BY SARAH WALKER
FLAG
WAVERS
How the team behind This Is Tees Valley have drawn on community spirit and Tees pride to achieve success
Big little brand – Tees Business creators Dave Allan ( left ) and Martin Walker launched the annual This Is Tees Valley publication in 2020 .
Boro lad born and bred Dave Allan and adopted Teessider Martin Walker could talk forever about how proud they are to live in a region where both the coast and countryside are literally on your doorstep .
The Resolution Media and Publishing team behind This Is Tees Valley are proud to call Middlesbrough home .
Even their office is located in the town ’ s most historic building , where pioneering ironmasters Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan lived .
Resolution ’ s flagship publication , Tees Business , has been publishing quarterly print editions for eight years , after starting life as an idea from Martin , who already had a successful publication championing the businesses in his hometown of Newton Aycliffe .
Since then , it has gone from strength to strength , growing both print and online audiences and creating instantly recognisable high-quality B2B magazines you ’ ll find wherever you go on Teesside .
But the success of Tees Business and Resolution doesn ’ t stop there .
Because Martin and Dave , both former communications professionals at Middlesbrough Football Club , have not only grown a successful publishing business .
Through Tees Business , a publication with real Tees pride at its heart , they have become thought provokers and thought leaders .
They have brought businesses together and encouraged collaboration and the celebration of success , through their celebrated awards ceremonies and networking events .
They have also built up a number of
38 welcoming communities where people thrive , from growing networks of female business leaders and Tees SMEs , to a friendly group of 18 freelance writers , photographers and graphic designers .
When Tees Business printed the first ever poll of the most inspiring business leaders – a popular online annual event which launched at the in-person InspiraTees event in 2023 – it only included three women .
This started a conversation Tees Business ran with about the need to promote Teesside ’ s female business leaders and role models – and inspired Resolution ’ s first Tees Businesswoman Awards .
Through this – and with the help of the late Jane Turner OBE – the Power of Women was born .
The success of Power of Women , demonstrated by increasing numbers of women now being named in the Tees Business annual poll , is just one of the many ways Resolution has demonstrated it is a small business making a big impact .
In fact , Tees Business is what Dave likes to call “ the region ’ s biggest little brand ”, with its passion for celebrating people working for the wide variety of SMEs who are the beating heart of Teesside shining through .
“ We launched it in April of 2015 and when the first issue came out , I think it was 36
pages ,” Martin said . “ It has just grown from there .” And quite significantly it has grown too , with the last magazine being a mammoth 160 pages !
“ It took a little while to get it really established – probably about three years – but once we started launching awards events , that really kicked things on ,” Martin said .
The wider staff team they eventually recruited – including Bob Cuffe as nonexecutive director , Vicky Thomas as office manager , Chris Garbutt as sales manager , Carol Makepeace as account manager and Dave Robson as chief writer – have also helped them to become a “ slicker operation ”.
“ We couldn ’ t have got this far without the team that ’ s behind us ,” Martin says .
“ For many years , there was just the two of