The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 9
The“ Get Into Rail” regional workshop takes place 30th June at Durham County Cricket Club.
then having the right support to scale up those products and services globally.”
NEAA £ 1.4m SME Programme
Business support will be taken out on the road in March with a County Durham SME Roadshow at the NETPark Incubator in Sedgefield.
Firms were also invited to join the North East Automotive Alliance( NEAA) and Business Durham at the roadshow on Thursday March 16.
The event was pitched at small and medium-sized( SMEs) companies looking to supply into the automotive sector or those firms already doing so but looking to improve their capability.
The NEAA will outline information on the £ 1.4m ERDF funded SME Programme, advancing the competitiveness of North East automotive SMEs, along with the £ 6bn tier 1 and tier 2 UK supply chain opportunities in the sector.
The roadshow focuses on improving the competitiveness of SMEs, expanding business capability through business excellence, increased trade and innovation, attracting new SMEs into the sector and supporting entrepreneurship.
“ The BEEP project offers constructive assistance to companies through free energy auditing services and its ability to contribute to the cost of measures undertaken as a result of these audits.” – energy officer Malcolm Potter
Business Energy Efficiency Project( BEEP) Local firms are also receiving expert support from the thriving Aycliffe Business Park Group which held the first of a planned series of seminars.
Staged at the premises of ROF59 in Newton Aycliffe, Malcolm Potter, energy officer in Durham County Council’ s Low Carbon Energy Team, led a presentation and discussion on energy efficiency.
The seminar covered how the management of energy should be a key driver for business improvement and how the council’ s new European-funded Business Energy Efficiency Project( BEEP) can offer assistance to local companies in the form of free energy advice and auditing – and even some grant funding.
“ The majority of companies, to a greater or lesser degree, make savings by managing and controlling their energy consumption, sometimes at little or no up front cost,” said Malcolm.
“ But only a minority consider how improvement in energy usage can positively influence operational and financial performance and, therefore, competitiveness.
“ The BEEP project offers constructive assistance to companies through free energy auditing services and its ability to contribute to the cost of measures undertaken as a result of these audits.”
To find out more about the‘ Get Into Rail’ event please email caroline. taukulis @ durham. gov. uk or contact Business Durham to learn more about the package of support available to help your company http:// www. businessdurham. co. uk /