Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 38

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 29 Aycliffe Today editor Martin Walker takes a look back at some of the stories making the headlines on aycliffetoday.co.uk during another eventful 12 months for Aycliffe Business Park... floating on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM. • BTS Facades and Fabrications announces major expansion plans with new funding from Barclays. • Roman is featured as one of London Stock Exchange Group’s 1,000 ‘Companies to Inspire Britain’ report. • M&G Real Estate – one of the biggest owners of land on the business park – says it has completed 115,900 sq ft of lettings in 18 months, taking the asset to 90.65% occupancy. M&G acquired its 677,000 sq-ft site in 2013, with over half a million square feet being let or sold in 51 deals. J U LY • One of Aycliffe Business Park’s most iconic buildings, The Work Place, reveals plans to celebrate its 10th anniversary. • Crafter’s Companion appoints new head of retail, Helen Hollings, as it experiences a 12% increase in UK sales. • Kitchen manufacturer Parkin and Denwood makes Aycliffe the heart of its home after launching a stylish new showroom on the business park. • Pixel Media founders Ian Proctor and Graham Marsh reveal details of their new Pixel Hub, to offer entrepreneurs the chance to get together and share their start-up challenges in a relaxed format. AUGUST • ROF 59 activity centre reveals a new first for the North-East – a new 200-metre long zip line, from a 19-metre high platform, at the hart of the business park. • Diamond Commercial Cleaning celebrates an impressive period of growth after smashing its turnover target, with sales up 30%. • Work starts at Hitachi on LNER’s Azuma fleet for the East Coast main line. Meanwhile, the Japanese firm reveals the opening of a new £5m production facility, taking Hitachi’s total investment at its Aycliffe factory to more than £100m. • Subsea specialists Tekmar Group reveals plans to buy Darlington firm Subsea Innovation. • Middlesbrough mayor Dave Budd visits Finley Structures to sign a symbolic piece of steel, after the family-run construction firm won a contract to fabricate and erect the steel for the new Centre Square development in in Middlesbrough town centre. SEPTEMB ER • One of Teesside’s leading law firms, Endeavour Partnership, expands to Aycliffe Business Park with offices at the Xcel Centre. • Aycliffe Today publishers Mantis Media’s sister company, Resolution Media and Publishing, reveals exciting plans to create future jobs with a number of new publications planned for the near future. • British-based global rail giants Hitachi and Bombardier open a new High Speed 2 bid centre in Birmingham to develop their plans to build an iconic train for the project. • Tekmar Group formally completes the acquisition of Subsea Innovation, which the company says will lead to an “accelerated focus on new product development”. • Hitachi Rail confirms more than 150 temporary workers won’t have their contracts renewed in December. OCTOBER • Growing family-run business BTS Facades and Fabrications, which services the construction industry, says it aims to almost double turnover after investing more than £1m in new facilities. • Energy pioneers Warrens Group takes delivery of the first of a fleet of new trucks which will be powered by gas converted at its food-to-waste anaerobic digestion facility, Emerald Biogas, in Aycliffe. • Ebac reveals its sales for the year ending December 2017 grow to £17.5m from £15.3m, with profits up to £362,000 from £327,000. • Durham County Council celebrates the completion of a new junction near to the south entrance of Aycliffe Business Park, providing better access to the A1(M) and A167, as well as a 23-mega volt amp sub- station – the work is to pave the way for the 52-hectare Forrest Park expansion. • Chief economist and the executive director of monetary analysis and statistics at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, says he’s “heartened” by a recent visit to Aycliffe Business Park. He chatted to company representatives during the visit, which was organised by Aycliffe Business Park Community then board member Chris Hyde, while he also visited the Hitachi and Husqvarna. • Stiller Warehousing and Distribution creates capacity for jobs growth with the opening of its new £2m distribution centre. N OV EM BER • Construction firm Raisco celebrates contract haul after revealing it has worked on 14 projects in just six months, totalling 1,800 tonnes of steel, which were fabricated at its premises on Aycliffe Business Park. • The Bombardier/Hitachi bid team sets out how they intend to build on the design and engineering excellence of the hugely successful train they developed together for the Italian high speed rail network – The Frecciarossa 1000 – as part of its joint HS2 bid. • Roman wins the prestigious consumer safety award for compliance in bathroom products at the NHIC Awards black tie ceremony. • Tekmar Energy is awarded a contract to supply its cable protection technology to Dutch maritime contracting firm Van Oord for the Borssele 2 (site III and IV) offshore wind farm. • Crafter’s Companion announces plans to move its US headquarters to a larger space in Corona, California, following a huge growth in sales from $12m to an estimated $22m in just two years. DECEMBER • Resolution Media and Publishing – the company behind Aycliffe Today’s sister publications Tees Business and Tees Life – appoints former Trinity Mirror regional managing director Bob Cuffe as a non-executive director. • Stiller Warehousing and Distribution invests £1.7m in 20 new Mercedes Across vehicles to keep its fleet of 45 trucks motoring millions of miles around the country. • Corporate finance firm Commercial Expert appoints Abigail Taylor to its growing team of advisors. • Finley Structures wins praise from main contractor Galliford Try on a 640-tonne contract to expand Durham University’s impressive Maiden Castle sports facility on the edge of Durham city.

Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 38 | Page 29