Tees Business LIVE : April 25 2024
EVENTS
PICTURES : TOM BANKS
Discussion – Our Tees Business LIVE panellists were ( from left ) Craig Garbutt of Navigator Terminals , Nikki Sayer of Casper Customs , Matthew Ord from LV Logistics and Jerry Hopkinson from Ports , pictured with Emma Cranie of event sponsor Elite Consult .
Tees Business LIVE : April 25 2024
RIVERSIDE STADIUM , MIDDLESBROUGH
STEEL RIVER
‘ Merchants of light ’ can benefit from Tees revival
Businesses that work on and use the River Tees are modernday “ merchants of light ”, a discussion about the river ’ s economic importance heard . And all four panellists at the Tees Business LIVE event agreed there was plenty of room for optimism when considering how the river can keep our economy flowing .
More than 80 people attended the event , which was organised by Tees Business , in association with maritime and shipping recruitment specialist Elite Consult Group and held in the Legends Lounge at Middlesbrough FC ’ s Riverside Stadium .
And PD Ports executive chairman Jerry Hopkinson set a positive tone by referring to 17th-century coffee houses where philosophers , politicians , engineers , poets , artists and visionaries would meet to share ideas .
He told the meeting : “ Those people became known as the ‘ merchants of light ’ and I ’ d like to think that PD in the Tees Valley and the North-East is exactly that . “ If you can convince people in your business that you are part of that , then you get a far greater sense of purpose , vision , development and opportunity in your organisation .”
Casper ’ s Nikki Sayer , a non-executive director of Elite Consult and the first female chair of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers ’ North-East branch , told the meeting : “ It ’ s always peaks and troughs with shipping .”
The freeport , she said , “ is developing and growing ”, adding : “ The difference we have is the land mass .
“ But that , put together with the opportunities of firms moving to the fantastic place we call Teesside , makes this region an exciting place to come to .” She added : “ The reason things don ’ t happen as quickly as people would like to see is the time it takes to develop the site .
“ But it is moving , it is growing , there are developments and it will be developing over the coming weeks and months , so watch this space .
“ I think it ’ s a brilliant time to be in shipping – everything that comes from the river will bring opportunities for many .”
Matthew Ord , company ambassador at LV Logistics and recently appointed deputy chair of the Tees Valley Business
Board , said the River Tees was “ the number one ” in importance for our region ’ s future – “ the rest grows around it and if we don ’ t get the river to work , the rest will fall apart .”
He also felt that while many of the issues affecting companies like PD Ports were out of their control , it was a case of waiting for “ a number of stepping stones to fall into place to get the river back up to where it was ”.
And Craig Garbutt , head of operations at independent bulk liquid storage provide Navigator Terminals , said his company ’ s glass was definitely half-full as far as developments on and around the river were concerned .
He added : “ For the last 60 years , we have supported the traditional energy mix , oil and gas , but our assets also lend themselves to being repurposed for the clean energy future .
“ We ’ re involved in a lot of opportunities , some in the public domain , some not , but we definitely see a very positive future for the river as Teesside redevelops itself as the new clean energy heart .”
8 | Tees Business