill into a vibrant mixed-use development of new homes, community facilities and public open space.

The Mill ceased production in 1997 and since the demolition of the buildings in 2004, the land has stood derelict for more than a decade.

CALA is now working with architects Glenn Howells (GHA) to create the new development.

Mill Square will become a new community hub featuring light industrial units. There will also be a new community building at the entrance to the site, with main hall, kitchen and bathroom facilities.

Donor milk non-profit service Hearts

Milk Bank has expanded its innovative breast milk collection app to 18 counties thanks to the donation of £38,000 of services by Oxford-based digital product consultancy White October.

Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK every year, with many mothers unable to breastfeed at the crucial stage when breast milk can raise a baby’s chance of survival and normal development.

Hearts Milk Bank, which matches breast milk donors with volunteer motorbike riders, was developed by Dr Natalie Shenker and Gillian Weaver in 2017. White October developed a web application after the initiative won funding from the Nesta Sharelab Fund.

White October has since donated a further £38,000 in development, design and product management, helping Hearts Milk Bank accept donor milk from an increasing number of English counties.

The milk is collected by volunteer motorbike riders working for a network of Service by Emergency Rider Volunteers (SERV) charities, the same bikers who deliver emergency blood donations.

The new homes on the development will be a mix of apartments, townhouses, traditional two-storey and larger homes. CALA will be providing 50 per cent affordable housing as well as contributing more that £2 million towards local infrastructure and facilities.

Oxford PV perovskite-silicon solar cells at the company’s industrial pilot line

Artist’s impression of the new Mill Square

Award winning Hawkins Group, celebrates monumental growth…

The Oxfordshire based construction company was founded in 1978 by Mick Hawkins as a sole trader. Hawkins Roofing quickly became known for its quality and reliable service building the basis for the fantastic reputation that the group are proud of today. Since being joined by his son, Mike Hawkins whose understanding of the business and its clients requirements, quickly saw the addition of Hawkins Steel Ltd offering a complete range of bespoke steel fabrication and stockholding services, the business has gone from strength to strength.

Following a company restructure in 2014, Mike Hawkins took the helm as Managing Director for the group and another new addition to the group was launched – Hawkins Projects Ltd, specialising in turn key project management. As the company grew there became a need for each business to have a more dedicated focus and Mike appointed two directors to head up each of the individual businesses. Paul Jackson, appointed Director for Hawkins Projects Ltd and Hawkins Roofing Ltd and John Baker appointed Director for Hawkins Steel Ltd with the aim of driving these businesses forward.

With a strong leadership and management team now in place The Hawkins Group are set for more continued growth. With the foundations of financial stability and control of all of its businesses they aim to continue to grow by more than 40% in 2019.

The Hawkins Group are currently involved in many exciting projects, from general construction to technical engineering. The group will deliver in excess of £25M of high-profile projects, ranging from factory refurbishments, to installation of large manufacturing facilities and office refurbishments to name just a few of the projects. There are no limits to the services the group can provide or the locations in which they can provide it. Not only have they completed projects throughout the UK but have also worked in Europe, Singapore and America.

Growth within the business has been driven by a reputation for delivering complex engineering and construction solutions. As their reputation grows so does the business and the clients requests and requirements. The group are always looking for new clients that require a contractor with skilled construction and

engineering staff that can deliver bespoke projects with particular attention to Health and Safety, budget control and programme management.

One of the Hawkins Groups key strengths is having control over the major aspects of their building projects. They are able to utilise the businesses within the group and support each other with requirements for each project. The groups own design office based in their Banbury headquarters allow the group to quicken design times for clients and remove the risk of design coordination by undertaking this between in house teams.

The Hawkins group have grown significantly in recent years and now employ over 100 people at its Banbury

With a string of regional business awards to his name and growing portfolio of engineering and construction projects it’s no wonder that Mike Hawkins, Managing Director of the Hawkins Group is feeling very positive about the future…

“Our growth and success is dedicated to our experienced and qualified workforce, they provide first class quality services to our loyal customer base on a daily basis”

Mike Hawkins Managing Director Hawkins Group

Mike Hawkins, Managing Director John Baker, Divisional Director

Paul Jackson, Divisional Director Ian Crofts, Group Financial Director

based Headquarters. The company have invested heavily over the past 10 years with new buildings, the latest manufacturing machinery, equipment and software. In the past 12 months they have purchased new office space for 25 new employees in Hawkins Projects along with new laser profiling machines and new cranes for Hawkins Steel.

As a business the group attributes its success to employing highly skilled, technical people. The workforce has steadily grown over the years. New employees have been recruited to build on the existing platform of expertise. Training and coaching of all of the staff employed within the group has been a vital part of team development. In 2018 over 2000 hours of staff development were completed. The group provide opportunities such as apprenticeships to school leavers and also development programmes and training for all existing employees. Along with growth also came changes that have challenged the business team to ensure that these changes are

managed successfully. A continuous improvement leader joined the business in 2017 to deliver changes and to develop processes and individuals across the group.

to ensure that they can deliver on whatever is required for their customers. The group’s ambition is to continue to develop its people and businesses. They take pride in themselves as experts in delivering dynamic solutions to an exceptionally high standard whilst always taking into consideration the customers vision and what they expect to achieve from their project. With a such a strong reputation within the construction and engineering industry to uphold, the focus is to continue to build upon that reputation.

The Hawkins Group have been working to the same values that have been instilled within the business since its first day of trading. The ethos of the company is based on employing a team of extremely hardworking individuals, with a blend of skills

Unit 9a, Thorpe Way, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 4SP

T: 01295 252363

www.hawkins-group.co.uk

The Hawkins Group take pride in always providing their customers with a more than satisfactory service and make it a priority to continue to offer great value and services to its customers. Receiving thanks from a happy customer at the end of a job has always been of great importance to Hawkins and something that is still at the core of their values today.

“There is no substitute for hard work and no better feeling than the satisfaction of great feedback from a happy customer, It’s these values that have enabled the group to proudly have a high customer retention rate with 93% of customers returning to Hawkins to request more work”

Mike Hawkins Managing Director Hawkins Group

With research and development more crucial than ever in a fast-moving, tech-driven world, the government has introduced significant tax incentives in recent years to encourage greater spending on the discovery and development of new ideas.

Tax credits for small and medium sized companies, in particular, are increasingly generous, and can help to offset the substantial costs of research and development.

Since the introduction of these credits Whitley Stimpson, one of the largest independent accountancy practices in the area, has helped many companies with successful claims. These range from technology businesses, right through to traditional engineering and manufacturing companies.

One such firm is Eynsham-based SST Technology, an engineering business specialising in the design and manufacture

of bespoke, advanced precision fabrications and thermal management systems. With the help of Whitley Stimpson, over the last four years SST and Lentus Composites (part of the Polar Technology Management Group) achieved SME tax credit repayments, R&D Expenditure Credits and reductions in corporation tax that totalled over £1m.

“By understanding our business, Whitley Stimpson highlighted many opportunities to claim R&D tax credit payments.”

“Whitley Stimpson helped advise on the group tax position and how best to use the R&D tax relief available as well as how to optimise R&D capital allowances. This has enabled us to reinvest an enormous amount of cash back into our business, funding growth and working capital requirements through tax credits rather than profit.”

Ian Parker, director at Whitley Stimpson in Banbury says: “When considering whether to apply for R&D tax relief, it’s important to be aware of the rigorous terms and conditions governing a company’s eligibility for the scheme. The rules of R&D tax relief have been simplified in recent years, but there are still stringent requirements that must be met.

However, our experience of the HMRC has suggested that they are positive rather than seeking to knock back the claims, provided they are happy that there is genuine innovation and R&D occurring.”

Dr Scott Roberts, Chairman, Polar Technology Management and Ian Parker, Director, Whitley Stimpson

BANBURY: ON THE HIGHWAY TO EVERYWHERE

To the uninitiated, Banbury sounds a beguiling place, offering visions of fine ladies on white horses riding through the town eating Banbury cakes. But there’s a lot more to this town.

Banbury residents are probably heartily fed up of outsiders referring to the old nursery rhyme, the town’s Banbury Cross and its eponymous cake (similar to the more widely-known currant-filled Eccles cake).

In fact, Banbury (which is mentioned in the Domesday Book) is also perfect for business and has been since the 13th century when it was an important trading centre for the region’s wool industry.

If you could pick an ideal commercial location, then Banbury would be at the top of the list.

The town sits within the “golden triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London, midway between the capital and the UK’s Midlands industrial heartland, close to the UK’s centre of automotive engineering. Its train station provides services to London, Oxford and Birmingham and there’s handy access to the M40.

It’s got almost 200 hectares of land available for business growth and investment which has been allocated through the local authority’s adopted Cherwell Local Plan up to 2031.

Further significant investment is planned for Banbury town centre with retail and

leisure development to help realise the potential of the town’s river and canal.

The town’s major employers include UTC Aerospace which designs and manufactures advanced carbon fibre composite products for the aerospace, defence, advanced vehicles and clean energy markets at its Banbury facility. The famous coffee brand Jacobs Douwe Egberts, also based in the town, is responsible for producing 20,000 tonnes of coffee per year across nine production lines.

And there are many other employers driving innovation in Banbury.

There’s room for everyone

Banbury might be a major hub for some of the region’s biggest businesses, but there is also space for start-ups. Bloxham Mill Business Centre is a privately-owned company serving Banbury’s small and medium enterprise (SME) community.

There are currently more than 100 businesses at Bloxham Mill, from computer gamers to structural engineers and industrial psychologists.

“If you could pick the ideal commercial location, then Banbury would be at the top of the list”

Norbar Torque Tools

Incorporated in 1943, the North Bar Tool Company became the first in Britain to commercially manufacture torque wrenches. The initial demand was driven by the need for the gasketless cylinder head of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine to be accurately tightened. Bill Brodey and his partner Ernest Thornitt obtained a licence from Britain’s wartime government to begin manufacture of torque wrenches and Norbar was born.

While the company continues to be managed by descendants of the founder, in 2017 the Norbar Group was acquired by the USA company Snap-on Incorporated, a leading global, manufacturer and marketer of tools and equipment, since when the company has continued to grow.

Jacobs Douwe Egberts wakes up and smells the coffee in Banbury

Jacobs Douwe Egberts manufactures a range of its coffee brands in Banbury where more than 600 people work at its site based in Ruscote Avenue. While the site is home to Kenco, other brands in the Jacobs Douwe Egberts portfolio manufactured there include Douwe Egberts, Tassimo, LO’R and Jacobs.

Jacobs Douwe Egberts also carries out research and development at Banbury, helping the company to constantly expand its product portfolio.

DCS LAUNCHES NEW PHARMACY DIVISION

DCS Group has launched a new Pharmacy Division with deliveries to pharmacy wholesalers throughout the UK.

The company, which has invested more than £100,000 in a new medicines storage facility at its Banbury distribution centre, hopes this division will contribute £10 million sales within two years.

The new facility can store more than 500 pallets of over-the-counter medicines in a temperature controlled environment.

Chairman and CEO Denys Shortt OBE, said: “We continue to work with customers and major brands to offer the best sales and marketing service in the UK.

“As DCS strives for its 25th year of consecutive growth, we recognise the importance of diversification. Pharmacy offers a great opportunity to trade in a key, yet new channel for us.”

DCS is the official UK sales and distribution company for brands including Gillette, Unilever, Colgate, SC Johnson, L’Oreal and more.

In 2009 Denys saw the demise of British manufacturing and decided to invest £4 million in a new health and beauty factory in Stratford-upon-Avon making shampoo, handwash and other toiletries. It now manufactures for retailers such as Aldi, Lidl, Wilko and Poundland. In July 2017 the company moved from Stratford into its new purpose-built facility at Banbury.

DCS owns the Enliven health and beauty brand which is sold in 75 countries worldwide.

Kärcher cleans up as it expands to meet demand

Kärcher, a global cleaning technology provider, has been in Banbury since 1978 when it began by employing just eight people in the UK.

As well as providing domestic and commercial cleaning equipment, Kärcher has also cleaned the world’s most iconic monuments from the London Eye to Mount Rushmore.

Working with the Global Nature Fund, the company has also built green-filter systems for wastewater cleaning in village communities in Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico and Paraguay.

In 2016 the Germany company moved its 300-strong workforce to a purpose-built 84,500 sq ft UK headquarters at Banbury Point, close to junction 11 of the M40.

Kenco Coffee, one of the Jacobs Douwe Egberts range

Banbury uncovered

“We continue to work with customers and major brands to offer the best sales and marketing service in the UK”

Driving innovation in motorsport technology

Prodrive is one of the world’s leading motorsport businesses, helping major brands to be successful and win international race and rally championships.

The company designs and manufactures some of the world’s most advanced cars and is the business behind some of the greatest names and achievements in world motorsport. However, its advanced engineering division doesn’t just stop

at motorsport. It also helps solve technical challenges in the aerospace, marine, transportation, renewables and other industry sectors.

The company is led by the former World Rally Championship-winning co-driver David Richards, who founded Prodrive in 1984, and employs more than 500 people across its headquarters in Banbury and its composite facility in Milton Keynes.

Work on Castle Quay development begins

Work has begun on the new Castle Quay development in Banbury.

The development will deliver a new restaurant and leisure complex for Banbury anchored by Lidl, The Light Cinema and a Premier Inn hotel.

The new development will act as a link between neighbouring sites such as the Spiceball Leisure Centre, The Mill and the Castle Quay shopping centre.

Castle Quay is one of a number of Banbury initiatives in the pipeline scheduled for completion in various phases throughout 2021.

Hawkins Group expands to meet growing demand

Construction group Hawkins, has expanded into new offices opposite its UK headquarters on the Thorpe Way industrial estate in Banbury.

Westminster Group wins contract to help police fight knife crime

Westminster Group has secured a contract from a UK police authority to supply portable walk-by metal detectors for use in its knife crime prevention strategy.

Westminster designs and supports advanced technology security for surveillance, detection, tracking and interception.

The Westminster Group, which has its headquarters on Blacklock Hill, Banbury, is a global specialist security and services group.

The Portable Walk-By Metal Detector is a rapid deployable system for the detection of contraband items such as

knives and weapons located on a person or located in body cavities.

It has been specifically designed for rapid deployment in street operations for the detection of knives and weapons and at locations from schools to transport hubs or football grounds.

Due to the company’s continued growth, Hawkins has created a new 5,500 sq ft office facility consolidating Hawkins Roofing Ltd and Hawkins Projects Limited.

The building has undergone a complete refurbishment by Hawkins’ own project company and includes the latest green technologies.

During the last five years Hawkins Group has increased its workforce by 40 per cent and invested in IT infrastructure. The company said that the new offices will allow the business to meet its growth ambitions of increasing its turnover by around 38 per cent this year, with a forecasted turnover in excess of £25 million.

Banbury uncovered

Prodrive helped Ford create the first Transit Plug-in Electric Hybrid. Its team integrated the hybrid powertrain systems into an existing Transit platform without any modifications to the engine bay or load capacity.

Portable Walk-By Metal Detector

REGIONAL ROUND-UP THAMES VALLEY

Moorcrofts secures six-figure grant for radical AI project

GOOD ENERGY

TAKES STAKE IN ZAP-MAP

Renewable energy supplier Good Energy has taken a 12.9 per cent share in ZapMap, an app for Britain’s 200,000 electric vehicle (EV) drivers. The app can help plan routes, locate vehicle charging points, check their availability and share power.

The 70,000 monthly users have more than 11,000 charging devices to choose from across the UK, all easily navigable from the app — from service stations to car parks, retail sites to private driveways.

Juliet Davenport, CEO and founder of Chippenham-based Good Energy, said: “The way we view energy is changing. Environmental challenge and digital opportunity are converging and intelligent power sharing is replacing conventional power supply.

“EVs bring power to life and the rapid rise of incredibly useful apps like ZapMap make the management of that power so much simpler.”

BGF invests £11.6m in Reading-based Invenio Business Solutions

BGF, the UK’s most active investor in growing businesses, has invested £11.6 million in Invenio, a Reading-based global provider of business technology and consulting.

Invenio provides its services to organisations in the media, manufacturing, logistics and public sector.

The company has more than 750 employees working for customers worldwide. SAP, the world’s largest enterprise software vendor, named Invenio as one of its leading partners globally for tax and revenue management and the media industry. Invenio’s customers include Universal Music Group, Kuehne & Nagel, the BBC and the Fijian and Saudi tax authorities.

The investment from BGF will help the business scale by expanding its

“We are delighted to have BGF on board for the next stage of our journey and are looking forward to making the most of the team’s expertise in this space”

offering, improving services and growing through acquisition.

Arun Bala, CEO of Invenio, said: “We are delighted to have BGF on board for the next stage of our journey and are looking forward to making the most of the team’s expertise in this space. BGF’s investment will help us continue to invest and grow, whilst keeping control of our business and staying true to our values.”

Alex Snodgrass, an investor at BGF

Marlow-based law firm Moorcrofts has secured significant grant funding to begin an artificial intelligence (AI) project with Oxford Brookes University.

The cloud-based application for client legal contract management could slash the cost of reviewing legal contracts.

The grant was successfully awarded from Innovate UK and Research England as part of a £20 million fund administered by UK Research and Innovation. This supports the development and adoption of AI and data technologies which could transform the UK’s services industries.

who will join the board of Invenio, said: “Invenio is a fantastic, fast-growing business which has created a marketleading position and a loyal and constant customer base.

“Arun and the team have exceptional knowledge and we’re delighted to be a part of this exciting next step for Invenio as it grows to meet demand.”

The Zap-Map app

Regional round-up

Regional round-up

Arun Bala of Invenio

“We look for ways to reuse waste of all kinds. We want to be able to collect more, sort it better and then supply it to someone in a form that they can use”

WASTE MANAGEMENT RUBBISH IDEA ISN’T A

The world wants less rubbish, but it’s going to take technology and innovation to deliver this successfully. Grundon, which celebrates 90 years in business this year, is spearheading the charge

By Nicky Godding

Neil Grundon, Deputy Chairman, Grundon Waste Management

Neil Grundon, Deputy Chairman of Grundon Waste Management, says too many of us have lost touch with what we can and can’t recycle – and few appreciate how much of our waste isn’t recycled at all.

Three years ago, the UK was exporting almost half a million tonnes of plastic to China and Hong Kong. Then they told us they didn’t want it any more.

We weren’t alone in this. Europe may have one of the highest global plastic recycling rates, but it’s still the world’s largest exporter of waste to China and India. However, if and when Brexit happens, the UK will be looking at its rubbish in the face again and will have to make decisions on what to do with it, probably sooner than our erstwhile European colleagues.

Neil Grundon says that might not be a bad thing, because if we tackle the problem properly and early, we are more likely to come up with commercial solutions.

Taking inspiration from across the pond

Surprisingly we can learn from the USA. “North Americans are a lot more in touch with the packaging issue than Europeans.

“They use paper bags far more often and the bags usually have the name of the mill where the paper came from.

“The Americans are a capitalist society, they believe the consumer is king and love buying stuff, but they do fear environmental pollution. In Europe we still skirt around the idea of consumerism and tend to react by banning things.

“Take cotton buds – Europe wants to ban them. In America they make cotton buds out of paper.”

Grundon, which has its headquarters in Oxfordshire, wants people to create less waste, but that won’t threaten its success and profitability. However much is recycled, there will always be rubbish. “We look for ways to reuse waste of all kinds,” said Neil. “We want to be able to collect more, sort it better and then supply it in a form that others can use.”

He believes in the circular economy and that all industries should be designing a product from disposal up – like the American cotton buds. Not product down.

There’s a bit of the Ricky Gervais about Neil. His slightly off-the-wall approach is tempered by a deep commitment to what he does.

And that mindset often enables him to see commercial opportunities others miss.

Making waste carbon neutral

Take an idea Neil came across around 10 years ago. It was for the development of an award-winning, patented process which recycles air pollution control residues (APCr) from Energy from Waste facilities into the world’s first truly carbon-negative aggregate. The aggregate can be used as a building material.

Grundon invested, taking the technology from pilot to fully working plant. The company invested millions building a second plant at Avonmouth near Bristol and in February, Carbon Aggregates opened its third plant in Leeds.

To date, Carbon8 Aggregates has locked up enough carbon dioxide by planting 49 square miles of trees, a sum that is growing year-on-year.

“A business which started as a lab experiment now employs 80 people,” said Neil. “It’s the first commercial carbon capture and storage business, using up waste carbon dioxide that would otherwise have been vented into the atmosphere, locking it up for ever in building materials. It’s one of the most exciting things that we, as a company, have ever done.”

This could be a world-beating innovation, he added, and it makes sense commercially. “It’s great watching a young company grow and being inspired by their enthusiasm.”

The long view gives wider perspectives

Having worked in the family business for most of his adult life (he’s going to be 50 this year), Neil joined when it was more about disposal and landfill than about waste management as it is today, so where did his environmental enthusiasm come from?

The Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, he says, where he studied for a year before heading to Australia to work on a sheep farm. The whole agricultural college experience was new to him. “I’d grown up in suburbia and never met any landed gentry before.”

Grundon

Grundon Grundon

Do you recycle? That’s a rhetorical question – we all do now. But do you know what to recycle, where and how – and what happens to it? There is so much conflicting information and advice.

Grundon and Carbon8 Aggregates’ dual-livery vehicle

To his surprise they were, by and large, very similar to him, “Apart from the fact that they seemed to have a remarkable amount of money and very nice cars.”

It was thanks to the tutors and fellow students at Cirencester that he began to understand crop rotation, the importance of soil structure and good land management.

“I was talking to people who knew what worked for the soil and what didn’t. There was a feeling even then that we couldn’t carry on chucking fertiliser on the land willy nilly, and unless we improved the soil structure it wasn’t going to get any better.”

Enough electricity to power Slough, thanks to energy from waste

As well as promoting re-use and recycling, Grundon operates a huge Energy from Waste facility at Colnbrook, near Slough. In fact, it’s sitting on what could become Heathrow’s third runway.

The recovery of energy from waste has a major part to play within the waste hierarchy. Once the preferred options of reducing, re-using and recycling waste resources have been exhausted, energy from waste is one of the best available techniques for recovering energy from the residual waste that remains, and Grundon produces 38 megawatts of energy at its Colnbrook plant.

This is enough to power all of the houses in Slough, whereas a solitary windmill produces one megawatt – but only if the wind is blowing.

That’s not to say that wind doesn’t have a place, Neil said firmly. “You need an energy mix, and more importantly in an uncertain world, you need energy security.”

Neil travels all over the world to look at new ways to manage and reduce waste, and points out that each country manages its waste in a different way.

“Switzerland incinerates 95 per cent of its waste, feeding in disposable plastic because it burns well. Japan does the same. There,

households are given a combustible bin and a glass bin. In these countries, using items such as ketchup sachets is OK, because they are incinerated to produce energy, but if you are in Indonesia, they are much more environmentally damaging.

The same in the Caribbean. The only means of waste disposal there is landfill. And it’s called The Windies for a reason — loose plastic will blow into the sea.”

Neil is characteristically upbeat. “The plant became operational in 2010 and its technology remains best in class but if we are building it again, there may be more opportunities to do more with the heat we produce.

“I have absolute faith that the next generation of chemists, physicists, mathematicians and biologists will come up with the solutions. Whenever mankind has faced problems before, we’ve engineered our way out of them.”

And he’s proud of his 90-year-old family business, which is still chaired by his father Norman – a man with as much personality as his son.

This is where the world’s biggest brands need to better understand the countries they are selling into and how their waste is dealt with – and sell appropriate packaging for each country.

Back in Slough, Grundon is currently faced with the headache of having to potentially relocate its Energy from Waste plant from the site of Heathrow’s proposed third runway.

Neil says: “We are a proper grown-up business with some really, really good people around us. Many of them are young and dynamic and that’s the best thing. As a business matures it’s nice to have a figurehead but what you really want is the very best people working for you and that’s what we have really majored on in the last five years. They have the drive and enthusiasm to move the business on.

“These are extraordinary times. And they are exciting times. I like a bit of change, it’s never done anyone any harm and it’s time to use a bit of ingenuity.”

Grundon

“These are extraordinary times. And they are exciting times. I like a bit of change, it’s never done anyone any harm and it’s time to use a bit of ingenuity”

The Lakeside Energy from Waste facility in Colnbrook, near Slough’

AUGMENTED REALITY AGENCY WINS

MAJOR BUSINESS AWARD

An Evesham-based design and digital agency leading the way in mobile augmented reality (AR), is celebrating success.

Areca Design won Midlands Digital Communications Business of the Year at the Midlands Business Awards and has been shortlisted in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire 2019 Awards in the Best Use of Technology category.

It has also been commissioned by Red Tractor, an assurance scheme run by the food industry to ensure food comes from a trustworthy and safe source. Its Red Tractor Mobile AR App will be promoted on food and drink packaging of UK producers and retailers which have passed its rigorous testing, and will be seen in restaurants, pub-chains and supermarkets.

Areca Design has a strong reputation for innovation, bringing ideas to life in 3D reality to create consumer experiences.

Managing Director, Mick Hurst, said: “AR technology works by programming your mobile device’s camera to recognise trigger images, which may be in print, physical objects or real-world locations.

“These trigger videos, interactive 3D models or really anything digital. These AR apps are impacting every industry from gaming to tourism.”

Areca Design has also used AR to promote construction giants AMEY and Cheltenham-headquartered graphene company Versarien, among many other projects.

As one of the Directors of the Battle of Evesham Festival, which will be reenacted this August, Mick is developing interactive beer mats where Simon De Montfort springs to life to tell the story of one of England’s most important battles. The beer mat reverse launches a computer-generated version of the battle.

REGIONAL ROUND-UP WORCESTERSHIRE

Worcestershire Ambassadors welcome 30 new members

Worcestershire Ambassadors, the organisation aiming to promote the county at home and nationally, has welcomed 30 new members. These include Business & Innovation Magazine’s Rosemary Henderson. The evening was hosted by new Chair of the Worcestershire Ambassadors, Kevin Powell.

The Ambassadors work in partnership with other groups in the county including The Chamber of Commerce, Local Enterprise Partnership, University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council.

The event allowed new members to meet the Board and other existing ambassadors as well as to formally announce the Worcestershire Ambassadors two chosen charities for this year: St Paul’s Hostel and the Worcester Community Trust.

Kevin said: “This is an exciting time for the Worcestershire Ambassadors, promoting our county and all the amazing things we offer. As part of this, we are driving membership forward this year and have already seen an increase in members.”

Jutexpo collaborates with John Lewis on bags made of recycled bottles

Jutexpo, based at Salford Priors near Evesham, has collaborated with John Lewis and designer Caroline Gardner to produce a new shopping bag made from recycled plastic bottles.

Made using Jutexpo’s HALT process, which turns plastic

into a soft, durable fabric, each bag is made using around eight recycled plastic bottles.

The bags, which have a pineapple design, are now available in store and online.

HALT bags are the first

to have certification to the Global Recycled Standard, made using low carbon emission production.

Robbie McGregor, Jutexpo Director, said: “By recycling postconsumer bottles to create innovative reusable bags, we are adding purpose to what would have otherwise been discarded as uncontrollable waste.”

Mick Hurst wins Midlands Digital Communications Business of the Year

Jutexpo bag for John Lewis

This is the observation of newly appointed Ostap Paparega, Head of NWedR, North Worcestershire Economic Development and Regeneration.

During the first 100 days in my new role, I have seen behind the doors an amazing range of businesses across North Worcestershire of which there are more than 17,500, accounting for 52.5% of all businesses in Worcestershire

We work on behalf of the three local authorities of Bromsgrove, Redditch and Wyre Forest and our remit is to drive forward economic growth and regeneration across North Worcestershire. With a relatively small team, we provide business support and work with partners to nurture inward investment, which includes infrastructure as well as business re-location support. We proactively connect businesses and people to employment and training,

businesses

events and initiatives such as the new North Worcestershire Business Awards (www.NWBusAwards.org)

We are currently working with partners on a new North Worcestershire Economic Growth Strategy which will build on the existing infrastructure, promote growth, and continue to invest in North Worcestershire as the natural environment for business for now and the future.

We will be asking businesses to get involved in developing this strategic plan, so keep in touch with us through Twitter @NorthWorcsEDR or by registering to receive our monthly newsletter through our website www.nwedr.org.uk

You can also email me direct Ostap.paparega@nwedr.org.uk

“North Worcestershire is a gem of a place. For businesses large and small, the area has everything going for it - and for them”

Ostap Paparega,

Head of

NWedR

“Connecting, networking and actively engaging with

and partners on

is key to our work and provides us with up to the minute, valuable business intelligence which informs everything we do.”

Ostap Paparega Head of NWedR

Be part of the first business awards celebrating the rising stars of North Worcestershire

HOP MERCHANT WINS BEST SUPPLIER AWARD AT SIBA

Malvern-based hop merchant Charles Faram has been won the Best Supplier award at the SIBA Business Awards, organised by the Society of Independent Brewers.

Charles Faram was praised by brewers for the company’s industry knowledge and customer commitment.

Charlie Gorham, PR and Marketing Manager at Charles Faram, said: “We are very proud to have won

Hundreds of companies gain scale-up recognition

Hundreds of Worcestershire companies have significant scale-up potential, according to new research by the ScaleUp Institute.

The figures were based on Office for National Statistics data, which highlighted 340 businesses county businesses.

The top five scale-ups by employment growth are cordless vacuum cleaner company GTech, homebuilder Lioncourt Homes, healthcare property management business Prime, care home operator Heritage Manor and Industrial & Tractor.

Lioncourt Homes, GTech and Heritage Manor also feature in the top five scaleups by turnover growth, along with estate agent Ludlow Thompson and property management company Mainstay Group.

The ScaleUp Institute is a not-forprofit organisation which collaborates with policy makers, education and the private sector.

“We are very proud to have won Best Supplier Associate 2019, especially as it was thanks to vote from the brewers themselves”

Best Supplier Associate 2019, especially as it was thanks to votes from the brewers themselves.”

SIBA currently represents around 830 independent UK craft breweries.

Major investment at Evesham factory to boost staff welfare

Supreme Concrete, a business owned by clay and concrete building products manufacturer Ibstock, is undertaking significant investment at its Evesham factory.

The refurbishment work includes a new reception area and office facilities, meeting space and work hub for visitors and production supervisors.

The key objective for the investment at the Weston Road facility is to create a more efficient workspace to boost productivity of staff.

Derrick Higginson, Interim Factory Manager, said: “This investment gives us a much-needed boost right across the site. It makes us more efficient and allows us to demonstrate an even greater commitment to creating a better place for people to work.”

Medal designer commissioned to make special Rwandan memorial

Malvern-based creative design and production company Selcraft has designed a special medal for the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda.

Run by Carl Huxley, the company has been creating award-winning insignia for more than 45 years and its latest commission was a special medal called The Steven Krulis Champion of Humanity Award.

It’s one of many commissions undertaken by Selcraft, which range from key fobs for luxury car dealerships to staff recognition awards.

The Kigali Genocide Memorial is the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It honours the memory of more than one million Rwandans killed in 1994, through education and peace-building.

Carl said: “It’s a great honour to have our work recognised on an international stage that will stand in pride of place to support the memory of those who lost their lives.”

Front row: Nigel Barden, Jason Little, Beth Eaton, Charlie Gorham, Back row: Paul Corbett, Will Rogers, Neil Walker

“It’s a great honour to have our work recognised on an international stage that will stand in pride of place to support the memory of those who lost their lives”

Regional round-up

Selcraft’s special medal for the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda

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Keeping your records up to date, on-time and live is how we’ve always encouraged our clients to work. It gives you a greater control of your business, your invoicing, chasing and keeping your all-important suppliers happy.

The implementation of MTD is easy to handle – we’ve been trialling multiple software platforms with our clients for months using the MTD pilot and have had no issues with submissions. Most software providers have embraced the changes and operate smoothly and for those that don’t wish to invest into software at this stage;

we have implemented internal software options to keep our clients compliant.

MTD is not to be feared, it’s another of HMRC’s introductions to electronic reporting and should be viewed the same as online Self-Assessments and RTI Payroll Submissions. The transition is smooth, having live and up to date data is a benefit and every small business can handle this with the right support.

If this is something that is still worrying you and your business we are always happy to help.

If you would like further information please contact a member of our team who will be happy to help. T: 01905 622202 | www.swanda.co.uk

HMRC have gone live in the timeframes anticipated with Making Tax Digital (MTD) and there have been a lot of scare-stories circulated that we would like to assure small businesses that they shouldn’t be worried about.

Why is everyone scared of MTD?

Stoford hands over £9 million unit to Spire Healthcare

Private hospital provider Spire Healthcare is preparing to move into its new £9 million premises at Worcester Six Business Park.

BUZZING AFTER 20 YEARS IN BUSINESS ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR

Evesham-based Buzz Electrical began its 20th anniversary this year by inviting Nigel Huddlestone, MP for Mid Worcestershire, to kick-start the celebrations and launch the company’s anniversary charity, Diabetes UK.

Buzz is one of the leading electrical contractors in the area, specialising in residential, industrial and commercial services and installations.

Business owners, Steve and Sue Owens began the company working from home in Badsey. Continuing growth and

expansion of the business four years ago saw its relocation to new offices in Evesham with a team of 27, as well as a specialist technical division Buzz Technical.

Buzz won Small Apprenticeship Employer of the Year and Apprenticeship Employer of the Year at the 2018 Worcestershire Apprenticeships Awards as well as becoming finalists in the national Electrical Industry Awards 2018 as Electrical Contractor of the Year for the second year running.

QinetiQ expands across Asia Pacific in exporting push

Leading British security and defence contractor, QinetiQ, which has bases in Malvern, Pershore and Abingdon, is boosting its business development in the Asia Pacific region.

The company has opened an office in Kuala Lumpur and signed a contract in South Korea, its first contract in the region.

Mike Collier, Business Development Director International at QinetiQ said: “QinetiQ’s increased focus in Asia Pacific supports our ambition to generate 50 per

cent of our revenues from international customers within five years.

“There is strong interest in our capabilities, particularly our critical decision-making and procurement consulting, threat representation, test and evaluation services.

“We also have growing relationships with customers that have expressed an interest in our engineering support capabilities, particularly in aircraft structural integrity where we can help enable air platform longevity.”

When the business moves to the 72,500 sq ft unit at the £120 million business site, it will provide jobs in customer and professional services, distribution services and archive management.

The healthcare company has 39 hospitals and eight clinics, as well as a specialist oncology centre across England, Wales and Scotland, providing diagnostics, in-patient, daycase and outpatient care.

It also has a national distribution centre at Stonebridge Cross, Droitwich, where its 60,000 sq ft operation employs 75 people. The new facility will provide additional essential support to Spire Healthcare’s existing facilities.

Gerard Ludlow, director of Stoford Developments, which is delivering the 1.5 million sq ft Worcester Six Business Park, said: “We’re pleased to have achieved practical completion for Spire Healthcare and it comes at a pivotal time for the business park.

“As each new business prepares to move in, it means new jobs and a strengthening commitment to investing in the area.”

In February, Stoford began construction on a £20 million environmentally-friendly development for Kohler Mira, parent company of Mira Showers. It was the fourth occupier to announce its move to Worcester Six in the last few months.

Worcester Six Business Park is located off Junction 6 of the M5.

Sue and Steve Owens with Nigel Huddlestone, MP

Regional round-up

Homes England trials co-location in the Midlands

STADIUMTM BAGS MIDLANDS INNOVATION AWARD

A Coventry company’s innovative idea of supplying temporary barriers designed to prevent vehicle-ramming attacks in crowded spaces has been recognised at the 2019 Midlands Business Awards.

StadiumTM, which lends temporary hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) security barriers to organisers of all sorts of public events, won the Midlands Innovation of the Year award at a ceremony in Leicester.

The company was also given a highly commended’ award in the Midlands Service Provider of the Year.

David McAtamney, Managing Director of StadiumTM, said the firm’s idea to buy different kinds of HVM solutions and then rent them out to clients was a natural extension to the firm’s event management specialist business.

He said: “We’re the first company to offer temporary HVM solutions for hire. Before us, clients would have to consider

spending a fortune on buying barriers and gates outright for one event, and then have to keep them in storage for the rest of the year.

“In the 12 months we’ve offered this service, our HVMs have been used more than 300 times at events like the Godiva Festival and BBC Music’s Biggest Weekend in Coventry, as well as the Fever Tree Championships in London.”

“We have won awards within the event management industry before, but never one of this magnitude.”

Harj Sandher, Managing Director of the Midlands Business Awards, said: “Innovative companies like StadiumTM really make our economy thrive. They have a real passion for what they do and it’s no surprise our judges picked them for not one, but two awards.

“StadiumTM is a credit to the region and we hope to see the business continue to grow.”

3D simulation of innovative light rail vehicle revealed

A 3D simulation of a new light rail vehicle for Coventry City Council has been revealed by engineers at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), at the University of Warwick.

The electric-powered vehicle will be designed to be adapted to become autonomous in the future and it could transform tram-style travel. Being battery powered, it will generate zero emissions

in the city. Engineers and researchers at WMG have been working alongside Stratford-based Transport Design International to develop the batterypowered, lightweight, rail-based vehicle which will operate in Coventry.

Jonathan Browning, chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “It is great news that the prototype of the Very Light Rail vehicle

Homes England is trialling shared office space with Coventry City Council to see if the centre of the country location could work as a new national centre for the agency.

Sir Edward Lister, Chairman of Homes England, said: “Homes England is committed to a placebased approach, working with local experts to accelerate the delivery of homes across the country.

“The co-location trial in Coventry is a way of cementing that collaborative approach as teams work side by side.”

Councillor Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member at Coventry City Council, said: “The announcement that Homes England is establishing a presence in Coventry, at Friargate, right next to the fastest-growing railway station outside London, offers confidence in the city’s ongoing regeneration and transformation.”

Coventry has already welcomed the Financial Ombudsman Service to the city, which also based itself at Friargate.

will be built ahead of Coventry being UK City of Culture in 2021 when the area’s profile will be boosted on a global stage.”

Regional round-up

Regional round-up

3D simulation of Coventry’s Very Light Rail

Leamington Business Show 2019

The Fifth Annual Leamington Business Show took place at the Leamington Pump Rooms. Attended by more than 100 businesses from across the region, attendees enjoyed excellent networking, seminars on a range of topics and a packed business exhibition.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB LACEY

Would you like to feature your business event, launch or party in our business events section?

Please contact: kirsty.muir@nkmedia.co.uk or visit businessinnovationmag.co.uk

Leamington Business Show at the Leamington Pump Rooms

Hannah Roe, Mark Ashfield and Katherine Williams from Harrison Beale & Owen

Adam Walter from Dallas Burston Polo Club

Tom Roden and Jon Bird from NFU Mutual, Henley in Arden

Krishna Parekh, Natalie Dersley and Navneet Rai from Warwickshire College

Amelia Bruce from Motionhouse

Louise Jennings from Heritage & Culture Warwickshire

Tony Rowland and Mark Treadwell from Sheldon Bosley Knight

Debbie Andrews and Helen Barge from Risk Evolves

Jonathan Smith from Business Forums and Steve Holland from Just Inspire

Asher Hardy, Will Dolan, Lynda Holt and Oli Fitzgibbon from Brave CoWork

Charnjit Saranna from Electric Zoo with Jonathan Smith from Business Forums

PARENTPAY FOUNDER PRAISED BY CHIEF EXECUTIVE

A businessman has praised the Kenilworth mum who set up the company he now runs. ParentPay has also appeared in the latest Sunday Times Profit Track 100 league table, which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits

Clint Wilson, Chief Executive of ParentPay, hailed the company’s founder Lynne Taylor who set up the online school payments business which now dominates the UK market.

Their success was highlighted at a Coventry and Warwickshire Champions event to a group of 200 business leaders at the Ricoh Arena.

Clint said: “Lynne’s idea came from her own experiences as a parent and the lack of a convenient solution for sending money to school for trips and lunches, other than children carrying cash.

“She realised parents had to find the cash, children had to carry the money to school, staff then had to collect it before taking it to the bank.

“It was inefficient and inconvenient, so ParentPay was born.” Continuous investment has seen the business expand to 13,500 UK schools with 5.5 million pupils using the service.

The Champions meeting also heard from three other major names based in the region. Mike Platt, from Meggitt Aerospace Engineering, which specialises in aerospace, defence and energy, outlined the £130 million super-site at Ansty Park which will based around 1,000 highly skilled staff in the region.

NFU President Minette Batters spoke about the need for the farming industry to see an orderly Brexit. Stuart Cain, Managing Director of Wasps outlined the role of the Ricoh Arena in the visitor economy.

Les Ratcliffe, Chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Place Board added: “Our speakers perfectly highlighted how the region is at the forefront of so many industries and it is really positive to see how CW Champions continues to grow and attract such large numbers to our events.”

£50 million collaboration between university and German engineering company

Coventry University has joined forces with a German engineering company to launch a £50 million centre for cleaner mobility. The new facility has now opened in Coventry, giving a major boost to the UK automotive industry.

The Centre for Advanced Low-Carbon Propulsion Systems, a collaboration between Coventry University and the Germany-based global engineering

specialist FEV Group, is looking to develop the next generation of electric, hybrid and combustion engines.

The 30,000 sq ft purpose-built space in Cheetah Way will house advanced test bed facilities to test current and future powertrain solutions efficiently. The facilities will be available to original equipment manufacturers, alongside small and medium-sized enterprises.

REGIONAL ROUND-UP

COVENTRY & WARWICKSHIRE

Kitchen and bathroom specialist scrubs up for growth

A kitchen and bathroom specialist is hoping to use a record period of trading as a springboard for further growth in 2019.

Bellagio Stone, a family-run business based at the Heathcote Industrial Estate in Warwick, completed more than 100 orders a week from early November to mid-January, marking a hugely successful period for the company after receiving business support from Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick and the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub.

The natural stone surface specialists were introduced to WMG by Growth Hub account manager Jaymie Thakordas to help them meet increasing demand.

Bellagio Stone was founded in 2005 by directors Catherine and Rob Wilkinson, who continue to oversee plans for its future and are still involved in the business.

Catherine said: “We invested £250,000 in a new CNC machine saw last year, which revolutionised our cutting process and now we are bringing in a £100,000 edge polisher, which will allow us to reallocate staff and improve our production rate.

“We are also aiming to expand our in-store sales this year. Our work with WMG has really helped us reanalyse our position and look ahead.”

Nic Erskine, Mike Platt, Les Ratcliffe, Stuart Cain, Minette Batters and Clint Wilson

Jaymie Thakordas (CWLEP Growth Hub), Mike Boyden (Bellagio Stone), Catherine Wilkinson (Bellagio Stone), Onur Eren (WMG), Dr Liz McArdle (WMG)

Regional round-up

CoventryConferences offers quality meeting and conference facilities in a professional and modern environment

Based on Coventry University Technology Park in the heart of Coventry, we offer over 30 multi-functional spaces within a number of buildings across the Technology Park. Coventry University Technology Park is a nucleus of innovation and entrepreneurial activity. Our versatile spaces can accommodate anywhere from 2 to 200 delegates and can cater to virtually any requirements.

The rooms are all ideal for meetings, conference, events, workshops, training and interviews.

Professional Service

Our dedicated team at CoventryConferences have extensive experience in conferencing and catering. Accommodating individual client needs, a high quality attentive service is delivered at each and every event.

Conference Rooms

The largest of our conference rooms is CC1.3, which boasts a state of the art integral AV system including a stage (which is removable upon request), lectern and microphones.

All of our other rooms have either plasma screens or data projectors built in that come as part of your package at no extra cost. Laptops are available to facilitate the use of presentations. We also have a dedicated AV Technician who is always on hand to deliver technical support and assistance.

Executive Meeting Rooms

Booking one of our executive meeting rooms provides you with an environment that helps to enhance your reputation.

Whether it’s a one to one interview, team workshop or a gamechanging presentation, the room where you discuss important business must set the tone. We have several such rooms that are very popular, so be sure to book these well in advance.

Catering and Hospitality

At CoventryConferences we are passionate about delivering fresh healthy food, which is sourced locally and prepared professionally.

Our Catering Team are committed to serving our latest ideas and recipes which are always fresh, wholesome and nutritious. We deliver the highest quality of food, beverage and refreshments to reflect the quality of the facilities and service. From early morning breakfast meetings through to working lunches, seasonal buffets, canapé receptions and fine dining.

The Simulation Centre is a leading-edge, unique, purpose-built facility, located in the centre of Coventry. The Centre is used to create fully immersive, real-time changeable, virtual training environments, covering a variety of sectors, utilising the digital technology platforms from our partner company, XVR Simulation.

The Centre contains a 10 metre, curved simulation screen that is used to display the virtual training environments using the XVR simulation software. There are 8 break out rooms, all connected with audio, CCTV and an interlinked telephone system.

All training courses can be observed by professional trainers from our fully digital Observation & Control Room.

Through the use of the virtual environment, ancillary affects such as smoke and lighting, simulated smells, simulated media as well as real life actors, enables the creation of a very realistic experience for delegates.

By integrating this facility, our unique courses are based on experiential learning in an immersive environment. Creating a safe place to learn, improve and gain experience, people are able to evaluate their behaviours and improve their knowledge and skills.

Working on the principle that people learn by doing, the simulations are built on real work, with real people, in a real situation; based on specific business objectives developed with our customers meaning they are bespoke and specific to customer’s needs. After undertaking the simulation there is detailed individual feedback which can be followed up later with a review of the simulation video. This allows the trainee to self-reflect and consolidate their learning, before they return to work and apply their new skills.

Do it, learn it, live it.

Many organisations recognise the benefit of experiential learning in an immersive environment and return again and again to the Simulation Centre. Dynamic, rewarding, insightful, exciting and immersive, The Simulation Centre delivers real experiences, greater retention and assimilation of knowledge in a safe, dynamic environment and as real as you can get.

ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA IT’S GAME ON FOR

Town’s creative quarter showcased on international stage

A vision to establish a new creative quarter in Leamington Spa was under the spotlight in March at MIPIM, the world’s largest property and investment show.

A 10-year masterplan for the area is being finalised by regeneration experts Complex Development Projects (CDP) after nearly two years of work on the project. CDP is the development partner of Warwick District Council in the scheme which focuses on restoring key buildings and making improvements to the public realm to create more opportunities for the creative sector. The company estimates the project could bring around 300 new jobs to the town centre.

The vision includes plans to improve the area from the railway station to the town centre and proposes the restoration of Spencer Yard, the United Reformed Church and potential regeneration and new uses of space in other buildings including the town hall and Royal Pump Rooms.

Royal Leamington Spa is a beautiful and successful Regency spa town.

It’s also been dubbed “Silicon Spa” because of its globally significant video gaming industry cluster, which is one of the largest in the UK.

More than 2,000 skilled people work for around gaming studios across the town, including the pioneering Codemasters alongside well known names such as SEGA and Ubisoft, plus exciting start-ups.

“The town is a glorious mix of independent businesses. Aubrey Allen Delicatessen in Warwick Street was named England’s best delicatessen at this year’s Guild of Fine Food Shop of the Year awards”

Gaming aside, the town (which has a population of more than 55,000), is a glorious mix of independent businesses. Aubrey Allen Delicatessen in Warwick Street was named England’s best delicatessen at this year’s Guild of Fine Food Shop of the Year awards.

The town is also home to one of the UK’s most incredible factory spaces. Built in 2017 by Vitsœ, the company which makes furniture by the 20th century industrial designer Dieter Rams, the factory is five minutes walk from the railway station. The 40,000 sq ft building is the airiest industrial space you will ever experience, built entirely of birch timber with a saw tooth glazed roof.

Leamington has a thriving calendar of community events. The Leamington Art in the Park Festival in Jephson Gardens is a free weekend of art, music, creative workshops, performances, artisan food and drink.

The 2019 festival from August 3-4, has the theme of water, appropriate when Leamington Spa owes its existence to a natural spring, which transformed a village into the lovely town it is today.

A BID for success

Leamington uncovered

Leamington Spa’s Business Improvement District, the not-forprofit company led by business people trading in the town, secured a third five-year term of support in April and has already planned a busy year of events and activities to continue building the local economy.

Executive Director of the BID, Stephanie Kerr, praised the town business community’s tenacity and commitment.

“Like all high streets and town centres, Leamington isn’t immune to the core challenges facing businesses, including managing increased overhead costs and high rates. Continuing to attract footfall is a challenge and we respond to that by focusing on experiences. We are also helping our businesses to adapt and embrace the digital economy in order to make their brands known further afield.”

Leamington Spa maintains a strong independent sector and footfall in the town is holding its own, said Stephanie. But that’s down to the hard work of the businesses, she added. “There isn’t room for complacency and our businesses are all working their socks off.”

Stephanie is seeing increased collaboration between businesses and is keen to encourage more.

“As a community, Leamington is a welcoming town. From May to Christmas there is something going on each month. Our big event is the food and drink festival from September 7-8, and our stalls are already booked out. May also sees the town’s first eco festival and there’s a new Cars in the Spa event in June. All these events are free and either are organised or massively well supported by volunteers.”

SEARCH AND SELECTION BUSINESS GROWS TO MEET DEMAND

A search and selection business specialising in strategy, change and transformation professionals is expanding as its expertise in a range of sectors, including retail and life sciences, becomes more widely known.

Greybridge Search & Selection was set up by Matt Neale in 2012 after he moved from London looking for a better quality of life. Now most of his eightstrong team have set up home in or near Leamington Spa.

He says Greybridge is the only recruiter of its kind in the Midlands as most such

Leamington law firm recruits first paralegal apprentices

Leamington Spa-based law firm Wright Hassall has hired its first legal apprentices.

Connie Bell, 19, from Whitnash, Sophie Hayne, 18, from Rugby and Molly Clarke, 19, from Leamington are looking to build a career at Wright Hassall and are starting with a two -ear apprenticeship programme.

Connie will work in the commercial litigation team, Sophie will work with the firm’s commercial solicitors and Molly will be with the private client team.

Molly said: “We are all delighted to be given this opportunity at a firm with

agencies are based in London. “While we are a commercial business, it’s not all about targets and sales, it’s about building long-term relationships with our candidates and the companies we work with.”

such a great reputation; it is a brilliant chance for all of us.”

The firm has recruited apprentices before, but never in paralegal roles, and has struck up a relationship with law school CILEx to ensure it attracts good candidates.

Sarah Perry, Managing Director at Wright Hassall, who herself started as a trainee with the company, said: “It is a real pleasure for us to welcome three bright, eager apprentices on board and offer them an opportunity to start their legal career with us.”

“While we are a commercial business, it’s not all about targets and sales, it’s about building long-term relationships with both our candidates and the companies we work with”

The Greybridge team in Leamington Spa

Wright Hassell’s Sarah Perry with the new paralegal apprentices

Greenway celebrates 50 years in business

Leamington uncovered

Greenway and Partners, a sustainable building services consultancy based in Leamington Spa which offers design, mechanical and electrical engineering and project management, will celebrate its milestone 50th anniversary this summer.

Greenways has worked on historic projects and listed buildings such as the National Trust’s Wimpole Gardens, Hanley Park in Stoke-onTrent and the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. It also worked on a £5 million project for Jephson Gardens in Leamington Spa, including the construction of a temperate garden house with a restaurant/café, new lighting and the refurbishment of the gate-house.

Work begins on new technology centre for town

Construction has begun on Liberty Engineering Group’s £10 million Global Technology Centre in Leamington Spa.

The 50,000 sq ft centre will become the UK hub for Liberty’s research and development, and engineering expertise and when fully operational, it will house more than 100 technical professionals, including 40 new engineering posts that will be created by the investment.

The flagship centre will support Liberty’s plans to increase its market share in the automotive and other sectors by providing solutions ranging from design and prototyping all the way to volume manufacturing.

Liberty Engineerging is part of the GFG Alliance, an international grouping of businesses founded by the British Gupta Family.

Leamington Business Awards launches under new leadership

The Leamington Business Awards for 2019 have launched under new leadership, as accountants Harrison Beale & Owen hand the baton over to local businessman Jonathan Smith.

Set up in 2014, the awards have been organised on behalf of the town for the last three years by Harrison Beale & Owen. Last year the awards expanded to enable businesses across South Warwickshire to enter, while two local charities collected £5,000 each after a record-breaking year of fundraising through the event.

The new organiser, Jonathan Smith, founder of the Leamington Business Forum, will work closely with a team of Leamington-based businesses.

He said: “Being a judge allowed me to get a real sense of all the fantastic work being done in the town and I am looking forward to ensuring as many businesses as possible have the opportunity to get recognised for their work.”

This year’s awards ceremony will take place at the newly-renovated Royal Pump Rooms.

Harrison Beale & Owen will continue to support the awards, with Managing Director Mark Ashfield taking up a new role on the independent panel of judges. Mark said: “We are extremely proud of our involvement with the Leamington Business Awards. As a local business ourselves, we have experienced how the event can act as a catalyst in building strong professional relationships throughout the town as well as offering a platform for smaller businesses to thrive.”

Genba Digital looks east for expansion as it doubles growth

A games distributor launched in 2015, is seeking investment as it reports a doubling of business every year.

Leamington Spa-based Genba Digital is a cloud-based digital logistics platform bridgeng the gap between gaming publishers and resellers.

The company eliminates the operational and technical logistics involved with the publication and selling of digital content. Genba’s

technology platform gives access to a growing catalogue of games content. Developing partnerships with multinationals and indie brands, it connects publishers and etailers.

Chief Executive Matt Murphy is keen to maintain this speed of growth. He plans to grow into new territories, including Asia and the Americas and expand to support new platforms and channels –from digital console distribution to code on receipt sales channels.

“Being a judge allowed me to get a real sense of all the fantastic work being done in the town and I am looking forward to ensuring as many businesses as possible have the opportunity to get recognised for their work”

Mark Ashfield of Harrison Beale & Owen with Jonathan Smith of Leamington Business Forum

HAVE YOU GOT VENUE ENVY?

There are so many fabulous conference and events venues around the region. We showcase some of the best

Research published last year by the UK Conference and Meeting Survey revealed more than £18 billion was generated by conference and meeting delegates in UK venues and in spending around their location.

So it’s no surprise that more investment has been made in upgrading and improving conference and events venues across the region.

It’s not just the venues that benefit when hundreds of delegates roll into town. Millions of pounds are spent in the local

Warwick Racecourse

Warwick Racecourse is one of the oldest racecourses in the country, dating back to 1707. Outside racing, the track hosts many events and conferences, from awards ceremonies to team building events, product launches and more. The location is easy to get to, with ample free parking, free WiFi, a choice of catering, breakout rooms –and stunning views over the racecourse.

www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/warwick

“Economic impact studies regularly show that millions of pounds are spent in the local economy on additional accommodation, meals and secondary spend”

economy on additional accommodation, meals and secondary spend, so it’s good news all round for local and independent businesses.

Manor By The Lake, Cheltenham

Set in seven acres of glorious grounds, Manor By The Lake in Cheltenham offers an impressive location for business events. Hosting stunning event spaces combined with traditional Victorian character and contemporary modern touches, the venue makes a bold first impression. Add in experienced event staff, on-site private parking and a confidential lock-down service and there’s all the ingredients needed for a successful business event.

www.manorbythelake.co.uk

Guests mingle outside the lovely Manor By The Lake

A conference room with a view at Warwick Racecourse

Cheltenham Racecourse

Cheltenham Racecourse’s versatile indoor and outdoor spaces can accommodate conferences and meetings, exhibitions and live events, weddings and celebrations, team building, festivals and more.

Just minutes from the M5, the venue has excellent access from all directions, with free parking for events.

Hosting over 250,000 people for The famous Gold Cup Festival alone, the racecourse can cater for groups of any size, large or small, with creative menus and innovative presentation.

www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/ cheltenham

West Midlands Safari Park

Safari Venues is a collective of three amazing venues in the grounds of West Midland Safari Park in Worcestershire. Ideal for either small groups, or up to 200 people seated, is Spring Grove House, a lovely Georgian manor house. Located underneath the house is Cellarz, offering a completely different dimension to corporate entertainment. The third and final venue is Tree Tops Pavilion – perfect for larger events.

www.wmsp.co.uk

West Midlands Safari Park Tree Tops Pavilion

West Midlands Safari Park Cellar venue

The Centaur Venue, Cheltenham Racecourse

Conference Oxford

With its fusion of history and innovation, an event in Oxford is always a unique experience.

Conference Oxford is the official conference and event marketing office for the university, representing 68 outstanding venues across the city, from university buildings and colleges to museums and libraries.

There is a huge choice of venues including the Bodleian, one of the oldest libraries in Europe, to the Ashmolean Museum or the Sheldonian Theatre, an exquisite Grade 1 listed historic building designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

Other venues include the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers Museum, with its towering dinosaurs which houses one of the world’s finest collections of anthropology and archaeology. Then there is Christ Church Great Hall which will be familiar to fans of the Harry Potter films.

More contemporary venues include the well-equipped Saïd Business School next to Oxford train station.

www.conference-oxford.com

The Sheldonian Theatre

Saïd Business School

Exeter Hall

Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons

Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons at Great Milton in Oxfordshire is home to La Belle Époque, a stunning wing opposite the main hotel building. With a beautiful reception area, dining room, modern conservatory and enchanting private garden it gives flexibility and total privacy. It can accommodate seated lunches or dinners for up to 50 guests, or 24 guests seated on one large table.

Meetings in the dining room accommodate 44 people theatrestyle and 70 people for a reception. Receptions for up to 70 people can be hosted in its gorgeous conservatory.

www.belmond.com

Coventry University Technology Park

Based on Coventry University Technology Park in the heart of the city, CoventryConferences offers more than 30 multi-functional spaces across five buildings: the TechnoCentre, Simulation Centre, HDTI, ICE and SGI.

Coventry University Technology Park is a nucleus of innovation and entrepreneurial activity and its versatile spaces can accommodate from two to 200 delegates, and cater to virtually any requirements.

www.coventryconferences.com

The modern conservatory and private garden at Le Manoir

Calcot Manor

Close to Tetbury, the 220 acre Calcot Manor estate radiates out from a lovely courtyard lined with the hotel, ancient stone barns and stables. It’s even got its own pub in the grounds,

The Gumstool Inn, and a gorgeous spa. This 35-room hotel also offers beautiful meeting spaces for conferences and events.

www.calcot.co

Mount Pleasant Hotel, Malvern

A family-run hotel with a relaxed, country house atmosphere. The hotel offers high standard facilities and services including three conference rooms available for private hire.

The hotel is in a beautiful Georgian building, conveniently located in the centre of Malvern. The function suites overlook the Malvern Priory with direct access to the hills and there are stunning views eastwards over the Vale of Evesham towards the Cotswolds.

www.mountpleasanthotel.co.uk

Dallas Burston Polo Club

This is an epic venue for events or celebrations. IXL Events’ Dallas Burston Polo Club has 600 acres of superb English parkland that can be used for virtually any outdoor activity – including polo, of course.

The entire Dallas Burston Polo Club site, just outside Leamington Spa, is home to the IXL Events Centre, a purpose-built space for up to 3,000 guests, with Nexo/Bose sound system,

four lounges (including a private champagne lounge) panoramic terraces and banqueting facilities.

The club’s polo grounds host international tournaments, and The Millstone Hare pub and function venue is believed to be the only pub in England designed and built with a thatched roof for the last 80 years.

www.dbpoloclub.com

Dallas Burston Polo Club

Meeting facilities at the Mount Pleasant Hotel, Malvern

WORK LIVE TO

Cocktails — born in Gloucestershire, coming of age at The Savoy, perfect for summer drinking

When you’ve supped every wine from Asti Spumante to Zinfandel, and tried every beer from brown ale to IPA, it’s time to spice up your drinking habits.

James Bond’s famous vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), has for decades been the epitome of style, but did you know that the man who invented cocktails came from Gloucestershire?

Harry Lawson Craddock was born in 1876 in Burleigh, Minchinhampton, the youngest of five children, His family worked in the garment industry, but Harry wanted a different life, so he sailed away to the New World in 1897, landing in The Big Apple.

He began working in various New York hotel bars and spent 30 years learning his trade. But then came Prohibition. With alcohol banned across the USA, work dried up for professional barmen, so Harry hopped on a boat and sailed back to

Dominic Roche of Exquisite Cocktails reveals a favourite summer cocktail

Exquisite Cocktails offers cocktail masterclasses and bespoke cocktails for events of all sizes.

Cherry Blossom cocktail

 50ml Vodka

 15ml Elderflower cordial

 75ml Rubicon lychee juice

 Dash grenadine syrup

 5 fresh mint leaves

 2 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds

Build tall over crushed ice and garnish with foraged blossoms and mint sprigs.

www.exquisite-cocktails.com

Blighty, quickly securing a job at the Savoy Hotel in London, where he rose to become Head Barman in its famous American Bar.

Harry authored the world’s first book on cocktails. The Savoy Cocktail Book was so good that he never wrote another. You can’t improve on perfection.

By 1938 he’d moved to The Dorchester and then to Browns Hotel in Albermarle Street. He became one of the most famous bartenders of the 1920s and 1930s, cofounding the UK Bartender’s Guild.

Retiring in 1947, he lived to the ripe old age of 87 but all that cocktail shaking didn’t make him a fortune, Harry was buried at Gunnersbury Cemetery after a pauper’s funeral and now shares his grave with two others.

Cherry Blossom

Harry Craddock’s Rattlesnake Cocktail

From The Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930.

So-called because it will either cure a rattlesnake bite, kills rattlesnakes or make you see them

 4 glasses of Rye whisky

 The whites of two eggs

 1 glass of sweetened lemon juice

 A few dashes of Absinthe

Shake thoroughly and serve by straining through a fine sieve.

The perfect summer tipple from The Botanist a favourite summer cocktail

The perfect summer tipple to tantalise the taste buds is coming to Cheltenham’s Botanist in the town’s Brewery Quarter, and it’s certain to be a crowd pleaser.

The Mango Plum Cooler is made by shaking Yuzushu and Umeshu (yuzu and plum) sakes with citron vodka, apple juice, lemon and mango. Serve it long over ice with a lychee and plum foam and garnish with shiso leaf and viola.

Full of Eastern influences, this drink is perfect for hot summer days; long, simple and mouth-wateringly good.

Try it alongside the Botanist’s Summer menu which encapsulates the season and all its joys. It incorporates exotic and tropical ingredients, such as lychees and mangoes to give a refreshing, zesty flavour profile associated with hotter climates, blended with The Botanist’s own unique style to create a menu full of treats and surprises.

www.thebotanist.uk

Sterling Networks continues partnership with MS Society

Sterling Networks is supporting the MS Society locally for a second year. The partnership helps to highlight the charity’s work and offer opportunities for Sterling Networks members to come together and raise funds to stop MS.

Highlights from last year’s partnership included an evening with the Professor of Chocolate from the “University of Happiness” in Swindon and a nongolfers golf day at Brickhampton Court, Gloucester.

HELP THE HOMELESS BY RECYCLING YOUR OLD MOBILE PHONES

Old and unwanted mobile phones are being turned into money to help the homeless, thanks to Lister Unified Communications.

The Stonehouse-based firm is issuing a call to all Gloucestershire businesses to help them raise funds for the charity Emmaus by donating their used mobiles.

And they are prepared to travel around the county to pick up phones collected by other businesses.

Simon Gardner, Sales Manager for Lister, said: “Being in the business we are always updating our customers’ Businesses on Milton Park near Didcot joined park owner, property development and management company MEPC, for a science-themed fun run in the Park, raising £1,200 for Comic Relief.

phones and that means there are always old work phones in a drawer somewhere.

“One of our engineers, Tim Hutchison, has done charity work with Emmaus in the past and through that we got to know of their great work.”

Lister hopes that businesses around Gloucestershire will join the cause, collect old handsets from their staff and get in touch.

Simon added: “In the first week, just from speaking to people we know really well we collected more than 200 phones, which is incredible.”

Milton Park fun run raises over £1,200

MEPC rounded up the total to £2,000.

Philip Campbell, Commercial Director at MEPC, said: “We’re delighted to have brought Comic Relief back to Milton Park. This fun event during British Science Week was made possible with the help of the organisers and all the runners who raised a fantastic amount for Comic Relief.”

MS Society Area Fundraiser, Andy Jarrett said: “Sterling Networks are brilliant partners. So far, we have arranged very different events that bring business networkers together to help growing their business and help stop MS.”

Neil Davis, Managing Director at Sterling Networks, said “We are delighted to support the MS society again this year.

“We look forward to creating some great opportunities for member businesses to come together, network, have some fun and raise much needed funds.”

Sterling Networks is a rapidly expanding networking organisation experiencing growth through its member groups in areas including Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire Wiltshire and Worcestershire.

Thursfields supports blind or partially sighted school

Thursfields Solicitors has chosen a school for children and young people who are blind or partially sighted as its charity of the year. New College Worcester is a special residential and day school for 80 students aged 11-19, and is a registered charity.

Shane Miller, Director of Thursfields, said: “Thursfields is determined to help make a difference in the community it serves, and we are delightd to be helping this great charity.”

“It’s for you-hoo”, Simon Gardner becomes buried in old mobile phones

CAREER AHEAD

GWEN

Gwen Parry-Jones joins Magnox based at Berkeley, South Gloucestershire following her role as Executive Director of Operations at Horizon Nuclear Power. Previously, Gwen was Generation Development Director and Safety and Assurance Director at EDF Energy.

ROBERT BAHNS APPOINTED CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, WAVEOPTICS

WaveOptics, a leading designer and manufacturer of diffractive waveguides, based at Milton Park, has appointed Robert Bahns as Chief Financial Officer. Robert has more than 20 years’ experience in venture capital, focusing on investments in hardware and electronics.

NEW FACES HEAD UP OXFORD SCIENCES INNOVATION

Oxford Sciences Innovation has announced two new board-level appointments, with experienced technology entrepreneur Charles Conn joining as Chief Executive (left in photograph) and former Google CFO Patrick Pichette joining as Chairman.

DOWNTON PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Gloucestershire-based distribution company CM Downton has appointed Duncan Eyre as its new Managing Director. The family-run business became part of UK logistics giant EV Cargo last year. Andy, Richard and John Downton will transfer to non-executive roles.

WORCESTERSHIRE LEP APPOINTS BOARD MEMBERS

Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership has appointed three new business representatives to its main Board. The new appointees are Sue Jordan, an experienced HR director and member of the ACAS council, and pictured: Nicola Whiting, Chief Strategic Officer at Titania and John Dillon, Managing Director at GJS Dillon.

BRITISH BAKELS ANNOUNCES NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR

Bakery ingredients manufacturer British Bakels, based at Bicester, has appointed Hayley Calthorpe as Managing Director.

The former MD Paul Morrow who sits on the Executive Board of Directors for the Bakels Group, has now taken the role of Chairman.

SHARLA DANDY STEPS UP AS PARTNER

Sharla Dandy has taken over as a Partner at McGills Accountants in Cirencester, following the retirement of Alison Palmer. Sharla has nearly 20 years’ accountancy experience with businesses in and around the Cotswolds and is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser.

PARRY-JONES OBE ANNOUNCED AS MAGNOX CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

ACCOUNTANT RELOCATES JOB TO BICESTER

Laura Herbert has been appointed as the new director of accountancy firm Whitley Stimpson’s Bicester office. She takes up the role following the retirements of Stephen Payne and Penny Parmar. Laura was previously director of the company’s High Wycombe office.

BPE EYES THE FUTURE WITH LEADERSHIP RESTRUCTURE

Antonia Shield has been made Managing Partner at Cheltenham-based BPE Solicitors while John Workman will remain as Senior Partner. Antonia, who joined the Top 200 firm in 2002, has been Head of the Commercial Property team. She will take on the more operational role with an internal focus while John’s responsibilities are external facing.

NEW CORPORATE PARTNER WILL DRIVE GROWTH AT LODDERS

South West law firm Lodders has hired corporate lawyer Graham Spalding as an equity partner to drive growth of the firm’s corporate and commercial law services. Prior to three years at London firm RPC, Graham was at Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co (now Gowlings) in Birmingham for 17 years.

HSBC APPOINTS DEPUTY HEAD OF CORPORATE BANKING

Matt Povey has joined the HSBC team in Oxford having been with the bank for more than 21 years in Kent, where he worked with many successful corporate businesses.

FENNER MADE HEAD OF MIDLANDS REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION AT BDO

Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO has appointed a new partner to lead its real estate and construction team in the Midlands.

Paul Fenner has more than 25 years’ audit experience, ranging from working with fast-growth and owner-managed businesses to multi-national listed companies.

BRUTON KNOWLES MAKES SENIOR APPOINTMENTS

Bruton Knowles has made three senior appointments. Richard Gowling (pictured) joins as GIS and Data Systems Manager, while Robert Cant and Shaun Wilkes join as Senior Building Surveyors as the company continues to expand its Commercial team based in Gloucester

NEW BOARD MEMBERS DRIVE WORCESTER BID

Worcester BID has appointed Anja Potze, Sam Pisani and Richard Wheatly to join its executive team as Board members.

The new appointees are well-known to Worcester’s business community. Anja is the owner of Anja Potze Fine Jewellery, Sam is the manager of Cathedral Square and Richard is the manager of Bolero Bar & Kitchen.

GOOD COMMUNICATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR INNOVATIVE LEADERSHIP

It’s all very well driving innovation from the top, but if you want everyone in your business to understand and embrace it, it’s good to talk. We meet two leaders who have this covered.

Sarah Bryars, Chief Executive at Target PR

Innovation is a much broader concept than many appreciate, according to Sarah Bryars, Chief Executive of Cheltenhambased Target PR, and by not realising that, a business could be holding itself back.

Great innovation doesn’t just happen in a company’s research and development team. Small innovations often occur daily across all departments, but many are failing to recognise and capitalise on what should be viewed as a potentially valuable asset.

Strong communication within a business, as well as externally, can help in recognising and applying innovative ideas, driving growth and improving profitability.

“It seems to me that many people are restricting their definition of innovation to mean radically inventive technology,” said Sarah. “It was when I was participating in a QuoLux masterclass that this view was challenged and we began to discuss its broader meaning and how that could be translated into driving business growth.”

While brilliant inventions often steal the limelight, innovation can also be a continual process of improving, adapting,

and re-imagining a product, service or business model.

Sarah was convinced that this misinterpretation could have wider consequences, so she made it the subject of her MBA research, sharing the results in a White Paper on the topic published earlier this year. She said: “What does it mean to innovate?

“We came together to discuss innovation, how to recognise it, what that could mean for us and most importantly for our clients. By understanding the challenges, we can make best use of our skills to support clients at every step of the process.”

Does culture play a part, or is it down to research and development? Can excellent communication help to get the best return from investing in innovation? We explore these questions in our White Paper, which draws upon the results of a small study I conducted among chief executives of small and medium-sized companies in the South West.

“We want to encourage businesses to make innovation part of their strategy and show how expert communications can contribute to their success.”

To test her theories, Sarah began with her team. “We came together to discuss innovation, how to recognise it, what could it mean for us and most importantly for our clients. By understanding the challenges, we can make best use of our skills to support clients at every step of the process.

“Part of our role in stimulating better communications is to ask questions of our clients about the problems they are solving for their customers, and we are, as a team, good at putting complex things simply.”

Part of Sarah’s message to business is to start the communications process early. “Marketing and communications are often separated from the innovation process. People will spend a lot of time and thought on product development, only to call marketing and comms in much later. Involving expert communicators early in the process stops innovation being carried out in a vacuum.”

A better understanding of innovation is certainly helping Target. “We are now much more aware of the innovation process within our clients’ businesses. We’re asking searching questions to help them think more deeply about how they communicate their ideas, all with the objective of driving success earlier and reaping the rewards of innovation.”

Sarah Bryars, Chief Executive at Target PR

SPOTLIGHT ON LEADERSHIP

INNOVATION IN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DRIVES SUCCESS

Lewis Sweet

Managing Director of H Sweet and Sons

Construction is a high-pressure business. Clients want projects built safely, to a high standard in the shortest possible time for the least amount of money. And those on the front line: the project managers, bricklayers, joiners, plasterers and more are the ones most likely to feel the pressure.

Perhaps because of such pressures, small and medium-sized construction companies which face competition from similar sized businesses and larger construction companies, have been slower to relinquish the old ways, where the culture was less about praise and encouragement, and more about relentlessly moving forward to the next project. Less carrot and more stick.

However, H Sweet and Sons, a third generation, family-owned business and one of Bristol’s leading building contractors, is looking at the situation from a different perspective.

Managing Director Lewis Sweet saw the culture needed to change and he decided to do this through innovation. “We want to recognise the efforts of everyone. If you have happy people you have happier clients which will make the company more efficient and successful.

“There is a shortage of skilled people in the construction sector. We want our

people to enjoy working for H Sweet and Sons and to give them more than just their jobs.”

Lewis, 37, joined the Nailsea-based construction company when he was 16. “I joined as an apprentice carpenter, qualified when I was 19 and gained experience over the following two years.”

By the time he was 27, he was managing a delivery team of up to 30 people. He moved into site management, becoming construction manager overseeing the company’s biggest contract at that time, a £1.5 million development in Wiltshire. That was followed by a £4.5 million project. The company now carries out projects in excess of £10 million.

He progressed to Operations Director and was made Managing Director last year. Since then he has driven innovation to create the sort of company where praise and encouragement are at the forefront, good communication becomes natural and individuals are encouraged and supported to develop their careers.

However, in a sector where traditional work practices are hard to change, driving innovation and change has to be subtle for it to succeed.

Where did he gain the inspiration and insight to make these changes?

“I enrolled on the QuoLux LEAD course. I was particularly inspired by one of the masterclasses where I heard Professor John Oliver discuss employee engagement.”

As CEO of Leyland Truck, Professor Oliver transformed the company through employee engagement, taking it from being an unprofitable truck-making plant into the most cost-efficient operation of its kind within the group in Europe.

“John talked about the simple but important act of saying thanks,” said Lewis. “We visited our sites and took an interest in the workforce. We began recognising people’s efforts through the launch of our Hero of the Month scheme and introduced a newsletter to share and

Lewis Sweet, Managing Director at H Sweet and Sons

“We visited our sites and took an interest in the workforce. We began recognising people’s efforts through the launch of our Hero of the Month scheme and introduced a newsletter to share and communicate achievements more widely across the business”

Leading Innovation

Stewart Barnes, Managing Director, QuoLux

How important is innovation to your business strategy?

CEOs of large firms often state that innovation is of greater importance for growth than a strategy of merger or acquisition. Many also say they find it challenging. What can we learn from this?

First, let’s recognise it as a business strategy rather than the spontaneous whim of an inventor. While innovation requires bright ideas, the process of developing new products or services must be aligned to an overall strategy for the business.

Different degrees of innovation bring varying levels of risk. How much investment is required? How will the market respond? How will it affect your bottom line? How will your employees react? The more ‘radical’ the innovation, the greater the change potentially required from staff. Change management has many implications for leadership and employee engagement.

communicate achievements more widely across the business.”

H Sweet and Sons also carried out an employee survey and began a company-wide roll-out of personal development plans to help staff map their careers.

“Some of our team have grown hugely, and this year we are rolling out communications training, because good communication helps drive engagement, and this applies to us all.”

Lewis isn’t stopping there. “The investment in developing our culture is an ongoing priority, we have to relentlessly follow through.

“We knew that if we needed to invest in developing a more positive culture, we needed to embed it early so that it supports our growth.

“We are growing and employing more people. Currently we have nearly 50 people on our books and there are always vacancies to fill. We have experienced strong growth over the last 12 months and have a solid order book for the next coming financial year. To enable the continued delivery across the business this is where having a strong team will be key.”

Delegates on our GAIN programme explore the leadership of innovation within their businesses. In a masterclass, one of the UK’s leading researchers on the subject, Professor Keith Goffin, suggested guarding against these ‘innovation-killers’ that stifle success:

 In or out of the box?

Involving staff more widely, not just those in R&D, can capture insights from different parts of the customer journey. But simply asking people to ‘think outside the box’ is often ineffective. Some direction and clear goals are vital.

 Beware focus groups

Market insight is important, but be wary of over-reliance on customer focus groups. Not only can unintended bias slip in to the facilitation process, but customers don’t always behave in the way that they say they will, or they may have ‘hidden needs’ that they don’t express. Try to use a mix of research methods.

 Crunching the numbers

When making investment decisions the Net Present Value (NPV) is a calculation of the income you expect to make in future from your innovations, compared to what you may earn from simply investing the R&D funds. Follow this too rigidly, however, and you may kill off the more radical breakthrough ideas before you’ve started.

It’s incumbent on leaders, whatever size or sector of business, to ensure that an innovation process is set within a clear strategy; that the culture is conducive to innovation and leadership skills are supported throughout the business.

Stewart Barnes, Managing Director, QuoLux

CyNam 19.1 – Cyber Crime: Past, Present and Future Threats

Cheltenham cyber network, CyNam, hosted its first CyNam event of 2019 with record attendance byw the region's cyber community.

Guests heard from speakers David Balson - Director of Intelligence for Ripjar, Professor Mark West, Head of Strategic Offerings for Cyber at Roke Manor Research, Jonathan Atkin, Regional Cyber Coordinator for the South West leading the regional coordination of the cyber-crime units in the five South West police forces and a representative from GCHQ.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB LACEY

Would you like to feature your business event, launch or party in our business events section?

CyNam community attending CyNam 19.1

Detective Sergeant Jonathan Atkin from South West Regional Cyber Crime Unit

Tristram Moulton, Andy Lock and Jon Brooke from Capgemini

Roberto Savage from Axonex with Kirsty Muir from Business & Innovation Magazine and Nicholas Diesel from Axonex

Steve Lilleyman from Roke Manor Research and James Bryne from EDF

L-M Chan from Raytheon and Angharad James

Steven Murray from Harrison Clark Rickerbys and Linda Smith from Betaden

Jason Gilbert from Capita Resourcing with John Patient from 4P Consulting and Chris Few from CF Cybernam

Marc Hutchings from BAE Systems with Allan King from Frazer-Nash Consultancy and Andy Briggs from Invinsec

Andrew Bence from Indectron with Robin Cook from FHE Technology

Mark West, Jonathan Mason and Joe Murray from Roke Manor Research

5G: one of the world’s most important technologies

BIG TURNOUT FOR FIRST CYNAM EVENT OF 2019

More than 150 people attended the first CyNam event of the year to hear speakers from across the region discuss past, present and future cyber threats.

CyNam, held in Cheltenham, is now the biggest regular cyber security event in the South West, dedicated to bringing the cyber security and tech community together for networking and collaboration.

Supported by GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre, the latest CyNam event welcomed speakers including Professor Mark West, Head of Strategic Offerings for Cyber for Roke Manor

Research and Jonathan Atkin, Regional Cyber Co-ordinator for the South West leading the regional coordination of the cyber-crime units in the five South West police forces (Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire).

College groups launch Digital West Midlands to boost tech skills

Warwickshire College Group, Coventry College, and North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College have launched Digital West Midlands to boost the region’s tech skills.

Debbie Scotton is Business Development Director for Digital West Midlands. She said: “Businesses need talented individuals with skills in cyber security, software

development and programming. Apprenticeships are ideal in these areas because it is important that new recruits are immersed in the tech world in order to keep up with its rapid pace.”

She added: “We hope that this unique partnership will help the West Midlands cement its reputation as an important centre for the digital economy.”

Gloucester business wins cyber industry champion award

A Gloucester-based cyber security company has won a small enterprise industry champion award from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.

The NCSC awards were hosted by national security firm Allcoopers in Gloucester.

Cyber Security Associates has been working with the National Cyber Security Centre and its Cyber Schools Hubs project.

Through inspirational leader talks and the creation of CyberPi Projects and the Cyberdea Immersive Zone, Cyber Security Associates gave more than 320 work experience students the chance to immerse themselves within cyber security, working closely with their teachers to make sure the content was beneficial.

One student said that Cyber Security Associates “Opened their eyes to the endless possibilities in front of them.”

The Director of GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming, has highlighted 5G as being one of the most important technologies of any era which will change the way we think about how our data is being used.

But with widespread global concerns about whether national governments should adopt the technology of Huawei or other Chinese tech suppliers, due to potential security risks, he confirmed that the UK has not yet made a decision about 5G security supply chain rules.

“GCHQ is at the heart of the policy consideration under way and we already have a role managing Huawei’s presence in our existing networks.”

The director was referring to the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) at Banbury. HCSEC belongs to Huawei Technologies (UK) Co Ltd, whose parent company is Huawei, based in China.

The centre opened in 2010 under arrangements between Huawei and the UK government to mitigate any perceived risks arising from the involvement of Huawei in parts of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

Jeremy Fleming added: “We think this is probably the toughest oversight regime in the world.”

“CyNam, held in Cheltenham, is now the biggest regular cyber security event in the South West”

Cyber Security Associates was set up in 2014 by partners James Griffiths and David Woodfine. The company now employs 12 staff.

Guy Morley and Madelaine Howard of Cyber Security Associates.

More than 150 delegates attended the first CyNam of 2019

Specialist finance recruiters

GB Solutions Insurance, Banking, Financial Advisory and Wealth Management division goes from strength to strength.

Danielle Young joined GB Solutions togrow contracts with banking, insurance and wealth management groups to become the go-to specialist financial services across Gloucestershire.

Danni joined GB Finance in 2016 direct from a leading insurance business. Prior to this GB Solutions’ activity in the financial services sector was restricted to a few of the banking groups and some of the smaller insurance players in the area. Using her expert first-hand knowledge Danni has grown her client base to become the fastest growing sector within the GB Solutions group!

Clearly the financial services sector, driven by the Financial Conduct Authority has changed enormously since the last recession.

Danni’s specialist financial services knowledge is also complimented by the other four GB sectors, successfully filling roles in Marketing, IT and HR and Legal roles.

“While there is still a demand for the conventional customer services and team management roles, I have seen a growth in Risk Management, Compliance and Cyber roles responding to the changing financial climate and the risk from hackers in the UK and abroad”

Danni Young, Senior Consultant GB Solutions

It is a very competitive market and employers who don’t offer the market rate on salaries and more particularly benefits can easily be overlooked. Senior

hires candidates need to be able to prove a solid career path within the Financial Services sector and the willingness to personally invest in developing themselves further.

The Finance team covers permanent, temporary full and part time positions. For more information on how Danni can help you with your Financial Services recruiting please contact her or chat with her directly on LinkedIn.

Danni Young – Senior Consultant

DD: 01452 429 9092

Email: Danielle@gbsolutions.co.uk

Danni Young, Senior Consultant

EQUILAW AND THOMAS LEGAL RECEIVE MULTI-MILLION POUND INVESTMENT FROM BGF

Niche property law firms, Equilaw and Thomas Legal, have received a multi-million pound investment from BGF, the UK’s most active investor in growing companies.

Set up in 2007, Equilaw is the UK’s only dedicated equity release legal adviser, working with homeowners and financial advisers to provide independent legal advice on the process of releasing home equity for a range of purposes including retirement planning, house improvements and care provision.

Over the last few years, Equilaw has built a team of more than 70 staff based in its Gloucester offices and has completed tens of thousands of cases.

Equilaw has also developed an automated technology platform which allows it to complete cases more efficiently. The multi award-winning business has been voted ‘Best Conveyancer’ at the national Equity Release awards for the last five years.

Thomas Legal, also set up in 2007, focuses on high-end conveyancing services predominantly in the South West

Funding delivers faster production for shop fitting company

A shop fitting company is aiming to create new jobs after receiving £150,000 in grant funding.

Stratford-upon-Avon based ICM, which began life in 1998 as a one-man operation run by Managing Director Steve Lewis, has invested in new machinery, air conditioning, flooring and computers thanks to a series of collaborative funding bids. The purchase of a £250,000 fiveaxis CNC machine, has transformed production with a quicker turnaround time for its range of high quality interior features, fitted at restaurants and bars across the UK.

The company is looking to create 10 new jobs this year and increase turnover

by 30 per cent by 2022 following the recent investments.

These have come together as a result of partnership working between Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub, Warwickshire County Council and Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support and Green Business Programmes that are part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

and London. As with Equilaw, the firm is technology-centric and has won consumer awards for its consistently impressive service in the residential property sector.

A ring of confidence for accountancy merger

Legal & Financial

Linda Giles specialist accountancy services for dentists has merged with Abingdon-based Ross Brooke Chartered Accountants.

Ross Brooke currently works with a wide-ranging client base across most industries, offering accountancy, taxation and business advisory services.

Michael Brooke said: “We are delighted to welcome Linda and her team to our Abingdon office to enhance our offering and assist with our continuing growth.

Linda said: “This opportunity to join forces with Ross Brooke will enable my existing team and I to offer our bespoke support service to more dental clients in future, drawing on the in-house technical expertise and additional resources offered by Ross Brooke.”

The ICM team with Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub

BUSINESS FINANCE HOW TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS GROW

Most ambitious businesses will need external funding to help them expand. We

At one time, banks were the biggest go-to lenders for businesses seeking money to grow (and they still are). But there are now more alternatives, from private equity and angel investment to crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending.

However, fewer businesses are asking for investment according to the British Business Bank, the government-owned business development bank which helps smaller businesses.

There’s a worrying caution across UK businesses as the tendency towards risk aversion grows

The British Business Bank reports that bank lending has declined at the expense of the alternatives. While private equity deals, at least by value, continue to rise, just 36 per cent of smaller businesses now use external finance, compared with 44 per cent in 2012.

Applications for new loans and overdrafts are continuing to fall and more than seven in 10 firms say they would rather forgo growth than take on external finance.

According to Ian Priest, an independent banking consultant based in Worcester, the absolute golden rule is “caveat emptor”— buyer beware. “There are unregulated brokers and lenders out there, so be sure of what you are getting before you sign up. I recently came across a “low rate unsecured loan” that turned out to be an unregulated asset finance agreement, guaranteed by the business owner’s mother.

One bright spot is the increased funding for university spin-outs — often in successful high-tech clusters such as Oxford and Warwick.

Choosing the right type of business financing depends on the reason for seeking it, the risks involved and how much of your business you want to give away, if any.

“The guarantee had been registered as a charge against her house (so hardly unsecured) and the low interest rate – just four per cent per month. If in doubt seek help from someone qualified and regulated to help you through the minefield.”

Start-up businesses, or ones that are seeking growth, may need short-term capital and long-term debt finance. The secret to success is getting the balance right for what you want to achieve at the least cost, always remembering that borrowing money costs money.

look at the options and showcase some success stories.

“Start-up businesses, or ones that are seeking growth may need short-term capital and long-term debt finance”

Weird Fish, which is based in Tewkesbury, celebrated 25 years in business last year after enjoying significant growth following two private-equity funded management buy-outs.

WHERE TO GO TO

RAISE FINANCE

There are now more avenues to explore for raising finance, or securing investment than ever before, but what are the advantages or disadvantages of one over another?

How does a business seeking finance decide whether to go for private equity funding, venture capital or crowd funding, a bank loan or angel investors? Then there’s peer-to-peer lending, debt finance or government-backed investment schemes.

DEBT FINANCE

The most traditional form of raising business finance with which we are all familiar. A capital sum is borrowed from a bank or another lender and the amount borrowed is paid back in full over a period of time with interest being paid on the debt.

This can be through a loan, or (generally more expensive) an overdraft.

There are additional forms of debt finance. Two of the most widelyadopted are finance secured on assets and factoring.

Asset finance (leasing or hire purchase) can be the right choice for businesses seeking help to buy expensive assets, without using money earmarked for cash flow. The requirement for working capital increases as a result of the newly purchased asset.

Factoring turns invoices into working capital. A business sells its invoices to a third party (a factoring company) at a discount. Invoice factoring can be provided by independent finance providers, or by banks.

Advantages: Continued control over your business.

Disdvantages: Potentially high interest rates.

VENTURE CAPITAL

Capital invested into start-ups or small businesses in exchange for equity. This funding often comes from wealthy investors, investment banks or financial institutions looking for opportunities to support young companies. They hope that early investment will help them grow faster, making money for the investors and the founders earlier. Financial investment can come with managerial or technical support.

Venture capitalists often invest in a number of small companies, taking around 50 per cent equity in the business. By doing this they spread their risk and also allow the business founders to retain equity in the business so that its success will also deliver for them as well as their investors.

Advantages: Great for small businesses without tangible assets, which wouldn’t otherwise be able to secure debt finance.

Disadvantages: Investors without sufficient knowledge of your business have a say in the company strategy, which might not be the same as that of the company founders.

PRIVATE EQUITY FUNDING

Similar to, but not to be confused with venture capital.

Private equity investors take shares in a business. Like venture capital, the investors are generally high net worth individuals, or large institutional investors, such as pension funds or companies acting on their behalf. The goal of private equity investors is generally to take control of the whole business and so they usually invest in mature or proven businesses which the investors feel have a fundamentally good product or service but have unrealised potential because of poor management or other inefficiencies.

Advantages: Potentially good news for struggling established businesses which have low cash reserves and poor management.

Disadvantages: If you are the unwilling target of private equity investment, you stand to lose control of your business.

ANGEL INVESTORS

These are high net worth individuals who often bring not only finance, but also their own experience, contacts and links to help the company achieve success after their investment. Angel investing is generally regarded as “patient capital” (an investment made for the longer term) and they generally don’t expect to see an exit or a return on their investment for eight to 10 years.

“There are now more avenues to explore for raising finance or securing investment that ever before”

Angel investment leads to venture capital support for Metrasens

Metrasens is a world-leading provider of advanced magnetic detection technologies. Founded in Malvern in 2005 its products address deficiencies in conventional screening methods.

Its mission is to take science out of the laboratory and use it to create revolutionary products which meet the real word needs.

For two years the founders invested their own money into building prototypes and engaging with the investment community.

The project won £250,000 angel investment from Worcestershire investment group, The Claret Club, supported by West Midlands Advantage Business Angels, and the team secured additional grants of around £100,000. This enabled the business, which had already secured orders from the USA, to establish itself properly and In 2007 Metrasens moved into Malvern Science Park.

While business angels can invest on their own, more frequently investment is made alongside other angel investors through syndication. This enables them to pool funds and share the risks.

There is a regulatory framework for angel investing that protects the angel and the entrepreneurs.

Before launching into angel investment, an angel investor must self-certify as either a high net worth or sophisticated investor, as defined under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

invested”

“Our business angels liked the fact that we were already selling our product when they invested,” explained Chief Executive Dr Simon Goodyear.

In 2010, Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s largest venture capital teams, invested in Metrasens to enable further development of its product range in the medical and security markets.

Last year, Metrasens appeared in the annual Sunday Times Lloyds SME Export Track 100 league table which ranks Britain’s companies with the fastest-growing international sales.

It also won the Queen’s Award For Enterprise for the second consecutive year, this time in the category of Innovation for its unique ferromagnetic detection systems.

A certified high net worth individual must have a net income in excess of £100,000 or net assets in excess of £250,000 over and above their pension fund assets and private residence.

A sophisticated investor must have either been a director of a company turning over at least £1 million within the last two years, have made more than one investment in an unlisted company in the last two years, be a member of a network or syndicate of business angels for at least six months or have worked in the past two years professionally in the

GOVERNMENT GRANTS

Grants from government are often difficult to find and highly sector specific.

Application forms are often marvellous in their obfuscation, and time-consuming to complete. And it’s sometimes not clear why an application has been successful or unsuccessful.

A good place to start is via your local Growth Hub or Local Enterprise Partnership where advisers should be able to point a business in the right direction.

The value of grants varies greatly but can be between £1,000 to £100,000 for small or medium-sized businesses, or much larger for the high growth businesses that the government wants to encourage.

Advantages: if you secure a government grant, you don’t have to pay it back.

Disadvantages: Grants can take a long time to get and if you have to adapt your application to fit the strict terms of the grant criteria, expect to have to give the money back if it’s discovered that you haven’t used the funding for the purpose for which it was intended.

private equity sector or in the provision of finance for small and medium enterprises.

Advantages: Personalised business support from people who have expressed an interest in your company or the sector in which you operate, and capital doesn’t have to be paid back if the investment is unsuccessful.

Disadvantages: A potential loss of control over the business as the angel investor will have a say over how the business is run.

“Our business angels liked the fact that we were already selling our product when they

Metrasens’ Cellsense Plus contraband detector in use.

Inksmoor celebrates 15 years helping UK businesses’ cash flow with the launch of two exciting new products

Inksmoor Finance Group, providers of flexible funding solutions, credit control and back office support to the UK SME market, has released two new complimentary services – Capital – secured business loans and Flex Plus – flexible invoice finance combined with back office support.

As most of us know, the management of cash is king within any company. Sounds simple right? However, many SME’s find cash flow can be an issue – Inksmoor provides cash flow solutions and business support to businesses based around the whole of the UK, with our four core offerings, invoice finance, outsourced credit control (including multi-lingual), back office support and secured business loans.

Our new Flex Plus product is perfect for businesses who need the facility to raise cash against their unpaid invoices and who require back office support from raising invoices and credit control to payroll and financial reporting. Our services are bespoke to our clients allowing them to concentrate on their core business.

Inksmoor Capital offer secured business loans; our tailored approach allows us to offer flexible repayment schedules based on the requirements of the business. Application is quick and easy with turnaround being as quick as 72 hours.

Director,

“2019 has been a busy and exciting year so far for Inksmoor, we are passionate about helping clients grow their businesses through access to funding, improving their credit control, and back office support. The addition of our two new services means we can offer an all-encompassing solution, allowing our entrepreneurial clients freedom to grow.”

Sarah Radley, Managing Director, Inksmoor Finance Group

Providing tailored cash flow solutions for start-up, established, stressed and growing businesses.

Contact us on info@inksmoor.co.uk or 01905 741301 www.inksmoor.co.uk

Sarah Radley, Managing

Inksmoor Finance Group

Flexible Invoice Finance Back Office Support Credit Control Secured Business Loans

CROWDFUNDING

Raising capital through the collective funding of individual investors. These can be friends and family or, increasingly, amateur investors or individuals seeking opportunities to invest their money via online or social media platforms.

Crowdfunding platforms allow a business to showcase a product or service in a public arena, rather than seeking investment by relying on personal contacts or regional networks. There are different sorts of crowdfunding websites, including rewards-based where the investee offers their product or service as a reward, equity-based where the investee gives up a portion of the business to the investor, or donation-based – often used for social enterprises or community interest companies.

Advantages: It’s a great way to test the market’s reaction to your product or service. If no one invests, the chances are it’s not going to do well, or your marketing messages are poor. It can also be a quicker way to secure investment that the more traditional methods.

Disadvantages: If your funding target isn’t reached, any funding pledged by investors is usually returned to investors, so you will receive nothing for your efforts.

PEER-TO-PEER LENDING

Investors lend funds directly to borrowers via an online platform. These platforms facilitate the lending, undertake credit assessments and other risk management, but do not act as a counter-party to the loan. Contracts are directly between the investor and the borrower.

Advantages: Peer-to-peer lending brings additional choice and competition in the lending market. Interest rates offered typically are often as good as rates on loans provided by banks and other lenders.

Disadvantages: For the lender, the government does not provide insurance or any form of protection if the borrowers default.

A BIT OF SALT MAKES FOR A MICHELIN STAR

In 2016, Paul and Rhiain Foster successfully crowdfunded £100,000 via Kickstarter to help them open their first restaurant in Stratfordupon-Avon. The six-figure sum, along with the couple’s own savings and the additional help of some investors, enabled the couple to open in Church Street the following year.

In 2018, Salt Restaurant won its first Michelin Star. The judges said: “A lovely little restaurant with whitewashed walls and flagged floors; the simple look is in perfect harmony

“A lovely little restaurant with whitewashed walls and flagged floors; the simple look is in perfect harmony with the purity of the cooking”

with the purity of the cooking. Unfussy, precisely prepared dishes show restrained originality. The weekday lunch is great value and the weekend tasting menus show the chefs’ creativity to the full.”

£30,000 rural innovation funding on offer

Quilter Cheviot Investment Management has launched a rural innovation programme which will award £30,000 to a business or entrepreneur using innovation to ensure rural communities continue to prosper.

Applicants to the Quilter Cheviot Rural Innovation Programme will be judged by a panel that includes BBC Countryfile Live and The One

Andy McGlone, CEO of Quilter Cheviot will also sit on the panel. He said:

“As investment managers we are passionate about celebrating the countryside and rural communities, while sharing an appreciation for the businesses that contribute to the rural economy.”

Show presenter, Joe Crowley and ViceChancellor of Harper Adams University, Dr David Llewellyn.

Midlands investment helps Unique IQ grow

Unique IQ Limited, a software provider serving the health, social care and cleaning sectors, secured a significant investment from venture capital firm Midven, which manages the £35 million equity portion of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund.

Advanced materials

company Alvant secures

the support of angels

Basingstoke-based Alvant has secured investment following two pitches organised by the Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION).

The company closed its investment round with a number of OION angel investors.

Alvant is an advanced materials technology group specialising in the design, development and production of aluminium composite components for engineering applications in some of the world’s most significant products.

Redditch-based Unique IQ, founded in 2003 to help improve remote and mobile workforce management such as clocking in and out of visits, is using the investment to further expand its Worcestershire team and invest in further product research and development.

Roger Wood, Director at Midven, said: “Unique IQ has grown consistently over the last three years. Faced with further growth opportunities through

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) is a collaboration between the British Business Bank and ten Local Enterprise Partnerships across the Midlands. MEIF is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

an imminent new product launch, the further investment in the company will enable it to build out the team and progress technology development.”

Ken Cooper, Managing Director at the British Business Bank, added: “The Midlands Engine Investment Fund helps firms reach that next level of growth. This investment in Unique IQ demonstrates how important access to this type of finance can be, supporting product development and job creation.”

Electrospinning Company is one to watch

Founded in 2010, The Harwellbased Electrospinning Company, designs and manufactures biomaterials for regenerative medical devices and laboratory consumables for drug discovery.

Under the guidance of Chief Executive Ann Kramer, between 2012-2018 the company secured £182,000 angel investment from Minerva Angels.

Its sister angel group, Wroxall, invested £132,000. In the same period, the Electrospinning Company raised £2.5 million and moved into purpose-built facilities.

In December last year, the company was recognised as one of Britain’s top 10 scale-up companies to watch in healthcare and life sciences, in a list compiled by Capital Cell Investment Manager.

“The Midlands Engine Investment Fund helps firms reach that next level of growth”

Business finance

Cheryl Guest, Unique IQ; Roger Wood, Midven; David Lynes, Unique IQ and David Tindall of the British Business Bank

WEIRD FISH EXPANDS THANKS TO PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENT

An ethical brand dreamed up after a bracing walk along the coast celebrated 25 years in business last year after enjoying significant growth following two privateequity funded management buy-outs.

Weird Fish, the outdoor clothing company famous for its unique “macaroni” sweaters, turned over in excess of £21 million in 2017, reporting a strong growth in sales for the year in its wholesale, retail and most significantly e-commerce, where its business grew by 17 per cent to £4.9 million.

By 2017, following a substantial period of growth, Weird Fish underwent a secondary buy-out to Total Capital Partners.

At the time of the second buy-out Paul Brown, of Total Capital Partners, said: “As rival brands have moved towards the high street and mainstream fashion, Weird Fish remains focused on its active leisure roots.”

John added: “With Total Capital’s support, we look forward to maintaining our rapid pace of growth, enhancing our product range and sales channels to best meet the needs of our loyal customer base who value comfortable, relaxed and fun clothing.”

Oxford Genetics secures six new licensing deals

Business finance

Oxford Genetics is a synthetic biology company launched in 2013 as an e-commerce DNA catalogue business focused on developing innovative and scalable manufacturing solutions in the gene, cell and antibody therapeutics markets

From 2013-2015, the business, which is based at Oxford Science Park, received investment from five Enterprise Investment Schemes funds through the Midlands-based venture capital company Mercia Technologies, and the company minimised how much funding was required by continuing to expand sales revenue.

In February, Oxford Genetics revealed its latest successful negotiation of six licensing deals for its scalable gene therapy manufacturing technologies.

The past year has seen Oxford Genetics achieve significant market traction, working extensively with high profile, global businesses within the biotechnology industry.

The projects being undertaken have strengthened the portfolio of licensable technologies in the key areas of drug and gene therapy development services.

Ryan Cawood, Chief Executive at Oxford Genetics.

In 2010 the Tewkesbury-based company was sold in a management buy-out led by its current Managing Director, John Stockton. John had moved to Weird Fish two years previously, having been CEO at surf brand Animal where he increased revenues 15-fold to £60 million by 2008. The Weird Fish management buy-out was supported by Piper Private Equity.

Weird Fish continues to be a fastgrowing, lifestyle leisure brand. Serving both men and women and focusing on the 35-55 age demographic, the brand is known for being comfortable, relaxed and fun, which is reflected in its strap line “Wear the Weekend”.

The business’s success in 2017 was recognised by the industry when it won the Draper’s Record award for the best UK multi-channel business under £25 million.

“As rival brands have moved towards the high street and mainstream fashion, Weird Fish remains focused on its active leisure roots”

Applying for funding as a start-up

Finding funding suitable for your business is one thing. Applying for it is another.

Midven is a venture capital company which manages the £35 million equity portion of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund. This provides finance through small business loans, debt finance, proof of concept and equity finance funds.

Focusing on early stage and SME businesses, examples of its specific funds include Midlands Engine Investment Fund and the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund.

Midven has tried to make its funding application process as simple as possible. Companies are asked a number of questions, these include, the business’s current monthly burn rate (ie how quickly it uses cash), revenue for the last 12 months and current month, how much investment is needed and the business plan.

Out of all of the elements of the application process, the business plan is the key document for investors. It exemplifies why a company is an attractive business investment.

The Birmingham-based venture capital firm manages a range of funds representing in excess of £110 million under management.

WHAT ABOUT SEEKING SCALE-UP FUNDING?

Seeking funding for scaling up a business needs a different approach to that followed by start-ups.

Gareth Price, Investment Director at Maven Capital Partners is responsible for private equity investments across the South and South West of England. He advises that the key issues companies should be aware of when seeking scaleup funding include understanding how the objectives of scale-up investors differ to those investing in start-ups; ensuring the presentation of historic financial data is comprehensive and clear, as scale-up investors will examine this in detail; and demonstrating a mindset beyond the financials – that there is the vision, ambition and leadership in place to deliver a robust growth strategy.

He said: “While start-up investors focus on identifying a product or service with a market demand, scale-up investors are concerned with the top-line growth of a business, entering new markets and increasing profitability. They will look for evidence that the management team is able to achieve commercial traction of the product and will require a level of detail on the growth strategy and market opportunity that will not have been needed before. So it is important to have a strong finance function and the systems in place to provide this.”

Given the volume of historic financial data that exists at a scale-up business, it is crucial to present this information in a clear, concise format. Investors will

be looking in granular detail at historic key performance indicators (KPIs) and budgets to see how the company delivered against these. Evidence of a strong track record means the investors will be more comfortable knowing that growth forecasts have been achieved in the past.

The mindset of a company looking to secure scale-up capital needs to demonstrate there is substance beyond financial controls and KPIs. The management team, with defined roles and responsibilities, plays a key part in setting out the vision, ambition and leadership to deliver on the growth strategy, while the business also needs to show professionalism in functions such as HR, IT and sales and marketing to support this growth.

Why it’s important to insure your business loan

Business loan protection is similar to personal life insurance taken out to cover a mortgage. When a claim is made, the sum insured is paid either to the business or direct to the lender if the cover has been assigned to them.

Such insurance is designed to protect against the risk of the death or serious illness, of a key individual who has responsibility for repaying the outstanding debt. If more than one person is responsible for the business

loan, individual policies can be set up to cover individual liabilities. This is particularly relevant where there are wide differences in the ages and health of those who are responsible for the loan.

“While start-up investors focus on identifying a product or service with a market demand, scale-up investors are concerned with the top-line growth of a business, entering new markets and increasing profitability”

Gareth Price, Investment Director at Maven Capital Partners

Branching out into property development thanks to an alternative

lender

Folk2Folk is a peer-to-peer business lender specialising in secured lending for rural businesses and SMEs. It matches local borrowers with individual lenders, providing small businesses with secured loans to help create successful local communities.

It recently helped a couple who have a 25-acre smallholding in Herefordshire where they run their business, Hereford Coach and Commercial Refinishers Ltd. The company specialises in spraying and repairing horseboxes, coaches and other vehicles. Inching closer to retirement and keen to build up their pension pot, the couple decided to try their hand at property development, something neither had done before.

Their plan was to build four homes with eco-credentials including solar panels, charging points for electric cars, underfloor heating, water storage and biomass septic tanks.

To counteract their lack of experience, they secured a multi award-winning architect. After receiving planning permission, Pauline and Andy approached their bank of 18 years for a business loan but were turned away: Andy said: “We had some savings to invest in our project, land as security for a loan and planning permission for the build but the bank was nervous of development. Then someone referred us to Folk2Folk.”

Folk2Folk, a peer-to-peer lender, was able to arrange the finance. The couple have employed 15 local tradespeople and are already planning future projects.

“It was great to obtain the finance for our project and brilliant to be able to create jobs for local people,” said Andy.

“It’s also nice to know we’re helping Folk2Folk’s investors grow their retirement pots as we’re growing ours.”

RECORD INVESTMENT IN SCALE-UP BUSINESSES

There was a record level of investment in scale-ups in 2017 of almost £2.75 billion, and the number of scaleup businesses grew in 2018, according to UK high growth businesses research company Beauhurst and the UK Scale Up Institute.

The BGF (Business Growth Fund) remained the top investor by number into visible scale-ups (private commercial businesses large enough to declare turnover and employee numbers in filed annual accounts at Companies House). It reported 72 equity deals, including three deals worth a total of £8 million in the West Midlands, three deals worth more than £20 million in the South West and seven deals worth over £42 million in the South East.

And it seems that you don’t have to be young to be investable. Most scale-ups the BGF invest in are more than 20 years old. Companies 10-15 years old were most likely to be growing at the fastest yearly rates of moe than 80 per cent. These were also the most likely to have used equity funding. Those younger than five years old were least likely.

The Business Growth Fund was set up in 2011 with financial backing from some of the UK’s biggest high street banks. It has £2.5 billion to support

Useful websites

British Business Bank: www.british-business-bank.co.uk

Established by the UK government to provide busienss advice and increase the supply of credit to small and medium enterprises

companies from early stage, growth stage and quoted.

Other major investors into scale-ups include Draper Esprit, Balderton Capital, Woodford Investment Management and Notion Capital. There are many more.

Since 2011, £74 million of Innovate UK grants have been awarded to scaleups. Dr Ian Campbell, Executive Chair of Innovate UK, said: “Small and medium sized businesses seeking to scale up face many challenges. Innovate UK can help. Funding is one element, particularly through grants and innovation loans, and working in partnership with UK investors.”

Scale-ups in the Midlands received a third of all Innovate UK grants. The South West received more than £12 million in grants and the South East received in excess of £10 million.

British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association: www.bvca.co.uk

The industry body for the private equity and venture capital industry in the UK

Peer-to-Peer Finance Association: www.p2pfa.org.uk

Self-regulatory body for peer-to-peer lending in the UK

UK Angels Investors Network: www.angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk

Online platform connecting start-ups with a global network of angel investors

UK Crowdfunding Association: www.ukcfa.org.uk

Promotes the interests of crowdfunding platforms. Members agree to the UKCFA code of conduct Government grant signposting: www.gov.uk/business-finance-support

FINANCING FUTURE FOR THE

Business growth is fundamental to long term success. What this growth looks like will vary on a case-by-case basis, but will often involve raising additional capital. When raising equity finance, getting the right legal advice to ensure a deal is successful and achieves the best outcome is paramount especially as, unlike with debt finance, a third party is taking a percentage ownership of the company.

Funding types

For start-up businesses or those in their early stages, apart from investment from founders or personal connections, angel investors (either stand-alone or as a syndicate) who are investing their own private wealth are the predominant source of equity finance.

At the early stage of a business, the risk to investors is at its highest and, therefore, angel investors are investing in the people as much as the concept of the company. Venture capital on the other hand, whilst also available at an early stage, will look towards companies which have a more developed business because their appetite for risk and requirement to cover administration costs can prohibit the funding of a start-up.

A private equity house would be looking for the least risk and will be seeking, in the main, established businesses with an emphasis on a faster increase in growth and exit.

Finally, crowdfunding is increasingly being used as a comparatively efficient way to raise funds, as it is generally a simpler process with the investment being predominantly recorded through the Articles of Association.

Regardless of the investment type, it is essential to have the advice and support of a legal team that understands this financial landscape. Taking a marketstandard approach to help avoid unnecessary deviations is crucial, otherwise any delay could potentially jeopardise the investment going ahead.

Safeguarding success

What should you consider when preparing for investment?

 Check if SEIS and EIS tax relief is available. This is particularly attractive to early round angel investors as it improves how their shares are treated on sale.

 Carry out vendor due diligence to identify any problems and resolve these in advance.

 Make sure you have a clear and detailed business plan to demonstrate that the company is investment ready.

The amount of equity given away, especially in early rounds, should reflect

“At the early stage of a business, the risk to investors is at its highest and, therefore, angel investors are investing in the people as much as the concept of the company”

the likely need for further investment down the line. Giving away too much too early could become problematic as it is unlikely that the first round will be sufficient to reach the end goal.

Added value, over and above equity alone, provided by investment deals is an important consideration. Expertise is something which an angel investor, venture capital fund or private equity house can all bring to the table, therefore consideration should always be given as to what added value a company is looking for.

At BPE, we understand that whilst the long-term upside to a successful investment is clear, the process itself can be a significant distraction from running a business. We offer the help and support needed to guide companies through the process to achieve a timely and successful outcome.

www.bpe.co.uk

A company’s requirement for capital means that investment will often be an option.

Adam Kean, Senior Associate at BPE Solicitors, looks at the different types of funding and how businesses can get the most from an investment to help support longevity and a route to an eventual exit

Adam Kean, Senior Associate at BPE Solicitors

FUNDING OPTIONS FOR GROWTH

By Chris Mould,

Growing a manufacturing business isn’t a simple journey. There can be significant steps up in volumes and trading rather than a smooth curve. The finance journey is similar and there may never be a final arrival point.

Every manufacturing business needs to be appropriately financed to support its growth. Get this wrong and it can impact on profitability, restrict growth or even cause a business to fail.

There is no funding “one size fits all”. Consider the structure of your business and the options available. The first step in any decision-making process on significant funding changes is to produce a business plan.

This is likely to be required by debt and equity funders and it will also help you to fully think through your business ambitions.

There are lots of funding options available. Take advice – a small percentage of the funds raised paid in fees can make huge differences to your business in the future.

Funding by tightening internal cashflows

The phrase ‘turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is a reality’ is truer in times of uncertainty. There are simple steps available to most manufacturing businesses to help maximise available cash and minimise the funding requirement. Understand and take control of the ins and outs and produce a weekly cashflow forecast.

Examples include:

 Review stock and work in progress levels to reduce excess holdings

 Produce sales invoices as early as possible and review customer payment methods to shorten the receipt of funds

 Tighten credit control processes

 Review terms with suppliers to see if these can be extended

Debt options

Debt comes in many guises and established manufacturing businesses will often use a blend of durations and forms in order to match cashflow requirements. The four main types being:

 Overdrafts and revolving credit facilities

 Loans

 Finance secured on assets

 Fixed-income debt securities

It is not untypical to see a business with secured lending over large items of equipment (if they are not held operating under leases in the first place and potentially off Balance Sheet under current UKGAAP), and invoice discounting over the debtor book.

Newer forms of finance

We are also now seeing other funding streams such as supply chain financing/ reverse factoring becoming more common. Supply chain finance or reverse factoring as a form of finance allows suppliers to take advantage of the credit quality of their larger customers.

This is where a supplier receives finance in relation to their receivables (money for goods/services delivered) by a process

started by the ordering company. It allows the supplying company to receive better finance terms than it would otherwise be able to receive from a lender. Traditional factoring works on the basis that a business receives finance on their receivables.

Conversely, reverse factoring (or supply chain financing) is where the buyer assists suppliers by financing their receivables using a more flexible method and at a lower interest rate than would be offered. As a proportion of the market, reverse factoring is less than five per cent per cent of the factoring market but it is growing.

There have been government initiatives over recent years, each designed to get the debt markets working more efficiently. On a national scale these include the previous Enterprise Funding Guarantee programme but also now, under the British Business Bank, the ENABLE guarantees and funding programmes.

ENABLE programmes

The ENABLE Guarantee programme is open to all UK banks and UK branches of foreign banks which lend, or intend to lend, to viable small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the UK. The British Business Bank has committed guarantees for live portfolios of more than £800 million under its ENABLE Guarantee programme (as at the end of October 2018).

ENABLE Funding is aimed at improving the provision of asset and lease finance to smaller UK businesses.

www.crowe.co.uk

Audit and Assurance Partner in the Cheltenham office of national audit, tax, advisory and risk firm, Crowe.

Chris Mould, Partner at Crowe UK

THE MEAN VIEW

SMEs shouldn’t be the UK’s forgotten army

By Ian Mean

I make no excuse for returning to the importance of SMEs — the small, medium-sized enterprises which I regard as the true lifeblood of our economy here in this region.

In my last column, I referred to SMEs as the forgotten army of our economy.

And as the government grapples with Brexit with what appears to be a total ignorance of the issues that affect these SMEs, my views are compounded by the mess created by the politicians.

Julian Grail is senior manager of this classic SME at Cinderford, which employs 45 people and has a turnover of around £3 million.

“I believe that manufacturing is still a key part of the economy,” he tells me as he proudly introduces me to Ryan Heath, 21, who had just won the AMI UK Manufacturing Apprentice 2018 award.

“Engineering underpins everything – food manufacturing, making cars, chemicals, quarries – everything is underpinned by engineering.

“Engineering is absolutely vital to this country.”

He is so right.

But when is the government going to realise that traditional engineering companies like Grail with superb local skills really do matter?

“We are now in a service-dominated economy and I believe engineering has been under-rated,” says Julian

“It was the service economy, along with the bankers, that caused the last recession.

of an apprenticeship he was able to go to university and study mechanical engineering at the University of the West of England.

He is proud of Ryan, his award winning apprentice.

“It gives me great pride that there are small businesses like us in the Forest of Dean who can train young people,” adds Julian.

“We have produced more than 50 apprentices here and many have gone on to very good jobs.”

Government take note. Our SMEs need more help and clarity over the confusion of the levy in order to be encouraged to take on more apprentices.

They are failing lamentably at the moment to support SMEs like Grail

which really are the key to the growth of our national economy.

Brexit must not get in the way.

Most businesses would go bust if they handled their affairs in such an appalling fashion.

Typical of our SMEs fighting the good fight for survival is Grail Engineering, a traditional engineering company I visited recently in the Forest of Dean.

“We have traded before Brexit and we will trade after it. Germany is not going to stop selling us cars and the French will still want to sell us wine.”

Julian left school at 16 and came into the business as a trainee. On the back

Ian Mean is Gloucestershire Director of Business West, and a former regional newspaper editor.

He is an honorary vice-president of Gloucestershire College and has an honorary doctorate of philosophy from the University of Gloucestershire for supporting business in the county.

Ian is also chairman of the Gloucestershire Hospitals Trust Organ Donation Committee and a board member of Gloucestershire’s Local Enterprise Partnership, championing small and medium-sized businesses.

“Engineering underpins everything — food manufacturing, making cars, chemicals, quarries –everything is underpinned with engineering”

Ryan Heath with Julian Grail at Grail Engineering

DKM Sheetmetal invests £600K in latest automation technology

A Stonehouse-based company is splashing out £600,000 on new automation technology to enable the company to achieve more efficient 24hour production. It also plans to add to the workforce.

DKM Sheetmetal, which employs 45 people at its Oldends Industrial Estate base and turns over around £5 million, is also celebrating 40 years in business.

This latest move takes the company’s investment in technology to more than £2 million in the last two years.

Managing Director Steve Hearn led DKM’s transformation after being part of a buy-out of the company from its previous owners in 2004.

The business now works with companies such as Vodafone and BT, designing a cabinet to ensure 4G mobile coverage can be rolled out in rural areas.

Aston Martin investor buys majority stake in Morgan Motors

The iconic Malvern-based Morgan Motor Company, which is celebrating 110 years this year, has sold a majority stake in the business to Aston Martin investor Investindustrial. The Morgan family will continue to act as stewards for the brand and retain a minority shareholding.

Morgan hand-builds premium sports cars in its historic factory in Malvern, which is visited by more than 30,000 enthusiasts each year. With revenues of £33.8 million, the company sells around 700 cars per year.

Dominic Riley, Chairman at Morgan Motor Company, said: “To fulfil Morgan’s full potential and secure our long-term future, both the family and management team felt it was essential to bring in a strategic partner.”

NDE CLARKE PITCHLINE CELEBRATES 50 YEARS WITH GROWTH

A family run design and manufacturing business is celebrating its 50-year anniversary with expansion.

NDE Clarke Pitchline, based at the historic former Riley Motor Company Works on Aldbourne Road, Coventry, specialises in the design and manufacture of industrial drive and power transmission products and services, and has clients across the globe.

A successful 2018, including the acquisition of a new Hankook vertical turning and milling centre machine thanks to a £20,000 grant from the Business Support Programme Investment Fund and assistance from the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub, has allowed the firm to break into new markets, increase productivity and recruit staff.

Annual turnover is expected to increase by 25 per cent over the next 18 months off the back of the latest investment, the expansion of its premises and bringing in

“It is crucial that businesses in the Coventry and Warwickshire area are known as leaders in their field and bringing in new technology helps put Chris and the team ahead of their competition”

more staff. Chris Edgington, Commercial Director, said: “We are proud to be able to continue adding to the strong business heritage of our site.

Gary Thyeson, at the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub, added: “NDE Clarke Pitchline is a fantastic company with strong historical roots in Coventry.

“Bringing in new technology helps put Chris and the team ahead of their competition.”

Formula One composite technology protects troops

Didcot-based Williams Advanced Engineering is working with the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and Defence and Security Accelerator to develop battlefield shelter protection for troops, using Formula One-derived technology and processes created in-house at Williams to make composite 3D structures that can be deployed in theatre.

Williams Advanced Engineering, the engineering and services business from the Williams Group that also includes the ROKiT Williams Racing Formula One Team, is a leader in lightweight materials and structural solutions. The company has developed patent-pending composite technologies and processes enabling the creation of strong, protective but lightweight structures.

Kierandeep Bal, Coventry City Council, Chris Edgington, NDE Clarke Pitchline and Gary Thyeson, Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub. Peter Edgington of NDE Clarke Pitchline.

60 TOP INNOVATIONS

Necessity is the mother of invention and the increasingly urgent need to discover new ways to harness technology to benefit mankind is revealed in this, our second list of 60 Top Innovations.

This feature can only showcase a few of the innovations happening across this region. We could have included another 60, or 100 or more. However, it is a snapshot of the investment in invention, development and innovation going on in the UK.

We discovered a huge growth in the number of companies developing new health technologies. As pressure on the NHS grows, so does investment in ideas to reduce diagnosis time and improve patient care.

Robotic innovations are also included in this list. “Betty” (who made the front cover of the magazine), roamed around Blenheim Palace’s entrance hall in January, providing visitors with information about the palace and estate. Developed by the Oxford Robotics Institute, Betty was able to post pictures of visitors to her Twitter account.

There are examples of new space technologies and driverless cars in the list, along with some exciting new green technologies.

All of these have the potential to change and improve our lives.

Innovation doesn’t have to be about changing lives, sometimes it’s purely about making it more enjoyable, and there are some innovations which should have been common sense years ago – such

second

as building site footwear for women. Thanks to Amblers Safety Footwear, no longer do women with size five feet have to wear men’s size 10 boots because they are the only ones available on a building site.

There is one invention in this list which we first featured in 2017: The Hummingbird Bike from Banburybased Prodrive.

Launched that year as the world’s lightest folding bike, the company has now developed an electric version, an example that true innovation is achieved through improving the original to make it more relevant and user-friendly.

The importance of trust

Many of the innovations in this feature will need to secure the trust of the public if they are to gain the widespread adoption needed to be commercially successful and justify the millions of pounds invested in their development by the private and public sector.

Autonomous vehicles are an obvious example. We will need to trust that the driverless car chauffeuring us around will stop in time to save an unexpected child running across the road and not kill us in the process.

Some healthcare technologies will only be valuable to us if we are willing to trust them with our personal data. However, it’s already been proved by our gung-ho approach to sharing personal information to platforms such as Facebook and other social media sites, that we are willing to give up personal data if we think we’re getting enough back in return.

Most of us still don’t fully realise the value of what we are giving away and big companies are increasingly and rightly being told to take more responsibility for the data they ask for and hold.

Philip Hicks is Managing Partner of Kredo Consulting, a Cheltenham-based communications business focused on technology clients. He is concerned about how easily brands can lose the trust of consumers. “For businesses in the disruptive technology arena there is no luxury of building equity over years. From the get-go, brands need to speak to their customers, influencers, suppliers and employees with a clarity and purpose.

“It is in the gift of businesses, governments and those of us who want to see change for good, to establish the ground rules. Tech brands large and small ignore the need for trust at their peril, where arrogance can seriously damage market share.”

Welcome to our

list showcasing some of the region’s most exciting inventions and innovations

Betty The Autonomous Robot, picture courtesy of The Oxford Robotics Institute

Is your business looking for grant funding for proving the concept of new products and processes?

Vehicle Repowering Solutions Ltd, an Alcester based company, was formed after the successful completion of a government funded project to reduce NOx emissions from black cabs. The idea was to productionize the developed technology and introduce it to the rest of the UK.

The Challenge

With 50% of the black cab market operating in London, it was crucial for the company to have the relevant approvals to be able to supply their technology. Transport for London approve all technology on the licensed cabs

in London. To comply with the regulations, the systems performance needed to be tested and verified via emission tests, visual checks and a durability test performed under normal operating conditions in London.

Solution provided by Proof of Concept

The Proof of Concept project delivered by Coventry University Enterprises Business Solutions provides grant assistance to enable SMEs in Coventry and Warwickshire to prove the concept of a product or a process. The project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

The company secured grant funding through Proof of Concept to support the costs of the tests and checks.

Impact from our intervention

Auke Faber, Director, Vehicle Repowering Solutions said “The Proof of Concept funding helped us massively in acquiring those approvals and with the approval we are now able to sell the conversions in London and expand our staffing and production. As an additional result, our product is now part of a project initiated by TfL to retrofit 500 Euro 5 TX4 taxi’s with LPG.”

Grants up to £10,000 are available to SMEs in the Coventry and Warwickshire to support proof of concept activity. Initial applications need to be submitted no later than May 2019.

MOTORING

Arc Vector

Coventry

www.arcvehicle.com

Described by the company as “the world’s first fully electric neo-café racer, with fully integrated Human Machine Interface” (a dashboard that connects a person to a system or device). The Vector’s carbon composite structure includes full carbon fibre swing arms, custom Ohlins dampers, a Brembo brake system and the Arc battery monocoque. The company hopes to launch the £90,000 bike in 2020.

Jaguar I-PACE

Warwickshire

www.jaguar.co.uk

Voted the 2019 European Car of the Year, Jaguar’s first all-electric performance SUV launched in March last year.

It is the first electric SUV from a top end European carmaker.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY

Oxbotica

Oxfordshire

www.oxbotica.ai

Oxbotica is leading a government-backed consortium named DRIVEN which is currently deploying its fleet of fully autonomous vehicles in UK urban areas and on motorways. The programme will culminate in 2020, in an end-to-end journey from London to Oxford.

Oxbotica’s autonomous control system is called Selenium which uses data from laser and camera sensors mounted on the vehicle to find out where it is, what’s around it and calculate a safe and efficient route.

Swindon Powertrain

Swindon

Ltd

www.swindonpowertrain.com

The first production electric classic Mini. The Swind E Classic Mini combines a fully-restored body and bespoke powertrain developed by Swindon Powertrain, which has been providing engineering expertise to automotive and motorsports industries for over 40 years.

StreetDrone

Oxfordshire

www.streetdrone.com

StreetDrone provides autonomous vehicle technology, from drive-by-wire and self-driving operating systems to validated open source software, with products that provide the functionality to safely link vehicles with self-driving systems.

The StreetDrone Twizy is the company’s first vehicle conversion, fitted with XenOS, the self-driving operating system, to enable vehicles to connect to a wide range of self-driving software, AI and mobility applications.

Aurrigo PodZeros

Coventry

www.aurrigo.com

Aurrigo says its electric PodZero pods are set to change the way we transport people efficiently on the last stage of their journey from transport hubs to and from a wide range of destinations.

HEALTHCARE TECH

Sensyne Health

Oxfordshire

www.sensynehealth.com

Healthcare technology company that creates value from accelerating the discovery and development of new medicines and improving patient care through the analysis of real-world evidence from large databases of anonymised patient data in collaboration with NHS Trusts.

Vitaccess

Oxfordshire

www.vitaccess.com

Vitaccess is a platform that produces real-time data on how diseases and treatments impact patients’ everyday lives, based on tailor-made apps installed in their smartphones.

Named this year by Tech Nation as one of the UK’s top tech start-ups.

Medherant

Warwickshire

www.medherant.co.uk

Pioneering drug delivery through the skin, Medherant is creating a sustainable, next-generation transdermal drug delivery patch company.

Oxehealth

Oxfordshire

www.oxehealth.com

Helps staff to improve the care of the elderly and vulnerable.This is a digital care assistant that allows clinicians and carers to monitor patients remotely.

Caristo Diagnostics

Oxfordshire

www.caristo.com

An Oxford University spin-out company commercialising a new coronary CT image analysis technology that can flag patients at risk of deadly heart attacks years before they occur.

Caristo’s proprietary technology can produce a new measure called the Fat Attenuation Index (FAI) which accurately quantifies the extent of inflammation in the coronary arteries supplying the heart.

OvuSense

Warwickshire

www.ovusense.com

OvuSense, from Fertility Focus, predicts ovulation 24 hours in advance, doubling the chance of pregnancy for each reproductive cycle.

Sense Biodetection

Oxfordshire

www.sense-bio.com

A start-up based at Culham which is developing a hand-held device to make molecular testing available outside the laboratory. The device will speed up diagnosis so that, potentially, a test can be made by a patient’s bedside or in the surgery and the results given in 10 minutes.

The company is focusing first on the diagnosis of infectious diseases and oncology infections but is some years away from launching its first clinical product.

Consultant Connect

Oxfordshire

www.consultantconnect.org.uk

An innovative telecoms system enabling GPs to obtain immediate advice from local NHS hospital consultants.

VIRTUAL REALITY

Admix Berkshire

www.admix.in

A monetisation platform for virtual and augmented reality developers enabling product placements within their content.

Admix gives millions of advertisers the ability to buy virtual and augmented reality media in a couple of clicks.

Native Antigen Company

Oxfordshire

www.thenativeantigencompany.com

This life sciences company provides products that help overcome the global challenges presented by infectious diseases.It has launched a new range of

MANUFACTURING

Advanced Insulation

Gloucestershire

www.advancedinsulation.com

ContraFlame MS400 is Advanced Insulation’s award-winning underdeck and bulkhead fire protection and insulation system.

Advanced Insulation is a global leader in the engineering, manufacture and application of insulation and passive fire protection systems including buoyancy, subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines products to the offshore and onshore oil and gas industry.

MS400 is a passive system not relying on any chemical or physical changes when exposed to fire.

The material has a much wider tolerance to service temperatures than other conventional passive fire protection materials.

tests for the Zika virus which represent a major step forward in the fight against the disease.The company’s non-crossreactive Zika Virus immunoassays, launched late last year, are more sensitive and accurate than current tests. They can also distinguish between Zika and similar viruses such as Dengue, which is vital in tracking the spread of infection.

Renishaw

Gloucestershire

www.renishaw.com

Renishaw has built a device that has been used in a groundbreaking clinical trial. Manufactured by the company on behalf of the North Bristol NHS Trust, the device enabled the precise delivery of a new drug candidate, Glial Cell Line Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) with the hope of regenerating dying dopamine brain cells in people with Parkinson’s, improving their symptoms.

The trial was funded by Parkinson’s UK with support from the Cure Parkinson’s Trust and in association with the North Bristol NHS Trust. Results announced in February showed that the drug delivery system performed effectively and reliably and a similar device, developed by Renishaw called “neuroinfuse™”, is now being used in other clinical trials.

WaveOptics

Oxfordshire

www.enhancedworld.com

A world-leading designer and manufacturer of diffractive waveguides, the key optical component in wearable augmented reality. The technology is designed to be used for immersive augmented reality experiences in industrial, enterprise and consumer markets.

Worcestershire 5G consortium

Worcestershire

uk5g.org

The UK’s first live 5G factory trials are taking place at the Worcestershire 5G Testbed, a landmark step towards the creation of smart factories in Britain. The trials are the first time that British industry has deployed this technology which is set to transform the way the sector operates.

Renishaw is helping Parkinson’s therapy

Understanding IP…

In this article Amanda Simons, from leading patent and trade mark firm J A Kemp, looks at some common misconceptions about IP and highlights the need for IP rights holders, and those considering investing in companies holding IP rights, to review and fully understand their IP portfolios.

IP is an increasingly important asset for companies in a wide range of technologies and its correct understanding and management should not be undervalued. Investigating the value of this asset through a diligence process which assesses strengths and limitations is a critical part of the investment process. Companies may not want to wait for an investment round to see where these strengths and limitations lie. An early IP review can improve a company’s understanding of its IP and help it to put an appropriate IP strategy in place. Any company with an appropriate and correctly managed IP strategy will be well prepared for the IP due diligence investigations that potential investors are likely to perform.

Unfortunately, misconceptions around IP abound and can lead to mis-understanding of the true value of an IP portfolio.

Here are five common ones:

“We have a patent, so we have the right to exploit our invention.”

Unfortunately, false expectations of what IP rights allow are common. In fact, IP only provides the right to stop others from doing something – it does not provide the right to do something. It is necessary to perform freedom-to-operate (FTO) investigations to determine if there are rights of other parties that could prevent any proposed activities.

“We have worldwide patent protection for our idea.” Whilst it is possible to apply for a patent application via an international treaty (the Patent

Cooperation Treaty), this does not lead to a “worldwide patent”, but needs to be converted into separate national or regional patents in the countries of interest. In fact, the cost of filing and maintaining a patent family in a large number of countries can be prohibitively expensive and is normally only an option for multi-national companies with large IP budgets. However, an effective strategy can ensure useful protection is in place by selecting a number of key states in which to seek patent protection.

“Our patent provides us with a monopoly for our company’s product.” Whether this is the case or not will depend on the exact wording of the patent. A careful analysis of the claims of the patent will be needed to determine if the scope of protection is appropriate for preventing competitors from designing round the patent. And this may need to be done country by country as the scope of protection provided by patents in different countries in a patent family may vary. Care also needs to be taken to look at what a patent ultimately protects once it is granted. It is all too easy for companies to lose sight of IP when changes are made to product design during development: it may be that a patent does not actually cover the product it was intended to protect. Regular review of the IP portfolio against changing business plans can avoid this issue.

“We have not applied for any patents because it is not possible to obtain a patent for a computer program.” Many opportunities are lost because of this misconception. The European Patent

Office alone grants thousands patents a year for computer programs.

“Now we have a patent, it will be easy for us to keep our competitors off the market.” Enforcing IP rights is often a complex business. There are significant costs and risks associated with litigation. Settling a dispute, with a licensing or other agreements, is normally the preferred option with suing a competitor for infringement of an IP right being a last resort.

Some of these misconceptions can mean that an IP portfolio does not provide the protection its owners think it does. Companies and their investors will want to understand exactly what IP they have, and how they can use it to maximise their company value. IP reviews at regular intervals, or at least in advance of any investment process, may help to provide that understanding and to resolve any issues at an early stage.

Amanda is a patent attorney with over 20 years’ professional experience focused on the pharmaceutical and medtech sectors, including medical sensors and other medical equipment. She also has experience in a broad range of chemical technologies including polymers, alloys and glasses. Amanda routinely advises on overall patent strategy and portfolio management, including due diligence and freedom to operate matters.

Amanda Simons Partner, Patent Attorney asimons@jakemp.com

Tel: 01865 406100

Amanda Simons, Partner, J A Kemp

ENGINEERING DESIGN

Hexo Helmet

Oxfordshire

www.hexohelmets.com

The world’s first custom-made 3D printed cycle helmet from this Oxford University spin-out. Its extra strength comes from the honeycomb structure. The fit is achieved through mobile scanning technology and the helmets, which retail at £349 each, are made in the UK.

LEVC Warwickshire

www.levc.com

The LEVC (London Electric Vehicle Company) TX eCity, the world’s most advanced electric taxi, is made in Anstey, Warwickshire.

With more than 1,000 TX cabs now on the streets of London, the vehicle is already contributing to the capital’s air quality.

The electric taxis are made at LEVC’s £300 million manufacturing plant, which opened in 2017. It also houses a research and development centre and testing facilities and was the UK’s first plant dedicated entirely to the production of electric propulsion vehicles.

Heru Warwickshire

www.myheru.com

The world’s first hybrid boiler which can run from conventional fuel sources such as oil or gas if no potential waste material is available. This heating system, powered by domestic material destined to become waste, was invented by Stratford-uponAvon company Mission Resources and is under development at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry.

Animal Dynamics

Oxfordshire

www.animal-dynamics.com

Animal Dynamics develops efficient vehicles and systems that perform beyond anything currently found in nature or engineering.

The company researches the underlying principles of natural systems and

Hummingbird

Oxfordshire

www.hummingbirdbike.com

Hummingbird, the British bicycle manufacturer behind the world’s lightest folding bike, has broken new ground with the launch of an electric edition. It weighs just 10.3 kg.

Hummingbird, which launched its revolutionary 6.9kg folding bike in 2017, has developed a similarly elegant model with a battery-powered motor to assist its rider on the urban commute. The Hummingbird Electric is powered by a brushless 250W motor that has the highest power to weight ratio on the market.

It has a top speed of 25 kph and a range of 30+ km. All this technology is packed into a discreet rear wheel

marries these with the latest engineering techniques, materials and processes.

Animals that walk, swim and fly have honed their movement to use as little energy as possible.

Animal Dynamics believes that more efficient systems will disrupt existing markets in a good way, by building machines that can do more with less energy.

hub that is just 180mm in diameter and 120mm thick.

It can be fully charged in just two and a half hours, so there is no need for the rider to carry around a separate battery pack.

THE LEVC TX eCity, the world’s most advanced electric taxi

ROBOTICS

Betty Oxfordshire

www.ori.ox.ac.uk

A mobile service robot from the Oxford Robotics Institute. Betty’s latest adventure has been to greet visitors at Blenheim Palace, where she roamed around the entrance hall providing information to visitors about the palace and estate. She was also able to post pictures of visitors to her Twitter account, @BettyStrands, a function which provided much excitement among the visitors.

PiCOH Gloucestershire

www.ohbot.co.uk

From simple movements and speech all the way to a full blown personal assistant, Picoh is a customisable robot that can be controlled by code.

It has been designed by Ohbot to stretch children’s understanding of computer science in a fun and creative way.

There are now more than 3,000 Ohbots in 39 countries helping children learn to code, and they have appeared in films for the BBC, collaborations with Microsoft and installations and workshops at the London Science Museum.

RAIL TECHNOLOGY

Genie Connect Gloucestershire

www.genieconnect.co.uk

Genie Connect is a companion robot service that uses a friendly, intuitive voice-enabled robot to support the UK’s older adults.

Developed by Service Robots Ltd, Genie aims to reduce loneliness, increase independence and help older people live in their own homes for longer.

Vivarail Warwickshire

www.vivarail.co.uk

Vivarail has revealed new visuals for its hydrogen train showing how a unique modular design will deliver more seats for passengers as well as emission-free travel.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Ultromics

Oxfordshire

www.ultromics.com

Leveraging artificial intelligence and one of the world’s largest imaging databases to improve diagnostic accuracy to greater than 90 per cent.

The Vivarail Class 230s will store all the equipment beneath the floor making a more efficient vehicle able to carry more passengers and deliver faster journey times.

With the need to cut the UK’s carbon emissions and phase out diesel trains by 2040 there will be rapid movement by manufacturers to bring hydrogen trains to the market.

Betty The Autonomous Robot, photograph courtesy of The Oxford Robotics Institute

SPACE TECHNOLOGY

The world’s fastest all-electric aircraft

Oxfordshire & Gloucestershire

www.electro-flight.com

www.yasa.com

A team of British engineers, designers, and data specialists are setting out to make history.

Rolls-Royce is working with Gloucesterbased Electroflight and Kidlington’s Yasa Motors on a highly specialised challenge to build the world’s fastest allelectric aircraft.

This zero-emissions plane is expected to make a run for the record books with a target speed of 300+ miles per hour.

YASA was founded on the principle that small, light electric motors would play a growing role in meeting strict global emissions targets and the requirement for greater efficiency through electrification.

Liftmeoff

Buckinghamshire

www.liftmeoff.com

Lifemeoff, based at Westcott Business Incubation Centre (part of Oxfordshire’s satellite applications catapult) provides novel in-orbit transit solutions for the small satellite market through the development of dedicated bolt-on space services.

Very Light Rail

Warwickshire

www.coventry.gov.uk/verylightrail

Very Light Rail (VLR) is a research and development project under way at WMG, The University of Warwick, using the latest automotive expertise developed in the region to deliver an innovative and

Black Arrow Space Technologies

Wiltshire

www.blackarrow-space.uk

A new British company developing spaceflight technologies designed to launch satellites into low earth orbit from sea. Black Arrow Space Technologies, currently based in

Reaction Engines

Oxfordshire

www.reactionengines.co.uk

Reaction Engines is pioneering the development of a rocket-propelled aircraft that can fly into space. A key element of its revolutionary SABRE™ air-breathing rocket engine has successfully passed the first phase of high-temperature testing. The precooler heat exchanger achieved all test objectives in the first phase of hightemperature testing designed to directly replicate supersonic flight conditions, and future tests are planned at even higher temperatures.

affordable light rail system. Traditional tram solutions are generally very costly – around £3 million for each tram. This project aims to deliver all benefits of trams at a fraction of the cost – providing a real alternative to the car and helping to improve air quality and reduce congestion. The first demonstrator vehicle is estimated to be built and ready for testing in autumn 2020.

Swindon but planning a move to new premises in Oxfordshire, is developing a rocket system, fuelled by liquid oxygen and liquified natural gas which allows low-cost launch with minimal environmental impact.

The company plans sea-born rocket launches – commercial rockets launched from ships.

Oxford Space Systems

Oxfordshire

https://oxford.space

A pioneering new space antenna, which is lighter and less complex than those currently available commercially.

The ‘wrapped-rib’ antenna, part of the development of a new generation of pioneering British deployable satellite antennas, offers more efficient stowage which is critical in an industry where transport volume and mass are crucial and launch costs are high.

CONSUMER

Sail GB

Worcestershire

www.sailgb.co.uk

In 2012 cycling enthusiast Mike Singleton began pursuing a dream to design a new style off road bike. Breaking with tradition

Moasure ONE

Warwickshire

www.moasure.com

The world’s first handheld device which accurately measures volume, area, circumference, height, angle, level and more.

Tubereka

Gloucestershire

www.tubereka.com

A portable coffee mug designed by Cheltenham-based Duku, that allows coffee to be brewed on the go using fresh coffee grounds.

this foldable bike would use three wheels to create a model that would be comfortable, efficient and safe. Two years later Mike was joined by business partner Neil Symmonds and the two set about developing concept models that would shape the final design of their revolutionary cycle.

Floodkit

Worcestershire

www.floodkit.co.uk

A complete range of affordable products to provide flood protection for homes and businesses.

Sigmavision

Oxfordshire

www.sigmavision.com

The TreadReaderTM is a handheld scanner which uses 3D scanning technology to accurately measure tread depth and tyre wear on all vehicles.

Cool Call

Gloucestershire

www.coolercoms.com

A new gadget to reduce a smart phone user’s exposure to microwave radiation. Plug Cool Call into the audio out jack socket of a mobile phone –iPhone 7 and X owners use an Apple Lighting connector adaptor – then plug the headset jack into the socket

Bliss Canopy

Gloucestershire

www.arkbeststart.com

Developed using fabric technology from NASA, Bliss Canopy for babies is a revolutionary product which protects against the sun’s heat, dims the light to aid peaceful sleep and keeps out mosquitoes.

Wearable Link

Worcestershire

www.wearable-link.com

Wearable Link is a “data chain’ using standard and proprietary technology for connectivity of up to six miles in the most challenging environments, including on construction sites, and by professional surfers riding the world’s biggest waves.

Jutexpo

Worcestershire

www.jutexpo.co.uk

Jutexpo, which launched in 2002 selling sustainable jute bags, has developed a process, called HALT™, which is recycling plastic bottles into fabric for some of the UK’s most familiar retail brands.

on the other side of the Cool Call unit. Microwave from the phone, which travels up the metal core of your corded headset, will be absorbed by Cool Call.

According to the manufacturers, a number of scientific studies have demonstrated that rats and mice exposed to mobile phones developed behavioural changes (memory loss, hyperactivity, erratic behaviour) and cancer is also a cause for concern.

Amblers Safety Boots

Gloucestershire

www.amblerssafety.com

As more women enter skilled labour roles, so their need for reliable and comfortable safety boots grows. Women require a specific fit on top of the high standards of protection against hazards, which Amblers now offer.

GREEN TECH

First Light Fusion

Oxfordshire

www.firstlightfusion.com

First Light Fusion, the University of Oxford spin-out researching energy generation via inertial fusion, has completed the building and testing of its unique pulsed power device, dubbed Machine 3. It is the biggest pulsed power machine in the world dedicated to researching fusion energy.

Oxford Sustainable Fuels

Oxfordshire

www.osfuels.com

OSF’s technology processes take waste plastic, tyres or biomass and converts them to oil in a pyrolysis plant. The process is able to handle mixed plastic, making the challenge of sorting and separation unnecessary.

Renovagen

Buckinghamshire

www.renovagen.com

Portable solar power systems for disaster response, military and remote commercial operations which are lightweight and fast to deploy.

FOOD & DRINK

Pop Up Electric Charging Points

Gloucestershire

www.duku.co.uk

Cheltenham-based product design consultancy Duku has unveiled its prototype for a unique pop-up charge point bollard for electric vehicles (EV). It is part of an electric vehicle charging trial in Oxford.

POLARFIN

Warwickshire

www.interfacepolymers.com

A Warwick University spin-out technology company that modifies the surface of commonly used plastics so that mixed plastic waste can be recycled into useful products.

FOTENIX

Gloucestershire

fotenix.tech

An online three-dimensional multispectral tool which helps producers and agronomists identify plant characteristics earlier in the season, well before they become visible to even the sharpest agricultural eye. This real-time information means that appropriate action can be made sooner – a huge advantage that will improve yield quality and shelflife significantly.

Willy’s ACV

Herefordshire

www.willysacv.com

A new, naturally fermented energy drink from William Chase, the founder of the successful Tyrrells Crisps brand. Willy’s ACV (apple cider vinegar) is raw, unfiltered and unpasteurised. It contains friendly, probiotic bacteria; acetobacter and lactobacillus and with a ph of 5, can help support an alkaline diet. While apple cider vinegar is slightly acidic in ph, the company says that when metabolized within the body, apple cider vinegar promotes alkalinity, along with other healthy foods like lentils, fresh green leafy vegetables, fruit and nuts.

Little Devils Kitchen

Gloucestershire

www.fgr.co.uk

A vegan food company launched by green entrepreneur and Ecotricity founder Dale Vince that seeks to disrupt the more than one billion meals a year UK school dinners market. Little Devil’s Kitchen will use experience gained from its vegan catering to football fans at Forest Green Rovers, also owned by Dale.

SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY

Oodle Car Finance

Oxfordshire

www.oodlecarfinance.com

At £55 billion, the used car market is the largest retail market in the UK. However, it lags behind other retail markets in the digital landscape. Oodle is revolutionising this by merging car search and finance into one digital

C7 Health Warwickshire

www.c7health.co.uk

This clinical services tech firm has developed a healthcare software platform which will streamline the process of essential diagnostic scans for patients, minimising administration for GPs and reducing waiting times for NHS users.

Some patients are waiting up to six weeks for their ultrasound scans and over 40 million diagnostic scans are directed from England’s 7,500 GP surgeries every year.

Founder Phil Webb spotted an opportunity to modernise the current process – with GPs, diagnostic providers and most importantly patients all set to benefit.

MOBILE APPS

MatchDayInfo

Gloucestershire

www.matchdayinfo.com

process. Oodle Car Finance launched in April 2016 and processed more than £3 billion of car finance applications. From its Oxford Science Park headquarters and newly-established Product Development Hub in London, its online operation pairs customers with their perfect cars, from some of the UK’s best car dealers. Employee numbers have grown to more than 150 and they are still hiring.

Loop Software

Gloucestershire

www.loop.software

A new property platform that combines best-in-class estate agency software with unique data insights to help clients source, secure, service and sell more property.

Through aggregating property data and then showing this to Loop users via the platform, estate agents are able to see, for the first time, a property’s full marketing and sold history in one place. Combined with further property and environmental data, Loop agents can offer buyers and sellers more information. Through data transparency, Loop aims to create a stable market for buying and selling in the UK.

An app which brings sports fans closer to the action and helps professional sports clubs connect with an international audience.

En-route Parking

Gloucestershire

www.enrouteparking.com

This software helps drivers find affordable parking spaces and car sharing opportunities.

The company offers commuters a car park where they can meet colleagues or friends to car share to work.

The spaces can be booked online as a one-off or for a block of time.

Serelay Oxfordshire

www.serelay.com

Based at Harwell Campus, Serelay enables mobile device users to capture verifyable photos and videos, and platforms receiving these to query them for authenticity of content, time and location.

Partnerships with the University of Oxford…

The team are a dedicated and accessible point of entry within the University for external organisations. Successful partnerships allow companies to benefit from access to the knowledge, talent and technologies co-developed with the University that can make a real difference to their business.

The team sit within the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) division at the University of Oxford and are engaging with companies to establish sustained and strategic relationships in an innovative and broad range of themes. Using their deep knowledge of the University and network of academic contacts, they can advise on and foster the creation of enduring partnerships through bespoke, often multi-disciplinary research propositions delivering on a partner organisation’s unique requirements by drawing on Oxford research (and company) strengths and resources.

In 2018 the University of Oxford and the National Trust announced a new research partnership, connecting innovative Oxford University research with the National

Trust’s inspiring places and historic collections. Marking the first investment of this kind by the National Trust in any university, the partnership was fostered by Dr Murray Gardner of the IRP team and is creating new opportunities for interdisciplinary research, knowledge exchange, public engagement and training between the two organisations.

successful 5-year strategic partnership. Dr Simon Jackman, Senior Innovation Fellow in the IRP team linked the Catapult with academics in the Physics and Engineering departments at Oxford. Working with the University has enabled the Catapult to commercialise a new satellite infrared instrument, which has led to new solutions in disaster management, oil spill attribution and deforestation monitoring. The partnership has also contributed to a range of activities at the University, including a recent quantum computing hackathon designed to start a new area of engagement between space companies, agencies and researchers.

The partnership supports a range of workstreams including research placements and academic consultancy, conferences, workshops, lectures, training and public events. In the space sector, the University of Oxford and the Satellite Applications Catapult recently celebrated their

The main sectors focused on for 2019 by the team are: ICT, AI and Creative Industries, Energy, Space Technology, Health and Life Sciences, Mobility and the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy. The team works seamlessly with its sister business development teams across the University (Medical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities), with other central service teams and with Oxford University Innovation (Technology Transfer Office). Each team can offer specialised services to facilitate innovation partnerships and industry involvement with the University.

The Industrial Research Partnerships (IRP) team at the University of Oxford are establishing, creating and supporting research collaborations with industry partners across the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences.

“The National Trust and Oxford University have a strong history of collaboration. This new partnership will create even more opportunities for bringing cutting-edge academic research into the stories we tell about the places and collections in our care”

Hilary McGrady, Director-General National Trust

MEET THE INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS TEAM

Dr Christopher Jones Head of the Industrial Research Partnerships team

Chris is head of the IRP team. His role is to understand the requirements of all industry sectors, promote industry engagement within the University and advise on structuring and delivering all types of R&D collaborations.

Dr Andy Gilchrist Energy

Andy is responsible for developing links in the energy sector; anything from finding fossil fuels, to how we use and generate electricity. He has an interest in bringing together Oxford’s Professors to maximise Oxford’s contribution to a carbon-free world. He helps companies find relevant research, facilitates in finding co-funded opportunities and liaises with the career’s office on student engagement.

Dr Murray Gardner

Health and Life Sciences

Murray facilitates the interaction between companies and University of Oxford researchers active within the environmental sciences and biosciences; exploring new ways of working with companies and ensuring a broad approach to partnering Oxford’s research capability with the research and innovation needs of companies.

Dr Simon Jackman Space Technology

Simon is a Senior Innovation fellow focused on the environment area and leads the University’s collaboration with the Satellite Applications Catapult and space related organisations.

Dr Deborah Spencer

Deputy Head of the Industrial Research Partnerships team

Deborah is Deputy Head of the team and is responsible for developing activities under the Industrial Strategy across the University. Her background is in life sciences; however, she works across sectors including engineering, chemistry and mathematics to support interdisciplinary projects. Many of these projects fall into the four Grand Challenge areas of the Industrial Strategy: The Ageing Society, AI and Data, Clean Growth and Future Mobility. Deborah has been leading on raising awareness of the Industrial Strategy opportunities externally to companies and specifically on how to engage with University research.

Sarolta Palfi

ICT and Creative Industries, Artificial Intelligence

Sarolta is boosting cutting-edge research collaborations across the ICT and Creative Industries sectors. Her focus is on university-industry partnerships with technology providers to harness Oxford research strengths in AI/Machine Learning and immersive technologies.

Dr James Semple

James is establishing strategic partnerships with industry, leveraging Oxford’s research strengths in areas including Engineering, Mathematics, Materials Science and Physics. His current focus is in applications of research to sectors including novel sensors and computing paradigms. He has been working closely with the Said Business School to establish the Creative Destruction Lab at Oxford University to provide expert mentorship to early-stage science-based ventures from across the UK.

If you’re interested in discussing a potential partnership with the University of Oxford, please contact any member of the IRP team by emailing irpofficemanager@mpls.ox.ac.uk or visiting our website www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/ innovation-partnerships

Creative Destruction Lab – Exciting new start-up programme comes to Oxford

A new partnership between the University of Oxford’s Said Business School and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) start-up programme has recently been announced in March 2019. Currently CDL operates at six universities across Canada and North America, and now for the first time the CDL programme will be available in the UK and in Europe.

Originally established at the University of Toronto, the CDL is a seed-stage programme for highly scalable science and technology-based ventures. The programme matches participating companies with a carefully selected

group of senior mentors, including accomplished entrepreneurs, investors, scientists and business professors. The nine-month mentorship programme has proved to be highly successful: to date CDL has helped to nurture start-ups worth over £2 billion in equity value.

Now both UK and European science-based founders will benefit from this innovative programme which helps commercialise ideas and scale businesses.

Applications for CDL-Oxford opened in April 2019 for start-ups in the

UK and beyond, and in the first year will focus on companies applying artificial intelligence to create new products and services.

www.creativedestruction lab.com/locations/oxford/

If you’re interested in applying for a place on the CDL-Oxford programme please visit

Royds Withy King, Life after Brexit: The challenges and opportunities for the Life Sciences sector

Royds Withy King hosted a Life after Brexit event, at The Ashmolean, Oxford. Guests learned about the challenges facing the life sciences sector and participated in a debate around the opportunities to make the UK is the best place in the world to develop and launch innovative medicines, technologies and diagnostics. Guest speakers included Professor Chas Bountra, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Innovation at The University of Oxford and Bill Haynes, Head of Site at the Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford. The panel discussion was chaired by Lord Wood of Anfield with panellists including Priya Mande, Chief Operating Officer from PsiOxus, Stephen Conway, Director of Research Services, University of Oxford and Claus Andersen, Head of Life Sciences at Royds Withy King.

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHAZ SNELL

Would you like to feature your business event, launch or party in our business events section?

Life after Brexit hosted at The Ashmolean, Oxford

Andrew King from Richardsons with Robert Pinhero from Royds Withy King, Sharon Parker-Lines from Oxford Innovation, Jemima King from Richardsons and Dr Claire Irvine from HGF

Kirsty Muir from Business & Innovation Magazine with Jarl Severn from Owen Mumford

Jon Silversides from Carter Jonas with Philip Campbell from MEPC, Milton Park

Simon Bassett from Royds Withy King with Katy Bruce from Oxford University Innovation

Angus Horner from Harwell Campus and Dr Deborah Spencer from Mathematical, Physical & Life Sciences Division at University of Oxford

Graham Combe from BioSell with Louise Conlon from Immunocore and Laura Holland The Rosalind Franklin Institute

Priya Mande from PsiOxus with Amanda Simons from J A Kemp and Bill Haynes from Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford

Susan Brown from Oxford City Council with Lord Wood of Anfield

Nicky Godding from Business & Innovation Magazine with Sue Staunton from James Cowper Kreston

The Alantra Pharma Fast 50 Index is an annual ranking of non-listed companies in the sector.

Compiled by Alantra, the global investment banking and asset management firm, the ranking is based on the revenue growth achieved by privately-owned pharmaceuticals businesses in each of the past two years. The benchmark underlines the strength of the UK’s pharmaceuticals sector, including a diverse range of privately-owned businesses that consistently deliver outstanding growth.

REGION’S PHARMACEUTICALS STARS NAMED IN HIGH-GROWTH RANKING

Swindon-based Wasdell Group, which provides outsourced solutions including manufacturing and packaging to the pharmaceutical, medical devices and healthcare industries is also listed.

Other companies mentioned in the index include Simbec-Orion Group, the clinical research provider which has a major office in Slough, Carbosynth of Newbury, which develops and wholesales pharmaceutical goods and Oxford Pharmagenesis, a health science communications company.

The leading business in the ranking is wholesale and supply group Qualasept Pharmaxo Holdings. Based in Corsham, Qualasept Pharmaxo has delivered annual sales growth averaging an astonishing 77 per cent a year over the past two years.

Other regional companies listed in the Fast 50 Index include Berkshire Wholesale Supplies, which sells pharmaceutical drugs and medicines. It reported revenues of £5.6 million and 50 per cent growth.

Sequani, the Ledbury-based company which provides toxicology services to the pharmaceutical and crop protection industries, medical imaging software company Mirada Medical, based at Oxford Centre for Innovation and pharmacy companies HA McParland, Badham Pharmacy and Knights Chemist, the online pharmacy based at Redditch are also mentioned.

Tom Cowap, a Director in Alantra’s UK advisory business, said: “Despite some challenging headwinds, including the spectre of Brexit, Britain’s privatelyowned pharma businesses have delivered remarkable growth in recent years.”

Alantra Pharma Fast 50 companies must have achieved annual revenues of £2 million or above in the first year of assessment, and to have filed three years of accounts at Companies House. These accounts should show two successive years of revenue growth.

First Light Fusion, the University of Oxford spin-out researching energy generation via inertial fusion, has successfully completed building and testing of its unique pulsed power device, dubbed Machine 3, the biggest pulsed power machine in the world dedicated to researching fusion energy.

The machine is capable of discharging up to 200,000 volts and in excess of 14 million ampere – the equivalent of nearly 500 simultaneous lightning strikes – within two microseconds.

The £3.6 million machine uses some 3km of high voltage cables and another 10km of diagnostic cables. Similar to a railgun, it will use electromagnetism to fire projectiles at around 20km per second (enough to travel from London to New York in four minutes).

The next step in the technological development will be to achieve ‘gain’, whereby the amount of energy created outstrips that used to spark the reaction. Fusion is the ultimate source of the universe’s energy and is the same process that powers stars, including the sun.

Some of the region’s most dynamic businesses have been named in a ranking of the UK’s fastest-growing privately-owned pharmaceuticals companies.

First Light Fusion reveals worlds’ biggest pulsed power machine

“Despite some challenging headwinds, including the spectre of Brexit, Britain’s privately-owned pharma businesses have delivered remarkable growth in recent years”

Spring statement delivers for innovation in Oxfordshire

The Chancellor unveiled further plans in his spring statement to invest substantial sums in research and development in Oxfordshire

These include a commitment to fusion research at the Joint European Torus (JET) megaproject at Culham to continue to progress nuclear technology. Culham Science Centre is home not only to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (which owns the park), its Centre for Fusion Energy, RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) and Materials Research Facility, but also the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory and the Joint European Torus (JET).

JET is the world’s largest and most powerful tokamak and the focal point of the European fusion research programme. Since it began operating in 1983, JET has made major advances in the science and engineering of fusion and more investment is going into the project.

Last year the Government revealed £86 million funding for a national fusion technology platform at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.

The investment will fund the building and operation of a National Fusion Technology Platform, expected to open in 2020.

The Chancellor also confirmed that the government is investing £81 million to construct an Extreme Photonics Centre (EPAC). This will be a specialist, national facility based at Harwell Campus for the deployment of UK high-powered laser technology to produce new sources of penetrating radiation.

This will be led by the government’s UK Research and Innovation body.

ADVANCED SURFACES COMPANY LINKS UP WITH TURKISH MANUFACTURER

Oxford Advanced Surfaces Limited has signed an agreement to supply its patented Onto product to Polkima, a Turkish manufacturer of composite components for commercial vehicles.

The incorporation of Onto into the production process will remove the need for sanding prior to painting. Sanding or abrasion as a surface preparation is slow, dirty and labourintensive, and risks damaging parts (over-sanding generates scrap).

Jon-Paul Griffiths, Oxford Advanced Surfaces Managing Director, said: “This supply agreement demonstrates a significant step forward in the

“This Supply Agreement demonstrates a significant step forward in the continued commercialisation of our Onto surface treatment technology into volume manufacturing and transportation”

continued commercialisation of our Onto surface treatment technology into volume manufacturing and transportation.”

Onto's patented technology has been proven in demanding applications in automotive, transportation, motorsport, defence and sporting goods.

Telent secures traffic signals contract for Essex Highways Partnership

Telent Technology Services, a leading UK technology and network services company based in Warwick, has been awarded an eight-year contract to provide intelligent transport systems on behalf of the Essex Highways Partnership, a strategic partnership between Essex County Council and highways service provider Ringway Jacobs.

The contract is worth in excess of £4 million. Telent has won a number of contracts over the past year, including a five-year Oxfordshire County Council contract, comprising the supply, installation and maintenance of signalling equipment and associated ITS on-street solutions countywide.

YASA signs innovation agreement with global automotive manufacturer

Oxford-based YASA has signed an innovation agreement with an unnamed global automotive original equipment manufacturer to work on long-term joint innovation, developing custom solutions for hybrid and pure electric vehicles.

YASA is the world’s leading manufacturer of axial-flux electric motors and controllers, hybrid and pure electric vehicles. It is also entering the electric aerospace marketing. In January it revealed it was partnering with RollsRoyce to provide electric motors to power the world’s fastest electric plane, scheduled for launch in 2020.

YASA’s CEO Chris Harris said: “This agreement brings together one of the world’s best-known automotive manufacturers with YASA. Through this long-term collaboration, we are developing custom electric motor and controller solutions that will power unsurpassed driving experiences and set the bar for high-performance hybrid and pure electric vehicles.”

Aigenpulse wins important ISO certification

Aigenpulse, the Abingdon-based big data technology company which specialises in structuring, integrating and deriving meaning from large amounts of disparate data, has achieved certification to the internationally recognised standards ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013.

Aigenpulse deploys artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced machine learning technologies to help researchers unlock the power of their data, ultimately increasing the efficiency at which new and improved drugs reach patients. Scientists use the platform to structure, share and analyse their research, translational and preclinical data.

Oxford and Cambridge will need around 40 football pitches worth of new lab space to accommodate the next five years of growth, a leading property consultancy has predicted.

The report by property consultancy Bidwells, says that companies are also looking to attract 20,000 new research and development workers by 2023.

Bidwells' analysis estimates growth in demand for lab and research space of around 2.5 million sq ft over the next five years, the equivalent of 60 new labs or 40 football fields. Employment would need to grow by a fifth to support growth.

This could add £2.8 billion to the UK economy by 2023.

Versarien, the Cheltenham-based advanced materials engineering group, has signed a Letter of Intent with Tunghsu Optoelectronic Technology Ltd to progress the relationship between the parties.

Versarien and Tunghsu will establish a joint implementation committee with a view to ultimately entering into a joint manufacturing venture.

The Letter of Intent details the parties desire to work together in China to develop and manufacture new generation graphene heaters based on the micro-flow graphene ink technology from Versarien’s subsidiary Cambridge Graphene, and other products using Versarien’s 2d materials, including grapheneenhanced sports equipment and smart wearable devices.

Neill Ricketts, Versarien’s Chief Executive, said: “We have been working closely with Tunghsu

“We have been working closely with Tunghsu Optoelectronic since November last year and we look forward to progressing our research and development activities with them with a view to ultimately establishing a joint manufacturing capability in China”

Optoelectronic since November last year and we look forward to progressing our research and development activities with them with a view to ultimately establishing a joint manufacturing capability in China.

“We are also making good progress with our other collaborations in China and elsewhere. I look forward to providing further updates in due course.”

Versarien edges closer to developing relationship with Chinese tech business

Cambridge and Oxford’s technology sector will need 40 football fields of lab space

Science & Tech

Science & tech

YASA’s innovative axial-flux electric motor

Versarien products

Work has started on three new units at St Modwen’s 58-acre site near Junction 12 of the M5 in Gloucester as part of the developer’s wider plans to deliver 900,000 sq ft of prime industrial and logistics employment accommodation.

The three detached units will provide between 44,860sq ft and 72,723 sq ft of industrial and logistics space and should be complete by the autumn.

Development Director for St Modwen West and Wales, Peter Davies, said: “The demand for premium quality industrial and logistics space with excellent connections to the motorway is the driving force behind our building programme at St Modwen Park Gloucester.

“Starting these three new speculative units, together with our ability to deliver buildings to suit specific requirements as part of our development plan, will allow us attract significant inward investment for Gloucestershire.”

National planning and development consultancy Turley is providing planning services for the scheme. Alder King and DTRE are the joint agents.

DAIMLER REVS UP FOR NEW LEASE OF LIFE AS WHARF PLANS REVEALED

Plans are being drawn up to transform an industrial park in Coventry into a vibrant living, work and leisure development.

Warwickshire-based developers and property owners The Wigley Group have produced a masterplan of the Sandy Lane Industrial Estate and plan to create around 200 new homes and leisure facilities on the site which borders the Coventry Canal.

The site is home to the Daimler building – one of the first car factories in the world – which is being transformed into the Daimler Powerhouse arts complex for artists, engineers, architects and other creative industries by Imagineer Productions.

The new Daimler Wharf plans were showcased in March at MIPIM - the world’s biggest property development and investment show.

The Wigley Group is a member of the Coventry and Warwickshire MIPIM Partnership made up of companies and organisations which represent the area, as part of the UK Midlands presence at the event which attracts 30,000 delegates.

James Davies, Managing Director of The Wigley Group, said the Daimler Wharf site perfectly complemented the adjacent Electric Wharf livework development and other recent

“Plans are still at a very early stage. We have had some initial discussions with Coventry City Council which were very positive”

improvements in the area. He said: “This is a key site with great potential. A great deal of regeneration has been undertaken with the creation of Electric Wharf next door and City Wharf on the opposite bank of the canal.

“We see this as the next step in helping to transform the area.

“Plans are still at a very early stage. We have had some initial discussions with Coventry City Council which were very positive.”

An artist impression of Daimler Wharf

Shortage of office space pushes up prices, says Dillon report

A shortage of office and industrial units in Worcestershire, coupled with high demand for space, will push up commercial property prices across the county in the next 12 months, predicts property agency GJS Dillon.

Take-up of industrial and office space in 2018 mirrored 2017, with transactions totalling 1.22 million sq ft of industrial property, up 30,000 sq ft, and office space down 4,000 sq ft at 195,000 sq ft.

There is insufficient new development, especially of smaller units, to meet demand, leading to falling vacancy rates, higher rents and purchasers paying a premium for scarce freehold opportunities.

“Worcestershire’s office market is experiencing 10 per cent annual rental growth in comparison to average zero growth across the country,” said Andrew Lewis, Head of Agency at GJS Dillon, in the company’s latest Worcestershire Commercial Property Market Report.

“Rental growth is being driven by a lack of choice of space, with a vacancy rate of 4.3 per cent, and only 161,000 sq ft of new

sizes of industrial property, particularly freehold, however, there are many fewer industrial premises for sale than for rent”

office space presently under construction in Worcester.”

He predicted that industrial property rents are also expected to grow on the back of one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country.

He says: “Industrial vacancies across Worcestershire are less than half the

national average, caused by a healthy demand and a lack of new stock.

“There is significant demand for all sizes of industrial property, particularly freehold, however, there are many fewer industrial premises for sale than for rent.

“Developers have reacted to the shortage of industrial property, building 200,000 sq ft of new accommodation in the past 12 months, with a further 637,000 sq ft under construction. This is weighted very heavily to larger properties.

“Worcestershire LEP, property agents and developers are working together to see how more can be built. One solution would be to designate more land for employment use around motorway junctions on the M42 and M5 where demand is greatest.”

Gloucester City Council’s dockside HQ could be become flats or a hotel

Gloucester City Council’s HQ in the city’s Docks is on the market.

The three former Grade II Listed warehouses comprise 75,000sq ft of accommodation and is being marketed by Bruton Knowles.

“The site could be dealt with as a whole or in parts for office, residential, hotel or other uses subject to the agreement of the Canal and River Trust as freeholder,” said Robert Smith, Bruton Knowles Associate based at Gloucester.

The space comprises three interlinked,

former Victorian warehouses known as Herbert, Kimberley and Phillpotts.

City Council staff are moving to Shire Hall in Gloucester, home of Gloucestershire County Council.

Dorian Wragg, Partner and Commercial and Property Expert, based at the Gloucester office said: “To be able to market this amount of space is a once-ina-lifetime opportunity. We’re confident the warehouses will be quickly snapped up.”

Leader of Gloucester City Council Paul James added: “The Docks are a

key heritage asset for the city and we originally moved to the warehouses to kick-start their regeneration.

“Now the docks are a vibrant tourist attraction, it’s time to see the buildings used for another purpose which complements the multi-millionpound regeneration taking place across the city.

“The warehouses are too big for the city council’s current requirements, so disposal will release a saving for the council taxpayer and help to regenerate the northern part of the Docks.”

“There is significant demand for all

Our aim is to offer a

personalised service to our clients and ensure the maintenance of your property and its services is undertaken in the most cost efficient manner.

Richard Smith BSc (Hons) MIRPM rs@ashproperty.co.uk

Neil Jones ASSOCRICS nkj@ashproperty.co.uk

Sarah Bird BA Hons AIRPM sab@ashproperty.co.uk

Harry Pontifex BSc (Hons) hjp@ashproperty.co.uk

Alastair Mylechreest BSc MRICS am@ashproperty.co.uk

Sarah Cameron BSc Estate Management sc@ashproperty.co.uk

ELLIOTTS MAKES WAY FOR PRIVATE HOUSING SCHEME

Work to transform an iconic site in Coventry city centre as part of a £40 million new homes development is about to begin.

Warwickshire-based Rainier Developments and Birmingham firm NSG Developments will create a private housing scheme on the site of Elliotts Car Accessories on the corner of London Road and Gulson Road.

It will consist of 200 apartments within two buildings and is designed to create a gateway to the ring road and the city centre.

Richard Mees, Managing Director of Rainier, said: “This key site in Coventry has a great deal of resonance with local

“This key site in Coventry has a great deal of resonance with local people as Elliotts was one of the most recognised retail names in the city for generations”

people as Elliotts was one of the most recognised retail names in the city for generations.”

Rainier and NSG agreed a purchase last year for the one-acre site which includes the car park at the rear of the car accessories store.

SDC buys site in Eynsham to develop its own HQ

A construction firm is set to develop its own headquarters building after buying land in Eynsham.

SDC Contractors has bought the 2.7-acre site from Clockwork Components for £1.55 million in a deal agreed by property agents VSL.

SDC aims to develop bespoke offices and storage accommodation and is relocating from nearby Long Hanborough.

The company is actively developing a number of high-profile buildings and

schemes around the Oxfordshire area including the Botley retail development, West Way Place and science buildings at Harwell.

Property Agent VSL Director Tom Barton said: “This site is in an excellent location for this extremely busy firm which needs good access to the A34 and beyond, while remaining close to its core client base.

“It also means the company will be well-placed to benefit from rapid development in the area in future.”

Refurbishment begins at former Jacobs distribution centre

Commercial property

Work has begun on the refurbishment of the 200,000 sq ft former Jacobs Douwe Egberts distribution centre in Banbury.

The centre in Southam Road just off Junction 11 of the M40 should be available for occupation from June.

Developing the 13.7 acre site are Paloma Capital LLP and Graftongate Properties.

Director of Graftongate, Jamie Hockaday, said: “Construction work has begun on what is a significant investment to modernise the distribution premises, previously occupied by DHL and Aston Martin.

“We are seeing a good deal of growth and interest from the logistics operators wishing to locate in the centre of England.”

Chris White, MD of White Commercial surveyors who are marketing the premises with Avison Young, said: “Banbury has become more established as a distribution location and has attracted occupiers such as retailers Amazon and The Entertainer which recognise the importance of the M40 as a trunking corridor.”

Building Innovation at the core of Barnwood Construction’s latest project…

Honeybourne Place will provide more than 64,000 sqft of prime grade A office space in a superb Business Quarter location with excellent transport links. The site on which it has been built was previously a car park and before that, an old railway works.

The developer, Formal Investments, had obtained a pre-let tenant and work commenced on site in July 2017. Five months into the contract the tenant withdrew, leaving Formal Investments with a dilemma. Their solution was to modify the scheme and enhance the building specifications to make it the premier office development in Cheltenham.

Modifications included moving from the construction of a basic shell and core to a more complete category A development. This required the redesign of the entire structure to enable free span floor plates and adding prestigious reception facilities on the ground floor, all of which Barnwood tackled without unnecessary delay to the project delivery. As the new offices are next to a cycle and pedestrian way, linked

directly to the town centre and railway station, extra facilities were added to encourage occupants to travel to work by cycle or on foot. These included showers, changing facilities and cycle parking.

Innovative design, including a PV array to provide renewable energy, brise soleil solar shading, solar control glazing and sensor control lighting will reduce the building’s carbon footprint and make efficient use of energy and resources. The completed contemporary design provides 64,000 ft2 of net office space over six floors.

Barnwood’s collaborative approach working with Gloucester-based architects, Roberts Limbrick Ltd, and the rest of the project team has resulted in the creation of an exceptional working environment, at the same time having minimal impact on the natural environment.

highest profile commercial buildings, from the second St James’s Place HQ building in Cirencester to the stunning Innovation Centre at global manufacturer Renishaw’s Wotton-under-Edge headquarters.

Last year Barnwood built the new Forest of Dean college campus in Cinderford on behalf of Gloucestershire College. This challenging project involved constructing the first new building on the town’s Northern Quarter redevelopment on a site with ecological challenges that Barnwood successfully overcame. Also in 2018, Barnwood completed the building of the prestigious Schrödinger Building on the Oxford Science Park, owned by Magdalen College Oxford. Barnwood Construction built the four-storey office building and associated external works for Oxford Science Park as a speculative CAT A project. The stunning 61,500 ft2 laboratory and office facility is designed to promote collaboration and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Barnwood’s focus is on achieving lasting value for its clients and positive experiences for those who use their buildings. Through knowledge, ingenuity and wealth of experience, the company works collaboratively and creatively to ensure outcomes that are pragmatic, sustainable and cost-effective. Barnwood considers the way it does business is just as important as the service it provides.

Honeybourne Place is the latest of a number of high-profile buildings across the region which have been built by the company.

For over 55 years, Gloucester-based Barnwood Construction has been building a reputation for quality, collaboration and delivery. While the construction company also works on industrial buildings, it’s been responsible for some of the region’s

Barnwood Construction has successfully completed a stunning new office development located in Cheltenham’s new business quarter.

“We were excited to help create this excellent new addition to Cheltenham’s Business Quarter. Having worked with Formal Investments on previous projects, we know that Honeybourne Place will be a building of the highest quality and a real positive for the local economy.”

Adam Welland, Senior Contracts Manager, Barnwood Construction

Ashlane moves from garden shed to the perfect HQ in Redditch

A thriving groundworks company has moved to new headquarters to cater for its growing business, with the help of property agents John Truslove.

Ashlane Construction has taken 962 sq ft of office space at 5 High Street, Astwood Bank, in Redditch, for £11,500 per annum on a three-year lease.

Ashley Williams launched the company 16 years ago. The last three years have seen major growth, thanks to contracts with major national housebuilding companies across the Midlands.

Ashlane carries out site remediation and work on roads and sewers, including Section 278 works, as well as footings and associated works so that housebuilding work can start.

Its 40-strong workforce is operating on six sites, including a Persimmon development at the 478-acre, former Long Marston Airfield site in Warwickshire where 1,000 homes are being built.

Managing Director Ashley Williams said: “We had been working out of an office-cum-shed in my back garden and needed a headquarters to allow us to grow.”

Ian Parker, a director at John Truslove, said: “We were delighted to find the right property for Ashlane Construction and look forward to watching them progress and grow.”

Ashlane Construction was advised by law firm Spearing Waite, now part of Knights.

SKYBORNE INVESTS £5M IN AIRLINE PILOT TRAINING ACADEMY

A new airline pilot training academy has invested more than £5 million in a state-of-the-art HQ and training facility at Gloucestershire Airport.

Skyborne Airline Academy has opened its 13,500 sq ft training centre at Staverton complete with offices, five classrooms and flight operations space, and plus a further 18,000 sq ft of hangar space, ready for its first cadets.

It is also applying for planning permission for a new accommodation block for students close by, creating a flight training campus. The company’s aim is to become the most trusted airline training academy in the industry, training 180 pilots and 300 cabin crew per year.

The new-build HQ includes the latest Diamond DA-42 aircraft and a

Europeans acquire £6m converted Coventry yarn factory

Bromwich Hardy has acted on behalf of private European clients in the acquisition of Tower Court, a landmark office building in Coventry, for more than £6 million.

Tower Court in the Foleshill Enterprise Park was built in 1905 as a viscose yarn factory. It was converted in 1999 to provide four floors of modern office accommodation, occupying a site of approximately 2.59 acres.

The property provides a total gross income of £604,406 per annum. Tenants include BUPA, ABB, Capita and moneycorp.

fixed-base top-of-the-range B737 MAX FTD simulator.

Skyborne was founded in 2017 by Tom Misner (Chairman and former musician, engineer and entrepreneur), Lee Woodward (CEO with 30 years’ experience in airline operations) and Ian Cooper (COO and former BA airline pilot.

“We selected Gloucestershire Airport as our base because of its reputation as one of the top general aviation airports in the UK,” said a spokesperson. “This is a brand new and truly bespoke design facility.”

IndiGo, India’s largest passenger airline, recently chose Skyborne Airline Academy to train up to 100 pilots a year in the next five years as part of its cadet pilot programme.

Tom Bromwich said: “Tower Court is a landmark Coventry building and home to some excellent tenants – the building has huge potential and is well located in Coventry which is undergoing a renaissance.”

Bromwich Hardy has also been instructed to manage the property on a day-to-day basis.

Commercial

Tower Court in Coventry

Skyborne plans to train 180 pilots per year at its new Staverton HQ

Ashlane Construction has new offices in Redditch

Greenways, which is based in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, employs 12 staff. It has a wide range of clients across the education, health, public, residential, industrial and commercial sectors. It has worked on many historic projects and listed buildings such as National Trust Wimpole Gardens, National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and War Memorial Park in Coventry as well as a £5 million project for Jephson Gardens in Leamington Spa. Other clients include key landmark buildings such as Warwick Hospital, the Royal Pump Rooms, The Gurdwara Sahib Leamington and Warwick (Sikh Temple), Warwickshire College and London School of Economics.

Leaders in renewable energy systems and sustainable engineering solutions, Greenways are increasingly asked by clients to produce feasibility studies on renewable and sustainable energy solutions to reduce energy costs and their reliance on Grid connected supplies. Their engineers have designed and installed ground and air source heat pumps, solar hot

Greenways the green leader to celebrate milestone 50th anniversary

“We are delighted to be celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. We owe much of our success and longevity to our skilled, dedicated and hardworking team. We look forward to Greenways expanding in the future and continuing its leading position in sustainable energy solutions”

Paul Howell, Director of Electrical Services Greenways

water production, solar heating, photovoltaics, sedum ‘green’ roofs, bio-mass boilers, wind turbines and water wheels to generate clean energy. They also regularly design LED and

intelligent lighting systems to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.

Greenways have made significant investment in software, hardware and training to enable projects to be completed in a BIM environment (Building Information Modeling). BIM allows Greenways to offer services which allow both reduced waste and increased efficiency with the added benefit of software and technical expertise.

For more information about Greenway and Partners please visit

www.greenwaysbsc.com

Greenway and Partners, a sustainable building services consultancy which offers a wide range of design, Mechanical & Electrical engineering and project management services, will celebrate its milestone 50th anniversary in June.

MANORSIDE WELCOMES TENANTS FOLLOWING MAJOR REFURBISHMENT

Chartered surveyors John Truslove has secured a series of lettings at the increasingly busy Manorside industrial estate in Redditch.

Expanding residential builders Norcon Construction Ltd has opened a new base at 22 Manorside in Walkers Road, North Moons Moat. Its HQ is in Yorkshire.

John Truslove arranged for Norcon, run by father and son Brian and David Norton, to rent the 3,830 sq ft unit at

£25,000 per annum on a five-year lease from landlord Paloma Capital.

Manorside is one of the largest industrial estates in Redditch with 29 units.

Other recent lettings include deals with garden office and summer house specialist Newell-Y-Built, print company Thermal Transfer Solutions Ltd, and a new laboratory facility for Alta Bioscience.

Sunflowers finds the ideal location at Bond’s Mill

A charity has found what it calls the ideal location for its new offices at Bond’s Mill in Stonehouse, a development owned by Robert

Sunflowers, a suicide support organisation, was set up in memory of Pete Morris who took his own life in 2016, aged 29. It is run by Pete’s family. “We wanted an office that was bright and friendly to uplift the families we are walking alongside,” said Abbie Warren, Pete’s sister.

Helen Hawke from Robert Hitchins welcomed Sunflowers to Bond’s Mill which sits alongside the Stroudwater Canal in a mix of refurbished Victorian mill buildings and modern commercial premises.

“Among our 50 tenants we have several charities at Bond’s Mill. It is satisfying to see how these characterful buildings have been refurbished to provide office accommodation.”

Consultants are continuing to work on a project to bring a Science Park to Swindon.

The aim is to create an international hub for science and innovation in a high-quality work environment that features natural landscaping, trees, meadow grassland, wetland habitats, and paths for pedestrians and cyclists.

The Swindon Science Park, east of the A419 and north of the M4 near Junction 15, is being led by the Swindon-based Wasdell Group, leaders in the design and production of innovative pharmaceutical packing.

The first phase will house a new HQ for the Wasdell Group, creating 600 new jobs by 2021. The second phase will bring a further 600 jobs to the town.

The rest of the Science Park will provide facilities for another 1,840 employees working in the science and innovative engineering sectors, bringing the total new jobs to 3,040 by 2025.

Wasdell currently employs 650 staff at its Swindon site at Blagrove.

Martin Tedham, Managing Director of the Wasdell Group, said: “The vision behind the Swindon Science Park is to create a high-tech hub for the knowledge economy with Wasdell as the anchor company.

“Swindon doesn’t yet have anything like this. The demand is there, but you have to create the right offer so that the innovative next-generation companies, who are the wealth creators and employers of the future, want to come to live and work here. Swindon Science Park will be a game-changer for attracting these high-tech employers.”

Quality landscaping is key for Wasdell to attract talent to Swindon

Hitchins.

Wendy Morris, Abbie Warren and Andy Morris from Sunflowers with Helen Hawke from Robert Hitchins at Bond’s Mill

Commercial Property

Ben Truslove with Flick Campbell, a quantity surveyor at Norcon Construction

Albion Land gets going on Axis J9 in

booming Bicester

Developer Albion Land is starting work on 500,000 sq ft of industrial and warehouse space in Bicester, to be known as Axis J9.

Close to Junction 9 of the M40, it will provide buildings for production, distribution, research and development, and HQ operators.

Managing Director of White Commercial Surveyors, Chris White, said: “We are seeing substantial interest in Bicester from a number of corporate occupiers who cannot find suitablysized or new industrial/warehousing accommodation to suit their requirements in Oxford or in the south sector of the M40 towards London.”

Bicester is experiencing rapid economic growth. The population is expected to almost double from 30,000 to 50,000 by 2030.

MANTLE TRANSFORMS FORMER ABINGDON HQ INTO OFFICE SPACE AND BUSINESS CENTRE

Investor and developer Mantle Estates has acquired Lambourn Court at Abingdon Business Park in Oxfordshire for £3 million and is planning a total refurbishment.

Lambourn Court is one of Abingdon’s largest office buildings, sited at the entrance to the 50-acre Abingdon Business Park. Previously an HQ, the three-storey building provides 50,000 sq ft of space plus 197 car parking spaces.

The work should be complete this summer.

Set up in 1990, Mantle operates five other business centres in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Duxford, Stansted and Stevenage. This sixth business centre is its first in Oxfordshire.

Chief executive officer of Mantle, Guy Baker, said: “Our plans for the building are transformational and, once finished, will appeal to companies looking for competitive, flexible, Grade A and welllocated office space.”

Mantle has appointed Carter Jonas as its leasing agency.

Funky Cheltenham office complex

wins civic award

The developer behind a Cheltenham office building has won a town Civic Award for its restoration.

Formal Investments, which owns Formal House on St George’s Place, has won a Cheltenham Civic Award.

The developer is also close to completion of another major development in the town, with the first new build office development in Cheltenham for over 20 years, the 63,000 sq ft Honeybourne Place.

The annual awards are made by Cheltenham Borough Council in association with Cheltenham Civic Society to encourage and recognise standards of excellence in the restoration of historic buildings and other improvements in Cheltenham’s built environment.

Regents hopes to create neighbourhoods of the future

Property developer Regents Affordable has announced plans to create a new modular building plant in Coventry.

With support from its public and private sector collaborators, it plans to help the city become an engineering hub, creating homes that meet the housing needs of people across the UK.

Regents Affordable started working in Coventry in 2018 and delivered the 740-bed student accommodation, Regents Godiva.

Its proposals include student and mixed-use developments as well as building a modular factory in Coventry by 2023.

It is also collaborating with Agile Ageing Alliance to build the UK’s first “Neighbourhoods of the Future” multigenerational communities.

Chief Executive of Regents Affordable Jonathan Parnes said: “The time seems right to build quality developments which fit the needs of our multigenerational society.”

Regents Godiva in Coventry

Edward Lifely, Jon Silversides, Matthew Chandler, Jennie Brown and Robert Gibbons outside the soon-to-be-refurbished building