6 | Aycliffe Today Business
THE BUSINESS END
Stewart
Watkins is retiring after 35 years with Business Durham
Business Durham managing director STEWART WATKINS is retiring in July this year . In a special feature , MARTIN WALKER talks to the Welshman about his 36 years in the region ...
When Valley boy Stewart Watkins answered an advert in the Guardian newspaper 35 years ago , applying for a job more than 300 miles away from home , he didn ’ t expect to fall in love with the place .
But when the 65-year-old calls an end to his time as Business Durham ’ s managing director in July this year , the proud Welshman - and adopted North-Easterner - plans to enjoy his retirement in our beautiful county .
Stewart first joined the Durham County Council as assistant industrial development officer in 1978 - to “ gain experience ” before moving on to the next job .
“ But from day one I just loved every minute of it ,” he says . “ It ’ s a great part of the world .”
The council set up County Durham Development Company ( CDDC ) in the late 1980s , which later became what is now Business Durham .
And Stewart , originally from Ebbw Vale in the heart of industrial Wales , has witnessed an ever-changing business landscape during more than three decades in the region .
But he ’ s proud of what Business Durham has brought to the region , and to Newton Aycliffe specifically , during a roller-coaster time .
“ The County has been transforming for the last 30 years that I ’ ve been here , from the closure of the mines and the closure of the wagon works at Shildon and Consett Steelworks ,” says Stewart .
“ To compensate we brought in many inward investment companies , with a lot of foreign companies coming into the area to create jobs , and Aycliffe benefited immensely from that early drive , with a lot of credit going to the old Aycliffe Development Corporation .
“ As the economy changed again in the 1990s , we were opened up to the global market , and because of that low-cost countries in Eastern Europe and China either brought cheaper products to market , or companies here decided they could make their products cheaper elsewhere , and many companies suffered from that .
“ We ’ ve managed to change the economy from primary , extractive , heavy engineering end of the spectrum through to the manufacturing and light engineering markets .”
Aycliffe Business Park is a thriving industrial estate , and while Stewart doffs his hat in the direction of many long-established firms on the town , he insists Hitachi is making companies up their game .
He says : “ Hitachi chose Newton Aycliffe because they saw the advantages : the skilled and hard-working workforce , the locality and amenities , and I think it ’ s a great accolade for Aycliffe and the County .
“ But what the Hitachi deal also does , is that it makes people sit up and say to themselves , ‘ how can we supply or trade with Hitachi ?’, and that means many have got to re-think their strategy and how they raise the bar to meet Hitachi ’ s exacting standards .
“ Local companies are now gearing up for that , and it ’ s what I call a catalytic event . In other words , something is going to happen that wouldn ’ t otherwise have happened . Hitachi will create 730 jobs , and some of them will inadvertently come from local employers , purely because of the profile local people will want to go and work for them .
“ That means there ’ ll be an employment gap among existing employers , but I actually think that gives us an opportunity for local education and training providers to upgrade the training facilities in the area .
“ In the long-term Hitachi will give us the impetus to create a larger pool of skilled labour for the entire area , and I think we needed that spark to make something a little different happen .”
Business Durham helped set up the new Aycliffe Business Park ( ABP ) group and provided a much-needed online presence in the form of www . aycliffebusinesspark . co . uk
Stewart played a key role , and he recalls : “ At the initial meetings , we all agreed that there were certain things that needed doing , and how the park as a whole could come together to address those issues , because the public sector was no longer going to be able to help wholesale , it needed private-sector input and dynamism to make certain things happen .