SIMON TUNING IN TO DIGITAL TV SERVICE
4 | Tees Business
BUSINESS BITES
SUPER-NETWORK TO GROW SME’ S A multi-million pound project to create the first ever innovation super-network in the Tees Valley has been launched by Teesside University.
The university is working alongside DigitalCity, the North East of England Process Industry Cluster( NEPIC) and the Materials Processing Institute to help grow the number of innovating, high-performing SMEs in the area.
Innovate Tees Valley has been made possible with a £ 3.8 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund( ERDF).
It aims to help SMEs overcome barriers to growth to bring in new products and services and reach new markets at home and abroad, by delivering tailor-made programmes of integrated, in-depth support.
ENTREPRENEUR BACKS BLK Serial entrepreneur Richard Upshall has completed a multi-million pound investment in BLK United Kingdom to develop the company’ s position as one of Britain’ s fastest-growing sportswear brands.
Upshall’ s investment will support BLK’ s ambitions to expand into a wider range of sports and strengthen its retail and distribution capabilities.
It will also support its existing management team, which includes chief executive Ben Houchen, who recently announced his intention to run as the Conservative candidate for the position of elected mayor of Tees Valley.
APPRENTICESHIP CASH BOOST The recently devolved Tees Valley Apprenticeship Grant for Employers( AGE) has already helped nearly 500 young people find new employment opportunities across Teesside.
Following the success of the scheme, additional funding has been secured by Tees Valley Combined Authority to create even more opportunities for young people in the area.
The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers Scheme supports small and medium sized businesses to help them employ apprentices aged 16-24 years with funding of up to £ 1,500 per individual.
RETAILER OPENS STOCKTON STORE Stockton town centre has welcomed another national chain after That’ s Entertainment officially opened in the Castlegate Centre.
Store manager Martin Hughes cut the ribbon at the shop which is the 30th That’ s Entertainment store to open in the country.
Located next door to Wilko, it takes the Castlegate Centre’ s occupancy up to 95 %.
Chris Bibby of Cornerstone Business Solutions with Martin Gilbey of Midas, one of more than 60 Riverside Park businesses to sign up for Virgin Media Business ultrafast broadband.
Award-winners‘ Corner’ the market for ultrafast broadband
Award-winning IT specialist Cornerstone
Business Solutions has made a superfast start to rolling out ultrafast broadband across the North-East, with more than 60 businesses on Middlesbrough’ s Riverside Park signing up at the first opportunity.
Recently voted Best IT Services Company in the North-East in the UK Corporate Excellence Awards, Stockton-based Cornerstone aims to provide the service to SME businesses across the region as the only Business Partners of Virgin Media Business across the entire region.
Running on next generation optical fibre cables, Virgin Media Business’ s ultrafast business broadband – with speeds of up to 300Mbps – is more than three times faster than the next fastest available on the open market.
After much success in Hartlepool, Cornerstone made the bustling industrial estate of Riverside Park their first target area in Middlesbrough after identifying areas with poor broadband speeds.
Acting like an instant upgrade for devices and apps, superfast broadband will allow businesses to move easily between cloud apps and video streams while copying massive files and loading new web content.
“ We’ ve been welcomed with open arms,” said managing director Chris Petty.“ It’ s a no brainer for most businesses because we’ re talking about by far the fastest broadband speeds ever so it’ s a fantastic product.
“ There are literally dozens of business parks around the North-East with poor broadband speeds.
“ Everybody wants things faster, whether it’ s emails, web pages or online backups. We all know how frustrating it can be with slow bandwidth.
“ Some of the Riverside Park organisations who’ ve signed up for our 300Mbps service were previously struggling along on incredibly slow broadband speeds so this is going to revolutionise their business.
“ Others we’ ve spoken to were paying up to £ 6,000 a year for a leased line, while we’ re offering a similar service for £ 40 a month.
“ It’ s understandably proving massively popular. We’ re targeting Teesside Industrial Estate and the Team Valley next.”
SIMON TUNING IN TO DIGITAL TV SERVICE
The guitarist of popular Teesside band The Beer Pigs has turned his attention from playing tunes to helping customers tune in after launching a new business specialising in digital aerial and satellite services.
Middlesbrough-based Aersat NorthEast has been set up by Simon Atkinson, an experienced field engineer, formerly with SKY TV.
Simon is best known around Teesside for prolific gigging as a long-term member of fivepiece band, The Beer Pigs, who specialise in playing classic songs of the last 40 years. But by day he swaps his bass guitar for tools and overalls to provide Teesside businesses and homes with a digital TV service that includes installation, service,
repair and troubleshooting, as well as broadband and phone services.
Simon, who lives in Acklam, is confident he is tapping into a big growth area with digital TV services such as SKY HD, SKY Q, Freesat HD and European satellites proving increasingly popular. www. aersatnortheast. com