Sponsored by FW Capital
TURNOVER
SME(£ 3M- £ 10M TURNOVER)
FINALIST
Casper Shipping
Middlesbrough
Capital gains – Applied Integration’ s Josh Lofthouse( left) receives the Stokesley firm’ s trophy from category sponsor FW Capital’ s Keith Charlton.
WINNER
Applied Integration UK Stokesley
Increased turnover from £ 7,386,000 to £ 9,198,000- 25 % increase Valuable defence contracts in an uncertain world helped a Stokesley firm clinch a coveted VelociTees award.
Applied Integration UK is a leading supplier of innovative automation solutions for various sectors, including defence.
But even though some of those defence contracts are up to 50 years in length, sales and marketing manager Josh Lofthouse couldn’ t reveal much more when he accepted the trophy.
He said:“ We’ re doing some very exciting work, especially in the defence sector. It’ s the type of work that keeps everybody safe, especially in these uncertain times – and it’ s a big boost to our revenue.
“ It’ s incredible, really – a lot of hard work has gone into it. We have just celebrated our 20th anniversary, so this is the build-up of 20 years of hard work. Not all of that work gets seen – a lot is behind the scenes. It’ s classified so we can’ t really talk about it, but it does feel nice to get recognition for it.”
Josh told how Applied, founded in 2005, started as a team of four people but is now up to 90, with further recruitment expected as more contracts are signed.
He said:“ A lot of our work is aimed at making processes more efficient for challenging environments, such as maritime or defence.
“ But it’ s our defence work that’ s the big one. With the way the world is at the moment and the amount of uncertainty, a lot of people are ploughing money into defence and that’ s where a lot of our big jobs have come from lately.
“ It’ s really all about making sure that systems are as up to date, autonomous and as safe as they can be. We’ ve done a lot of pretty big control systems, start-up systems, that sort of thing. It’ s about making sure those systems are reliable when they need to be – keeping things up and running and making sure they are running as efficiently as possible.”
SPONSOR’ S MESSAGE:
Keith Charlton, fund manager, FW Capital: We’ re a regional fund manager and the aim is to help fund and stimulate SME growth, especially here in the Tees Valley region. We were really pleased to sponsor the award for SME Turnover growth as it fits exactly in with our remit. Over the years, a number of businesses that we have funded have been previous winners or finalists at these awards and looking at this year’ s list, it’ s great to see a number of businesses with which we’ ve been associated have been similarly shortlisted.
Increased turnover from £ 5,376,000 to £ 6,265,000- 17 % increase Ever since Danish brothers Hans and Harald Casper arrived in Teesside in 1872, Casper Shipping has been providing endto-end shipping solutions across the UK, Europe and beyond.
Today, Casper Shipping – part of the Casper Group – is the UK’ s leading independent maritime services company, providing end-to-end shipping solutions across Europe from various UK ports, including its Teesside base at Tees Wharf in Middlesbrough.
From customs to chartering and logistics to marine, its services are delivered with a professional, personal and practical approach that always goes the extra mile to deliver – a dependable maritime services organisation with a truly global reach.
FINALIST
Northern Skills Group Business Services
Middlesbrough
Increased turnover from £ 6,743,000 to £ 8,102,000- 20 % increase The acclaimed apprenticeship and training arm of Middlesbrough College Group, Northern Skills Group’ s training courses and programmes are carefully selected to reflect business requirements, helping shape the economic future of the region and developing the talent of the north.
From apprenticeships and skills bootcamps to bespoke training packages and technical provision at its industryleading TTE facilities, Middlesbrough College delivers practical, results-driven programmes tailored to local business needs.
And the results speak for themselves, with more than 100 types of apprenticeships offered and more than 2,200 apprentices trained, of whom 96 % have gone on to employment.
The voice of business in the Tees region | 133