Tees Business Tees Business issue 13 | Page 67

DUTCH GIANT REVEALS £ 7.2M TEES SITE
/ STOCKTON NEWS
Serving the Teesside Business Community | 67

New Volvo gets the red carpet treatment

Household stars including Phillip Schofield, Julia Roberts and Robert De Niro lined up to celebrate Volvo’ s latest new model during a special launch event in Stockton.

But it was only cardboard cut-outs of the stars that lined the red carpet during the evening celebration at Mill Volvo’ s showroom on Preston Farm, attended by 150 Teessiders.
Guests got a first glimpse of Volvo’ s impressive new family SUV model, the XC40, which has already been named Car of the Year 2018 by What Car? magazine, dubbed Britain’ s biggest and best car buyer’ s guide.
Mill Volvo’ s North East operations director Jeff Tabb, who’ s based at the firm’ s Stockton dealership, says he expects the new XC40 to help Mill sell 3,000 new units across its range in the region this year.
“ It has already been an excellent start to the year,” he said.“ The franchise has ambitions to do 48,000 units nationwide this year, and we expect to represent 3,000 of those across the whole range in the North- East alone.”
The XC40 was unveiled by all Volvo dealerships nationwide during a simultaneous launch night.
Sitting beneath Volvo’ s XC60 and XC90, the arrival of the new XC40 compact SUV – an all-new segment for Volvo – sees the company line up with three SUV offerings for the first time in its history.
“ We went for the big launch due to the significance of the opportunity for this car – which is a premium, compact SUV, a type of car we haven’ t offered before,” added Tabb.
“ The XC60 and XC90 are leaders in their segments and we’ d expect this to follow suit.”
The XC40 is available from Mill Volvo Stockton starting at £ 27,920 on the road, and from only £ 297 per month( personal contract hire) or £ 247 + VAT( business contract hire) – call 01642 673251 to book a test drive.
Mill Volvo operations director Jeff Tabb with some of the team at the launch of the new
XC40 in Stockton.
£ 250k investment funds growth plans

An ambitious online travel agency is choosing Teesside as its destination for growth after securing a six-figure investment from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund( NPIF).

VCH Travel uses a bespoke‘ destinationless’ search system developed in-house which processes millions of pieces of data in just a few seconds to offer customers holiday options that are tailored precisely to their specifications.
The eight year-old firm is set to open its new digital headquarters in Stockton as part of the next stage of its development, and will also shortly be launching a new version of its search software designed specifically for use on mobile devices.
DUTCH GIANT REVEALS £ 7.2M TEES SITE
Heavy lifting and transportation specialist Mammoet has provided a major shot in the arm for the Teesside economy after revealing its ambitious expansion plans. Mammoet has announced plans to invest £ 7.2m into a new state-of-the-art base on the Teesside Industrial Estate in Thornaby.
The six-acre site will house 180 of its UK employees, including the 36 that work in Leeds and 140 employees who work in Billingham.
Teesside is home to CPI, the UK’ s national technology and innovation centre for the process manufacturing industries. At the National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, CPI combines state-of-the-art facilities and technical expertise to support the growth and development of the UK biologics industry.
# TalkingUpTeesside
MOBILE MINI SALES UP TO £ 66.6M
Stockton-based Mobile Mini has reported record results for its UK business.
The leading hirer of portable site accommodation and secure storage containers has reported sales of £ 66.6m during the 12 months to December 2017, an 11.3 % increase on the previous year.
This record revenue has been driven in part by a significant investment by the company in growing its fleet of steel storage containers and portable offices, canteens and welfare facilities, which now stands at almost 40,000 units.
Training firm finalists in world welding awards
A Teesside engineering training centre has been named as a finalist in the Welding World Awards after a highly successful first year in business.
Nordic Engineering Training and Testing Centre in Stockton has gone from strength to strength since being launched in December 2016.
In recent months, it has managed to place 30 local unemployed people into engineering positions after giving them the right skills to meet employers’ requirements.
Nordic has since reached the final of the Welding World Awards in the Best Welding Industry Training Provider category.