Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 35 | Seite 5

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 5
/NEWS
Overall winners at the Future
Business Magnates awards Bishop
Auckland’s St John’s School and Sixth
Form College. Pictured
with their ‘Generation
Jigsaw’ are, from left,
Ella Stanbridge,
Amadeusz
Nowicki,
Rebekah Lees,
Jessica Dailey,
Katy Mattison,
Callum Giblin,
Erin Clarke and
Alice Chilvers.
A
BUSINESS BRIEFS
ROMAN ‘INSPIRING BRITAIN’
Newton Aycliffe shower designer and
manufacturer Roman has been featured
as one of London Stock Exchange
Group’s 1,000 ‘Companies to Inspire
Britain’ report.
The report is a celebration of the UK’s
fastest-growing and most dynamic
small and medium sized businesses
across the UK.
Winners named in future
entrepreneurs competition
street lighting system which is
triggered by passing cars and
pedestrians, and a rewards app
for people who scan their rubbish before
throwing it away, were just two of the top
entrepreneurial ideas students taking part in
a popular county-wide competition came up
with.
The category winners of the Future
Business Magnates (FBM) competition,
run by Business Durham, the economic
development organisation for County
Durham, were crowned at a glittering awards
dinner at Newton Aycliffe’s Xcel Centre
hosted by Charlie Charlton, a TV presenter
and journalist with the BBC.
The FBM competition, now in its 13th year,
teams students up with business mentors
from companies across County Durham as
they come up with ideas and look at how to
commercialise and market them.
This year, judges were looking for a
product or service on the theme of Smart
County Durham.
The overall prize went to St John’s School
and Sixth Form College, in Bishop Auckland,
for their wooden puzzle called Generation
Jigsaw, aimed at connecting generations
and encouraging conversations in a world
saturated by technology.
The judges felt it addressed an important
concept and had been designed and
executed brilliantly by the team.
Sarah Slaven, Business Durham’s business
development director, said: “It never ceases
to amaze just how bright, committed and
entrepreneurial the students are.
“Their ‘smart’ ideas to create a product or
service which makes a difference to the way
we live, were fantastic.
“They were made all the stronger thanks
to the support of our dedicated business
partners who helped them look at ways to
bring their ideas to market.”
See our special feature on Future
Business Magnates, pages 20-21.
‘Aycliffe Head’ creators appoint former Roman marketing director
N
ewton Aycliffe firm Aycliffe
Fabrications, creators of the ‘Aycliffe
Head’, has appointed Roman’s former
marketing director.
Loraine Henderson, who set up Faith
Marketing in 2015, has been drafted in
by the fabrication specialists to develop
and implement the firm’s 2018 marketing
strategy.
Established in 1980, Aycliffe Fabrications is
a well-established company based on Aycliffe
Business Park.
It services a wide range of customers from
large-scale manufacturers through to local
authorities and schools.
The piece of artwork Aycliffe Fabrications
is best known for is “In Our Image”, the
stunning head structure at the A1 entrance to
Aycliffe Business Park.
Managing director Christine Bewley
said: “The key objective was to identify
a marketing professional with a detailed
understanding of manufacturing and the
ability to develop a marketing strategy
tailored to the needs of the business and its
markets.
“Loraine brings a deep understanding of
BTS GROWTH PLANS
Newton Aycliffe-based business
BTS Facades and Fabrications has
announced expansion plans with new
funding from Barclays.
Established in 2006, BTS Facades and
Fabrications is based at Woodham Road
on Aycliffe Business Park, currently
employing 50 people, and turnove r is
expected to exceed £6m this year with
the new machinery.
The family business is run by brothers
Philip and David Atkinson and
specialises in the production of metal
rain screen systems and fabricated
metal construction products and is
able to produce bespoke products with
many of their clients operating blue chip
companies.
BEE HAPPY 2GETHER
A new Community Interest Company
(CIC) has been set up by a Newton
Aycliffe family caught up in the
Manchester terror attack to help young
people deal with trauma.
Marie Robson has created Bee Happy
2gether to offer peer support to young
people and families affected by post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
after her daughter Millie was seriously
injured in the bomb attack at the Ariana
Grande concert on May 22, 2017.
Bee Happy 2gether was officially
launched at the ROF 59 activity centre
on Aycliffe Business Park.
CPI PARTNERS WITH UTC
Aycliffe Fabrications production manager David
Mann, estimating and technical manager Colin
Henderson, business manager Katie Flanagan
and Loraine Henderson.
manufacturing with her background of being
marketing director at Roman prior to setting
up her own marketing consultancy.
“She understood our business from the
outset and offers us invaluable knowledge
of strategic marketing, and her experience
within a manufacturing capacity means she
can support us in implementing a marketing
strategy that is completely tailored to our
needs.”
Established in 2015, Faith Marketing
specialises in offering marketing services to
businesses across the North East.
The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI)
inspired the workers of tomorrow in
a college project on Aycliffe Business
Park.
CPI, which month revealed it had
opened a new state-of-the-art printable
electronics centre on Aycliffe Business
Park in April, partnered with UTC South
Durham on a 12-week educational
programme.
The Industry Projects scheme
encouraged students to think inventively
across two sector-based challenges,
before presenting their findings to CPI.