North-East businesses are simply the very best
The cream of the North-East business world will gather at Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield tomorrow night for the regional final of the North-East Business Awards.
Here we profile the contenders for the coveted prizes, already all winners in their own sub-regions.
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Company of the Year Award - sponsored by One NorthEast.
Tyneside and Northumberland winner: Parkdean Holidays, Newcastle.
The company now owns 14 holiday parks in Scotland, Wales and the South-West, and has a multi-million pound war chest for further expansion.
During 2003, Parkdean invested more than £13m in two new Cornwall parks. Now nine of its parks are in the South-West, four in Scotland, and one in south Wales, and between them they offer 6,456 pitches.
Durham and Wearside winner: Esh Group, Bowburn.
The 650-employee group of companies has built an enviable reputation in the construction world, and it has paid off on its balance sheet.
Esh has grown sales and profits by staggering amounts, with the former up more than 50pc and the latter up by more than 40pc in 2003. The company was formed following the merger of a number of like-minded outfits in and around the village of Esh Winning, County Durham.
Tees Valley winner, sponsored by Deloitte: CJ Garland and Co, Hartlepool.
This Hartlepool-based call centre company doubled its 1,000-strong workforce and showed there could be strong UK success for outsourcing businesses at a time when many call centre operations go abroad.
It invested £2.2m in a third Teesside base last year and won new business from companies including internet giant Freeserve and Virgin Mobile.
The company was started as a debt collection business by Chey Garland in 1981. She was working from the attic of a Middlesbrough house.
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Business in the Community Award - sponsored by Northern Rock.
Tees Valley Winner: Darlington Building Society.
DBS has been a community-based and focused organisation since it was formed 148 years ago. Today that still holds true and over the last six years it has helped around 250 organisations.
This takes in sports clubs, education initiatives, charities, economic development projects, the arts, crime prevention and youth organisations.
DBS launched several key projects in 2003, including a savings account to raise cash for local hospices.
Durham & Wearside Winner: Northumbrian Water, Durham.
The WaterAid fundraising committee of the water and sewerage utility achieved its £1m target at the end of the 2002/03 financial year.
Many events and activities took place but Northumbrian says the most special was the Millionaire's Ball which raised over £30,000.
Tyneside & Northumberland Winner: Northumbrian Water leisure dept, Hexham.
The leisure section of the FTSE250 company employs more than 50 staff from its Hexham base. Its community work is mainly in supporting tourism around Kielder Water, including heritage trails, cycle routes and providing information.
The company has sponsored numerous initiatives and its staff have taken on extra commitments to help develop tourism.
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Small Business - sponsored by Business Link.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: The Specials Laboratory, Prudhoe
Formed by managing director Fiona Cruickshank in 1999, The Specials Laboratory manufactures and supplies unlicensed medicines, or `specials' to chemists and hospitals.
The company has just invested £150,000 developing a new computer system for what is now a seven figure turnover business and is preparing to move into large-scale pharmaceutical production.
Durham and Wearside Winner: Esschem, Durham.
The 10 staff at Esschem are dedicated to helping us look good by making specialist acrylics and plastics which go into cosmetics, false teeth, hearing aids, and other vital products.
The three-year-old company has bought the building it occupies and is looking to extend it with another 7,000sqft next year, and wants to double its staff in the next three years.
Tees Valley Winner: Chemitrol Process Equipment, Eaglescliffe
A huge reversal of fortunes has been achieved at Chemitrol, which has made membrane nitrogen generators for 25 years, it was due to be liquidated due to substantial losses. The staff were demoralised.
But Stockton-based Francis Brown took it over and within months had generated orders of more than £700,000.
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Export Award - sponsored by UK Trade and Investment.
Tees Valley Winner: Atomic Planet Entertainment, Middlesbrough.
Darren and Jason Falcus are video games industry veterans, having started out in their teens.
Now aged 35 and 34, they began programming way back in 1981 and set up their first business in 1988. Their latest venture Atomic Planet Entertainment kicked off in 2000 with a staff of 10. Three years later, that had grown to 57 and the company was making its name in global markets. 43pc of sales were overseas last year.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: Nonlinear Dynamics, Newcastle.
The 15-year-old bioinformatics company, which has 67 staff, has seen sales rise by more than 70pc a year from £1.3m in 2000 to £3.9m in 2002 - and saw a 13pc hike in already substantial export sales in 2002/03.
The company has just concluded a global agreement with Japanese science industry giant Shimadzu Corporation, which will see its products sold across the world.
Durham and Wearside Winner: Ebac, Bishop Auckland.
The water cooler and air conditioning company makes more than half its sales in overseas markets, and has moved into the Ukraine and Hungary during 2003.
It was founded 30 years ago by John Elliott MBE, with industrial dehumidifiers as its main product.
The company's exports are becoming an ever bigger part of its business, rising from 54pc of total sales three years ago, to 63.5pc last year.
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Internet Award - sponsored by BT.
Tees Valley Winner: Stockton Borough Council.
It is as easy as one, two, three for people wanting to report problems to the local authority.
They can now contact the council 24/7 at the touch of a button on issues such as litter, dog fouling or missing rubbish bins.
The on-line communications system is simple, straightforward and visual, guiding users step by step through three easy stages.
Durham and Wearside Winner: The Pet Crematorium, Witton Gilbert.
The £1m turnover business, which employs 17 people in Durham and Scotland, has used its website to advertise its services more widely to the public and offer free added value services. The site has a newsletter, a catalogue, brochure and a virtual tour of the site.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: Signpost, Newcastle.
The British Sign Language provider has now developed the UK's only daily news service in BSL via the internet.
The core business of SignPost, based at Tyne Tees in Newcastle, provides on-screen British sign language services for deaf viewers via national broadcasters and public and private sector organisations. Its website is the only fully bilingual English/ British Sign Language site in the world.
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Technology Award - sponsored by the University of Teesside.
Durham and Wearside Winner: Filtronic, Newton Aycliffe
A new type of component for mobile phone mast base stations has been developed by Filtronic at its County Durham semiconductor plant.
The product provides amplification of radio frequency signals with high levels of efficiency and very low distortion. Big orders mean the site is expected to break even this year and the workforce to quadruple to 600 by 2010.
Tees Valley Winner: Atomic Planet Entertainment, Middlesbrough.
Converting ideas into reality is much easier, thanks to a piece of kit designed by video games designer Atomic.
APEtek is a 3D multi-platform gaming engine and set of comprehensive support tools used as the basis for the creation of computer, console and mobile video games.
This technology leads to the successful development of quality games on time and on budget. It also enables Atomic to rapidly prototype new ideas so a publisher can get a clear idea of the game and its mechanics.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: Thermacore Europe, Ashington.
This company makes thermal management products for the electronics industry and provides an engineering design service using advanced software to design and model solutions for companies.
Thermacore's Thermabus system aims to increase the reliability and life-cycle of electronic components.
Because of the system's success in cooling down devices, more thermally-challenging, higher performance chips can be used without devices overheating.
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Best New Product/Service Award - sponsored by Barclays.
Tees Valley Winner: PD Teesport, Middlesbrough.
A huge surge in demand prompted PD Teesport to look at expanding its facilities. This was prompted by traffic soaring from 20,000 containers a year to more than 90,000.
But first the company had to assess that long-term customer demand was going to grow further. So extensive independent market research was carried out.
The result was that in 2003, PD Teesport, which employs 537 people, invested £20m in a state-of-the-art container terminal which has more than doubled the port's container-handling capabilities.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: Reevu, Washington.
After the decade-long development of the rear-view cycle helmet, Reevu has now developed a rear-view motorcycle helmet, and now has distribution deals in eight countries, with 40 more in talks.
The innovative company is gearing up for a tenfold increase in sales as it prepares an assault on the American market and the launch of a new product.
Durham and Wearside Winner: Suncrest Surrounds, Peterlee
Suncrest's Java electric suite is the biggest-selling model in its 34-year history and is the first fireplace to feature in the Next directory. The fireplace has proved a hit with householders who want the ambience of a real fire but who do not have a fireplace and do not have much room. The Java capitalises on the popularity of do-it-yourself home improvement.
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Environment - sponsored by Northumbrian Water
Durham and Wearside Winner: Thompson Building Centres, Sunderland.
Thompsons recycles 15 different types of products, is involved in environmental work through its Community Fund, and works on the Grot Spots project to clean up Wearside's environmental blackspots.
Anne Ganley, her brother Albert and son Brent run the £14m company.
It employs 110 staff and opened its second store last year with two more planned this year and two plumbing centres in the pipeline.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: Port of Tyne, South Shields.
The Port of Tyne is a vast and bustling place handling thousands of tonnes of imports and more than 800,000 ferry passengers a year.
But that does not stop it making sure it looks after the environment and makes some pretty significant improvements to the water, air, flora and fauna around it with recycling, anti pollution and educational schemes.
Tees Valley Winner: BP Cats Terminal, Seal Sands.
Three areas have been concentrated on when it comes to reducing the environmental impact of this BP operation. These have been emissions to air, liquid effluent and recycling.
A small self-contained biological sewerage treatment plant has been installed to deal with sewage. The site has increased the recycling of solid wastes by 781pc.
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Services Award - sponsored by Newcastle International Airport.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: White Young Green, Newcastle.
The consultancy behind several high profile Tyneside projects is currently embarking on the acquisition trail.
White Young Green has recently announced a pre-tax profits rise of 15pc to £2.93m, from £2.56m last year.
Tees Valley Winner: Wiring Services, Middlesbrough.
In eight years, this electrical wiring firm has gone from employing just one worker to a staff of 59. Its business is providing a complete electrical, design and installation service to housing associations, national and local builders and developers and councils.
It has invested heavily in training year-on-year with a view to nurturing home grown talent.
Durham and Wearside Winner: 2Touch, Sunderland.
The call centre and marketing operator has worked to remain competitive in the face of cheap overseas competition in its industry. It has invested in staff development and says it has changed its business to be more people-focused.
2Touch works from purpose-built 140,000sqft premises and boasts more than 25 clients, including some of the biggest names in UK and global business.
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Learning, Traning and Skills, sponsored by Universities for the North-East.
Durham and Wearside Winner: Bison Bede, Consett.
Bison Bede is one of the world's leading suppliers of stairlifts and bathlifts and currently employs 130 people.
It operates an international network of dealers to make its products available across mainland Europe, North America and Australasia, as well as the UK and Ireland, and has more than 100,000 customers.
Tyneside and Northumberland Winner: Connect Physical Health Centres, Newcastle.
From its base in central Gosforth in Newcastle, Connect provides a range of services around its core physiotherapy business, including chiropody, massage and complementary therapies.
Connect provides off-site physiotherapy in doctors' surgeries across the region and a service to 36 different companies for the prevention and treatment of muscular-skeletal disorders, such as back pain.
Tees Valley Winner: BiB Insurance Group, Darlington.
Opportunities for formal qualifications and knowledge-sharing sessions have been opened up for all BiB's staff.
This has been achieved by putting a quality education and development programme in place for its 75 employees.
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