CHAMBER NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM SPONSORED BY:
Quarterly survey reveals growth
Know-how to improve your bottom line
By Paul Yeomans Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Manager The University of Nottingham
Using novel materials and processes to design market leading products is the key to ensuring the success of your business, and the UK’s universities hold a wealth of expertise that could help you unlock your potential. There is funding available
from Government to help you to get this know-how into your business. One of the best ways to do this is through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). At The University of
Nottingham, we’ve run over 70 KTP projects with local businesses, each resulting in a significant commercial impact. In fact, businesses participating in a KTP scheme see their profits increase by around £250k per annum on average. Even more importantly, as
one MD put it, working with the University has fundamentally shifted the kind of business we are. Exposure to some of the world’s brightest minds can open up all sorts of
unexpected possibilities. In today’s global
marketplace, ensuring that your business has the right skills, technology and expertise to prosper in the future has never been more critical, and a KTP could just give you the all-important competitive edge you’re looking for.
If you have an idea that you think the University could help you with, please contact Paul Yeomans, the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Manager at The University of Nottingham email:
paul.yeomans@
nottingham.ac.uk or tel: 0115 84 68479
14 business network June 2016
The pace of economic growth in the East Midlands picked up in the first three months of 2016, following a slow end to 2015. Results from the Chamber’s Quarterly Economic Survey for Q1, released
as Business Network went to press last month, showed that in spite of recent national figures showing slowing growth in the UK economy over the same period, firms in the East Midlands performed strongly. The Chamber tracks business performance across a range of key
economic indicators – including sales and orders, staffing levels, price expectations, investment intentions and business confidence – to produce its quarterly State of the Economy Index. After dropping back to 276 and then 248 in the last two quarters of 2015,
it went back up to 279 in the first quarter of this year when respondents reported increasing sales, orders and increasing levels of confidence. This recovery was felt most acutely by firms in the manufacturing and engineering sectors, 42% of which reported an increase in UK sales in Q1, against the zero overall sales growth reported in the fourth quarter of 2015. Chamber Chief Executive Scott Knowles said: “While national growth
figures showed the pace of growth slowing in the UK in the first three months of the year, firms in the East Midlands fared better, with many actually reporting an increase in activity in Q1. “However, it remains a concern that in many respects, we’re still seeing
two-tier growth dominated by service sector businesses, with manufacturers lagging behind. “While it was encouraging to see that the gap between these business
sectors did not widen in Q1 2016, it is important, as a country, for it to shrink, driven by stronger growth from our manufacturers.”
‘Recovery was felt most acutely by firms in the manufacturing and engineering sectors’
A sustainable development
A major food and drink business park, which opened for business last year, has won a top regional design award. The Leicester Food Park, which,
since opening, has housed 15 food businesses and created more than 80 jobs, took the title of Best Commercial Project in the Royal Institution of Charter Surveyors (RICS) Awards 2016 East Midlands. The £5.8m development, off
Lewisher Road, Hamilton, was built in 2014 and opened in February 2015. More than 150 solar panels were
installed on the roofs of its buildings to meet the requirement to use renewable energy at the site. The RICS Awards have been held
for more than ten years and recognise the best ‘built environment’ projects. Leicester Food Park will now go
forward to the RICS Awards Grand Final 2016, to be held in London, in October, where it will compete against other regional winners for the overall title of National Project of the Year. Leicester City Mayor Sir Peter
Soulsby said: “The food park has proved to be very popular, with a huge amount of interest before it had even opened from companies interested in setting up there. “The designs and materials used
in this development were carefully chosen to be sustainable and
Leicester East MP Keith Vaz and Leicester City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby
‘The food and drink sector is extremely vibrant and has a strong capacity to grow’
energy-efficient, so it is good to see this recognised by these awards." The food park is managed for
the council by the Chamber, in partnership with the Food and Drink Forum. Chamber Chief Executive Scott
Knowles said: “This award caps off a highly successful first year for Leicester Food Park. The food and drink sector in Leicester is extremely vibrant and has a strong capacity to grow.
"This fabulous facility has
demonstrated over the past year the key role it can play in helping the sector to develop, by giving start-up firms the opportunity to take on their own premises and existing firms the ability to upscale.” Food and Drink Forum
Commercial Manager Andrew Collinson said: “The park has set the standard for demonstrating how high quality infrastructure can support the growth of food and drink businesses.”
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