Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business issue 33 | Page 7

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 7
/NEWS
/ADVICE
THE BENEFITS OF USING CHROME
Tekmar named Subsea
UK Company of the Year
N
ewton Aycliffe-based Tekmar Energy
has been named company of the year
at Subsea UK’s annual awards.
Tekmar, which has two bases on Aycliffe
Business Park, is a market leader in the
design, manufacture and supply of subsea
cable, umbilical and flexible protection
systems for the renewable energy and oil &
gas industry.
The Aycliffe firm has in the last year won a
string of prestigious contracts to deliver its
patented TekLink cable protection systems
to projects in the North Sea, the German
Baltic Sea and the Binhai North H2 Offshore
Windfarm in the Jiangsu province of China.
Tekmar’s CEO James Ritchie (pictured
above) said: “We are honoured to receive
company of the year award at the prestigious
Subsea Expo.
“I would like to dedicate this to everyone
who is with us on our amazing journey;
to all of our suppliers for supporting us, to
our clients for believing in us, and to our
dedicated hardworking team for making us
who we are.”
Meanwhile, Tekmar’s subsidiary, AgileTek
Engineering, was also crowned small
company of the year at the same awards.
AgileTek managing director Steve Rossiter
added: “We are absolutely delighted to have
won this award, which acknowledges the
rapid progress and growth that AgileTek has
undergone since its inception.
“This validation for efforts undertaken in
the last three years means a tremendous
amount to the team and is hugely inspiring
for our new younger staff. It is also a great
way to mark the efforts of the original
AgileTek team, who took risks and put in long
hours to build the company to the point it is
at today.
“Tekmar Group is destined to become
the partner of choice for the supply and
installation support of subsea protection
equipment to the global offshore energy
markets.”
Finley’s complete 340-tonne oil & gas facility
N
ewton Aycliffe construction firm Finley
Structures is helping a Cramlington-
based oil and gas manufacturer to
expand with a new facility.
PII Pipeline Solutions, part of the GE Oil
& Gas group, currently works from a series
of buildings on the North Nelson Industrial
Estate in Cramlington, where it specialises
in generating pipeline inspection data for
clients.
Now the business is expanding with a new
building manufacturing and office base.
Finley Structures was awarded a contract
from main contractor Bowmer and Kirkland
to design, fabricate and erect a 340-tonne
frame for the £11m development.
The Aycliffe firm has also installed two pre-
cast concrete stair cases, and employed local
labour to erect the steel.
When completed, the property will be
made up of a 74,110 sq ft, two-storey office
and double height industrial space with
associated car parking, service yards and
landscaping, all spread across 16 acres.
Finley Structures operations manager Jim
Graham said: “We’ve continued our ongoing
relationship with Bowmer and Kirkland by
delivering an all-round design and build
contract for this new facili ty.
“When completed the site will provide
a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for
PII Pipeline Solutions as well as new office
space.”
PII currently has more than 650 people
across 11 international sites including around
200 in Cramlington.
The expansion plans – which have been
funded by its landowners, investment fund
LXi REIT, which has let the facility to PII –
were given full approval by Northumberland
County Council in 2017.
Personalising your browser with Google
Chrome extensions is a great way to
boost productivity. Whether you need to
prioritise your workload in a visual way
or remove any distractions, we’ve sifted
through the best extensions so you don’t
have to.
It’s time to open up the Chrome Web
Store and prepare to download the
following great tools. Let’s take a look...
Grammarly
Not the best speller out there?
Grammarly is a great tool for all the
content writers out there. From
contextual spelling errors to misspelled
words, this extension ensures all of your
social media posts, emails and reports
are mistake free.
Google Keep
Google Keep allows you to save any
website, article or video in a single place,
meaning you can access it across all
devices whether that be your computer
or personal phone.
Momentum
Add some calm to your browser with
Momentum. Every time you open a new
tab, you will be greeted by a beautiful
image and inspiring quote to make your
day more productive. You can even add
to-dos and priorities so that you know
what to focus on while you’re working.
GIPHY
Who doesn’t love GIFS? GIPHY is a
must-have extension for those who want
to share the ‘GIF love’ in social media
posts and emails.
StayFocusd
StayFocusd restricts the amount of time
you spend on unproductive sites by
banning them for a specified amount of
time.
LastPass
LastPass allows you to save all of your
username and passwords into one
secure ‘vault’, with one master password
to access all of your log-ins whenever.
Google Chrome extensions are a great
way to improve your work routine. You
can save time and boost your efficiency
just by adding a couple of tools to your
browser.
We’re based at the Xcel Centre on
Aycliffe Business Park, and we’re here to
help. Give us a call on 01325 778786 or
take a look at thriveability.co.uk for more
advice in our blog section.
Rachael Farley
Thrive Marketing