The voice of business in the Tees region | 11
/NEWS
John King – NBSL’s North-East
business support manager.
BUSINESS BITES
ONE BIG FAMILY
Sisters Nicola Wright and Lisa Stacey have
been given holiday vouchers after working
together at an award-winning Redcar
finance company for 20 years. Lisa’s
daughter Stephanie Brooke is now on the
staff as well, while their dad Dave looks
after the gardens at the firm’s Kirkleatham
headquarters. Two other members of staff
have been with the firm for 17 years. Bob
Little & Co was named Adviser Firm of
the Year in 2017 and Investment Advice
Specialist of the Year in 2018/19.
GLOBAL RECOGNITION
IMPROVING MANAGEMENT
ACROSS THE TEES VALLEY
T
ees Valley firms are being offered
the chance to supercharge their
management effectiveness.
NBSL’s Tees Valley Business Compass
Leadership and Management Fund is
available to SMEs with a desire to grow but
who require help with their management
know-how, processes or systems.
One company benefiting from the fund
is Hartlepool chartered accountants and
business advisers, Waltons Clark Whitehill.
The firm completed two coaching
workshops that helped build awareness of
different styles of management, including a
coaching culture.
“The NBSL process has been very
smooth and enjoyable, and the coaching
sessions have allowed us to take the time
to think about how we can use a coaching
culture internally to develop our team, and
improve our communication skills, with a
goal of creating an advisory firm for the
future,” said managing partner Heather
O’Driscoll.
“As a result of the sessions, an action
plan has been put in place to improve key
areas in the management process to make
the business more efficient and effective,
and to look at how we can streamline our
current services, allowing us to expand our
advisory services.”
NBSL, which has been helping people
start and grow businesses across the
North-East for over 18 years, launched
the programme specifically for Tees Valley
SMEs.
Up to 40 per cent funding towards a
project costing between £2,500 and £5,000
is available for approved projects, with
support available from dedicated project
managers.
The Business Compass Leadership and
Management Programme is part-funded
by the European Regional Development
Fund and delivered by NBSL. For more
information, visit nbsl.org.uk/bclm.
£1m investment helps AV service major deal
M
iddlesbrough freight
logistics firm AV
Dawson has officially
opened a new £1m canopy to
help service a multi-million-
pound deal with a major blue-
chip manufacturer.
The logistics firm invested
in a new rail linked facility
to support its contract with
British Gypsum, the UK’s
market leader for plaster and
plasterboard products.
The 100-metre canopy provides dry-
loading capabilities for trains, which
increases the efficiency of loading but also
reduces costs of drying the product when it
arrives at British Gypsum’s factory.
AV Dawson showcased its investment
in new building infrastructure at a recent
unveiling.
British Gypsum, part of the global Saint
Gobain group, is importing the product,
which is used to make plaster and
plasterboard, through AV Dawson’s Teesside
freight terminal, based on Riverside Park in
Middlesbrough.
The product arrives by ship to AV
Dawson’s Middlesbrough port facilities and
is unloaded and stored in the new canopy,
ready to be loaded onto trains for daily
deliveries to the East Midlands area.
The contract, signed in 2018, meant ten
new jobs and over £2m investment in new
facilities and plant equipment at AV.
Teesside-based particle engineering
specialist Micropore Technologies was
awarded first prize in both the Pharma
and Innovative Product categories of the
IChemE Global Awards 2019. The double
award is recognition of Micropore’s
achievement in managing to successfully
scale up membrane emulsification
technology to an industrial scale with the
control of the precision of particle creation
normally only found in a laboratory.
ONE TO WATCH
Designer watch brand Ellington Timepiece
has secured a loan to develop its growing
business with a new website and
marketing support. The Tees-based firm
has secured £35,000 from NPIF – BEF
and FFE Microfinance, which is managed
by Business Enterprise Fund (BEF) and
Finance for Enterprise (FFE) and part of
the Northern Powerhouse Investment
Fund. Ellington Timepiece sells premium,
limited-edition watches for men and
women that are designed by its founder,
Teri Ellington.
WILTON HIGHLIGHTED
Wilton Engineering has been
recognised as one of Tees Valley’s leading
scaleup businesses in a major national
report. According to Scaleup Institute’s
ScaleUp Annual Review 2019, Wilton has
been named in the region’s top five visible
scaleup businesses in terms of both
employee growth and turnover growth.
The company is active in the offshore
energy and defence sectors providing
multi-disciplinary engineering services
from its 54-acre facility on the banks of
the River Tees.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia
is probably the best-known Teesside-built
structure. Thousands of people climb the
bridge every year and are told how it was
built by Dorman Long. Indeed, is stamped
with the name of the famed Teesside
bridge-building firm.
#TalkingUpTeesside #TalkingUpTeesValley