6 | Aycliffe Today Business
BUSINESS
ENGAGEMENT IS KEY UTC
The beginning of construction of UTC
South Durham was a very exciting
moment for me personally, as an
engineer, a business leader and now an
educationalist.
I’m from Northumberland originally. I
started my career with ICI on Teesside
and moved down to London as a
consultant in business.
I came back home to the North-East 10
years ago as a school leader, working in
Northumberland, it was very important
for me to launch back into industry and
inspire young people into engineering.
My job now is to explain to families
about what it is that we’re doing. We
offer a very different type of education,
a work-placed education, which focuses
on the STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Maths) subjects.
Engagement with Aycliffe Business
Park is very important, and we’ve had a
fantastic response from businesses in
the area.
We’re set up by Hitachi and Gestamp
Tallent along with the University of
Sunderland, but we’re working with a
lot of other businesses as well because
our students need to experience a
huge range of sectors and sizes of
organisations.
The response so far has been very good,
because businesses understand that
they’ve got a problem with workforces
in the future, they need to recruit young
talented people in their areas of work.
We’re also looking well beyond the
business park and we’re working with
companies in Shildon and Bishop
Auckland, Darlington, Teesside, Durham
and North Yorkshire because our
students will come from those areas,
and we need to prepare them for the
world of work in a wide variety of
different places.
There’s a fantastic buzz around Aycliffe
Business Park. There’s such a wide
variety of incredible businesses here
- I’ve already been to see a lot of them and I’m delighted that we’re part of that.
Tom Dower
Principal, UTC South Durham
Finley group boosted by steel
firm’s record £16.4m turnover
A family group of companies has been boosted by a
new record year for its steel construction division.
Newton Aycliffe-based Finley Structures
saw turnover jump to £16.4m by the end of
March this year - up £3.1m on 2014.
During that time, the steel fabrication firm
has also taken on eight new employees boosting staff numbers to 68 - while working
on high-profile contracts across the region.
Finley Structures fabricated and erected
2,000 tonnes of steel which makes up the
frame for Hitachi Rail Europe’s new £82m
train-assembling factory on Aycliffe Business
Park.
The firm has also worked on a 2,300-tonne
project at the Victoria Gate shopping centre
in Leeds - a deal worth close to £4m.
And during the 2014-15 financial year,
the Aycliffe outfit also built Nissan’s new
Leaf factory, a 1,400-tonne project, the
500-tonne Sports Village in Middlesbrough
and a 300-tonne frame for the £38m National
Biologics Centre in Darlington, which opened
recently.
In addition, Finley Structures completed
a 500-tonne project for Teesside University
and a 620-tonne contract for the University
of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing and
Research Centre (AMRC) to round-up a busy
year.
It comes as its sister company, nearby
SCH Site Services which employs 36 people,
continues to perform strongly, while Finley’s
also launched the ROF 59 activity centre
this summer, a new leisure venue built on
one of the former Royal Ordnance Factories
at Aycliffe Business Park which employs
another 15 full-time and 20 part-time staff.
Joint managing director Julie Raistrick
(pictured) says it’s been a hugely positive and
progressive period for the family firm, which
was formed by her father, John, in 2000.
“The construction industry continues
to have its challenges but it has been an
exceptional year for the Finley group,” she
said.
“Finley Structures’ financial performance
for the year end March 2015 has been largely
down to the two large, high-profile contracts
in Hitachi for Shepherd Construction and
Victoria Gate for Sir Robert McAlpine.
“During the timescale of the Hitachi
contract alone we took on eight new staff four in the office and four on the shop floor
- to cope with the amount of extra work,
which means we’re up to record employee
levels.
“SCH continues to do very well and ROF
59 is an exciting new development for the
company which has seen our combined staff
numbers reach almost 130.”
Earlier this year, Finley Structures won
a multi-million-pound contract to build
new schools across the region with major
contractor Galliford Try, a national firm
which has offices across the UK including
Washington, Tyne and Wear.
The contracts, which vary from 380
to 400 tonnes apiece, include Laurence
Jackson Scho