Region trades on innovation to make striking progress

Mar 19 2008 By The Journal

GOVERNMENT backing has been won for a deep-sea container terminal which will create thousands of jobs and boost countless businesses on Teesside. The go-ahead for the PD Ports project has received strong support across the region.

Now, more than £300m must be raised to develop the port into one that rivals the busiest in the UK and attracts some of the biggest shipping companies. Crucial to that will be improving rail routes and enticing more customers to move their import and distribution businesses to Teesside. Supermarket group Asda has already established an import centre at Teesport and another planning application for a retail goods warehouse three times the size is in the wings. An early decision by planners is vital to keep the prospective tenant on board.

THE Centre for Process Innovation has revealed plans to create a world-class fuel cell technology hub in the Tees Valley. With more than 40 companies in the area already involved in fuel cell applications, Wilton-based CPI is seeking other like-minded companies to take advantage of a technology that could save millions of pounds in greater energy
efficiency.

PLANS have emerged for a new £75m business park near Durham Tees Valley Airport which could create up to 1,250 jobs. If planning permission is granted to Sven Investments, the scheme will consist of 11 two-storey commercial units of 14,560sq m in total on brownfield land to the north-east of the airport.

Details were also announced of a multi-million-pound eco-friendly complex for disabled entrepreneurs on Teesside, which could create up to 250 jobs.

The innovative scheme at Riverside Park in Middlesbrough will create 150 jobs in its first phase – a figure which is expected to grow by 100 when the whole project is complete. Middlesbrough Council, Renew Tees Valley and the North East Centre for Independent Living are driving the scheme.

And work has started on a £10m building which will be at the heart of Middlesbrough’s BoHo zone. The zone is designated as a focus for digital and creative businesses to become established.

The BoHo One building will provide space for new digital and creative companies to grow, work with each other and do business.

A £255m cash pot from the European Regional Development Fund Competitiveness Programme was announced for the North East. It will provide six years’ funding for projects with a regionwide impact and demonstrate investment in innovation and enterprise. The scheme will offer support designed to encourage more business start-ups.

Distributed by the European Commission, this type of funding has been used to support the North East since 1989 and has brought investment of millions of pounds to the region. The funding, an additional £36m a year, is to focus on enhancing and exploiting innovation and business growth and enterprise .

A HUSBAND and wife business team are to create up to 100 jobs after securing international financial backing to make a baggage weighing machine they hope could soon be seen in every airport in the world.

Coffee shop owners Ged and Carole Stewart spent £50,000 of their own money on their dream and have now secured the support of a major German airport service company.

The entrepreneurs, of Cullercoats, North Tyneside, have vowed to create North-East jobs. They expect to employ 100 people within three years and will be creating 20 jobs by summer.

Carole said: “We are very passionate people and have immense belief in our home region, the North-East. We envisage jobs in administration, IT, marketing, engineering, design and assembly. We have worked endless hours over the few years at our own financial expense to eventually attain success.”

MORE than 28,000 business flights were made from Newcastle to Dubai in the first four months of the new direct air link.

About seven out of 10 of the 40,000 flights were by business travellers and the region’s private sector says the route is opening up fresh opportunities in the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Emirates airlines and Newcastle International Airport say they are delighted by the support of the North’s business community.

Airport head of airline relations and development Chris Sanders said: “We have been delighted with the very positive feedback we have received from Emirates on the performance of their Newcastle route.

“In its first four months it has beaten our passenger number expectations and we expect this to continue over coming months as more and more people recognise the benefit of using Dubai as a hub to reach their destination. For example, between Newcastle and Australia, passenger numbers have grown significantly due to it now being just one stop en route and shorter journey times.”

OIL and gas group Fabricom is to bring 250 engineering jobs to North Tyneside.

Fabricom will establish a base for design and detailed engineering, maintenance and modification work to terminals, platforms and field decommissioning work in the North Sea.

The group, which has a base on Teesside, will also provide onshore and offshore services for international companies such as BP, Shell, Total and ConocoPhillips. The company will invest in setting up a base in the region with the help of £1.6m from development agency One NorthEast.

Fabricom Offshore Services chairman Nigel Carlton said: “Most of the new jobs will be highly skilled engineering design roles. The engineering heritage of the North-East ensures that the skills necessary for our business can be found locally.

“This, combined with the opportunity for expatriate engineers to return to the region and the long-term links we will form with the region’s universities and colleges, will enable us to develop a sustainable business and achieve its growth ambitions.”

VEHICLE hire company Northgate revealed it was on target to increase turnover by more than 10% on the same day it emerged it had acquired a rival company.

In its interim results, the Darlington company revealed it had increased half-year turnover by 6.4% to just under £279m compared with the same time in 2006.

Profits rose 16% to £43.9m in the six months to October 31 compared with a year earlier.

The trading results were buoyed by the announcement that the 26-year-old business had bought small family-run rival Hampsons Self Drive Hire for £9.8m plus an acquired debt of £7.7m.

The purchase brings Northgate’s fleet to 68,500, a rise of 1,600, and also increases its market share by a half per cent to 18%.

It also adds 50 jobs to Northgate, which now has a workforce of more than 3,000, about 2,000 in the UK and 1,000 in Spain.

OIL and gas pipeline maker Wellstream has seen its value continue to soar.

The Newcastle company, which listed on the stock exchange last April, has seen its share price rise more than 200% since its debut at 320p. While motorists have cursed the ever-increasing price of oil, Wellstream has benefited from its customers being ever more willing to pay for pipelines to reach distant subsea reserves. It racked up orders worth £365m in 2007 and Wellstream’s total revenue backlog (which takes in orders where negotiations are not yet complete) has reached £330m, up from £226.8m at the end of 2006.

Wellstream is expecting further growth in revenues, with its Brazilian factory reaching full capacity and its base in Wincomblee Road in Walker, Newcastle, being expanded.

ELECTRIC vehicle maker Tanfield is confident of creating 300 jobs this year at a new factory because of soaring orders globally.

Tanfield chairman Roy Stanley is in final negotiations with development agency One NorthEast for a £1m-plus grant he says will guarantee the creation of the factory, which will need 300 staff immediately but have room for 500.

He plans to invest up to £10m in the plant, the latest expansion of the fast-growing Washington business which already has 1,300 staff, half of them in the North East.

Mr Stanley said the grant talks for the new plant were very positive and he was confident it would be built this year. It will be the new base for the vehicle-making side of Tanfield, with the current headquarters continuing to be home for its electric platform, boom and mast manufacture.

He founded Tanfield in 1996 and floated it on AIM in 2003. It now has plants in the US and New Zealand as well as Washington. Estimated annual sales are £100m and market capitalisation more than £500m.

Martyn Pellew, of PD Ports, at Teesport, where it will build a deep-sea port. Middlesbrough is to have one of the UK’s 16 new casinos, expected to attract thousands of players from the whole North of England and even farther afield. Carole and Ged Stewart invested £50,000 of their own money in Bagweighahead, a luggage weighing machine. Emerates flights from Newcastle to Dubai attracted more than 28,000 business flights in the first four months.