Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 41 | Page 7

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 7
/NEWS
Crafter’s Companion
hits 200 staff mark
/ADVICE
FREEPORTS
PROS &
CONS
W
G
lobal craft supplier Crafter’s
Companion is celebrating the first half
of an impressive year by hitting the
200 staff mark.
This year alone, the company has
employed a total of 28 people across its
marketing, TV, trade, warehouse and product
development teams, in addition to its retail
stores to support its ambitious global growth
strategy.
As part of the growth plans, Crafter’s
Companion has invested in developing its
UK, US and new EU ecommerce websites,
its video-selling platforms and its in-house TV
studio.
Crafter’s founder Sara Davies MBE said:
“At the beginning of the year, we announced
that our US team was moving to a larger
head office space because it had outgrown
its premises ahead of time and we’ve also
experienced outstanding growth here in the
UK.
“Therefore, an ongoing recruitment
strategy to support the company has become
integral to our ongoing evolution.
“We have been expanding our team on a
global scale and the calibre of staff that we
have at Crafter’s Companion is phenomenal.
“I have always stuck to my North
East roots and am so proud that our UK
headquarters remains within the region. It
means that Crafter’s Companion continues to
contribute to the local economy, supports the
local community and is able to employ some
fantastic people in the area.
“Three years ago we announced that we
had hit the 100 staff mark and the fact that
we now have double that amount in such a
short space of time is so overwhelming but
absolutely fantastic.”
Excelpoint expands with the appointment of four staff
N
ewton Aycliffe-based software
innovator Excelpoint has appointed
four new members of staff to further
strengthen its team.
Loraine Henderson has joined the firm
as marketing and customer engagement
manager.
Loraine previously managed her own
marketing consultancy business, has over
five years’ experience on the board of
directors at Roman and has worked for
national brands within telecoms, cable
television and the gas and electricity sectors.
She will be responsible for the
development of the Excelpoint brand, the
implementation of a new marketing strategy,
management of the customer experience,
and will support the sales drive.
Also joining the sales and marketing team
is Costner Brown. Costner has worked for
Excelpoint during holiday periods whilst
studying for a degree at Leeds Beckett
University.
He joins the department as Sales and
Marketing Executive and will be responsible
for supporting both the sales and marketing
activities across the business.
On the technical side, Sarah Orton has
joined as business consultant responsible
for the development of software to deliver
customer-
specific
automated
business
systems.
Sarah
joins the
team after
spending over three years as a regional sub-
unit support officer responsible for managing
the Army Reserves recruitment process for
Newton Aycliffe and Newcastle.
Meanwhile Caine Longstaff has started
an apprenticeship with Excelpoint through
nearby apprenticeship supplier Baltic.
The new recruits are all based at
Excelpoint’s head office on Aycliffe Business
Park.
Managing director Ian Brown said:
“Following a sustained period of growth, we
took the decision to expand our technical
team enabling us to offer customers an
unprecedented level of system development
and service.
“With ambitious growth plans for 2019
which include establishing the Excelpoint
brand as a key player in the software sector
and growth in new sectors, we also took the
decision to expand our sales and marketing
department.”
henever there is a new (ish)
Government in place, there is
always a flurry of activity and new
announcements all designed to hammer
home to the public how marvellous this
lot are compared to the last lot and how
a new broom sweeps clean etc.
Of course, it’s a bit tricky if the new lot
were part of the Government of the last
lot who’ve all gone to eat ice cream at
the cricket.
One of the new announcements was
on freeports. These aren’t a new idea,
many countries around the world operate
different freeport models.
The idea is that goods can be
manufactured in a specialist area without
crossing an international boundary.
Not having to cross an international
boundary is handy if there are suddenly
tariffs to pay on goods as it doesn’t add
significant cost to the finished product.
Some countries have areas that are
little more than bonded warehouses,
others something more sizeable with
China currently topping the league with
an entire megacity freeport.
Our Government is proposing to
designate 10 areas as freeports in the UK
with North Sea ports obvious candidates.
Done correctly, freeports can be
drivers of job creation and investment
and will provide a useful frictionless trade
area.
There are, however, some drawbacks.
Freeports will be attractive to investors
but jobs must be new ones, not simply
relocated from other areas of the UK.
Politicians must guard against a
scenario where areas which already
struggle to secure investment are further
disadvantaged because frictionless trade
in a freeport is so attractive.
Then there is the freeport idea stacked
against the free trade we have already
with our biggest market the EU and the
65 free trade deals the UK has through
EU treaties with countries around the
world. Freeports are a great idea but not
a replacement for what we have now.
So we shall see, with a majority of 1
this Government might be going to eat
ice cream at the cricket sooner rather
than later and the whole thing put on a
back burner.
If not, let’s make sure freeports benefit
everyone.
Rachel Anderson
Assistant director – policy (Tees Valley
and Energy)
North East England Chamber of
Commerce