The ScaleUp partners ( left to right ) Angelina Bell , Craig Huntingdon , Jon Symonds and Tony Brooks .
How ScaleUp partners are driving growth for the North-East
ALL TOGETHER NOW
The ScaleUp North East programme was
created to provide ambitious business owners and entrepreneurs throughout the region with the opportunity to work alongside highly-experienced peers , our ScaleUp partners , who have all generated rapid growth within their own businesses and boast their own individual skillsets .
Together they bring invaluable networks in addition to expertise and connections that allow driven and motivated businesses realise and reach their scaling potential .
Throughout the last three years , Scaleup North East has had the privilege of working with some of the most creative and innovative entrepreneurs in the region .
These growing businesses are the pillars of our business community and will help us to overcome the effects of the current Covid-19 pandemic and lead the way for the next generation and for these reasons , we are committed to their success .
The work will continue within the North East business community as a new Scaleup programme comes in 2021 .
Scaleup partner Angelina Bell sets targets together with her clients and reviews performance to enable financial control that eases cash flow and increases profitability , giving her clients the confidence and focus to get things done . Increasing productivity around personal KPIs , leadership and job matrices is the key .
Mindset and work-life balance are natural areas of progression that ultimately result in a better quality of life for the owner and senior team .
Craig Huntingdon , another ScaleUp partner , has been directly and indirectly involved with many great achievements , one business Craig positioned appropriately to win a huge contract 20x their turnover . Some of Craig ’ s clients he has prepared for BBC ’ s Dragons ’ Den and then supported these
businesses with navigating their business post the show .
After making introductions to a large international distributor he has assisted a client in winning a contract worth £ 500,000 , while also supporting several manufacturers and brands to engage and win listings with major UK supermarkets .
After scaling and selling his own manufacturing business in 2015 , Tony Brooks recognised he had a great deal more to do in life and was and remains to be , an immensely passionate Scale Up Partner who is dedicated to giving back to the North East economy .
One company after structural advice from Tony went on to increase in size and turnover in three years . He also supported the same company with significant R & D tax credit .
For another company , only 18 months old , Tony helped develop their 10-year strategic plan , made several introductions for them and one being to a 30-year-old company in the same field looking to exit . His client subsequently acquired this business , with a team of experts Tony put together , and the net result has been that they have achieved their 10-year vision in one year .
During the pandemic , Tony supported one company in making a sharp shift , pivoting them into a situation where they are now making record sales on QVC and they remain with Tony for expansion and strategic growth support .
There are those in this region that really graft to make that all important difference , and this is something Jon Symonds – one of our other Scale Up partners – deeply admires and relishes in supporting .
Jon worked with a client to facilitate and structure a buyout of their partner , assist with access into new territories in the UK
by financially modelling a strategic and commercial model to replicate what is working in the North that will bring in an additional £ 500,000 a year , increased margin and head count .
Jon supported a client in expanding their waste management business by creating a strategy to enter into other sectors and thereby increase their turnover , profit and head count whilst spreading the risk of volatile rates in the markets they operate in resulting in a c25 % increase in revenue year on year .
Whilst mentoring a client who had affected an MBO into a leadership CEO role , he helped them develop a strategy for growth , moved them to diverse to other opportunities such as supplying and distributing of equipment – which will now see a three-fold increase in revenue and increased margin
Jon has supported one young entrepreneur in doubling his warehouse capacity and increasing revenues by 50 % year on year as well as increasing his staffing levels and profitability .
As a team , these are four highly experienced , professional and dedicated entrepreneurs who share their drive , ambition and hunger to succeed ; to inspire , motive and propel the business community of the North- East , to realise their full potential and achieve their growth and scaling ambitions .
RTC North is delivering Scaleup North East in conjunction with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership ( LEP ).
The programme is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund ( ERDF ). It is aimed at supporting North Eastbased businesses that can demonstrate both the hunger and the potential to achieve high levels of growth .
28 | Aycliffe Business