Opinion CHAMBER


The official publication of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce


LINK Cannock Chase


Chamber of Commerce


Editor’s View


By John Lamb Sutton Coldfield


Chamber of Commerce


Greater Birmingham


Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce


connected and global region we are. You have the giant business that is Jaguar Land


JLR - leaders by example B


ehind the stories of the companies which entered and won our awards in this issue lies evidence of what a truly diverse,


Greater Birmingham


Transatlantic Chamber of Commerce


Rover being honoured with President Steve Allen’s award for their position at the heart of the region’s supply chains and supporting around 260,000 UK jobs. Steve’s plaudit was also awarded because of the way Jaguar switched production to help with the personal protection equipment shortage during the height of the Covid-19 crisis. Range Rover also deployed 360 vehicles to support front- line workers involved in emergency responses. And the first Range Rover to be produced


Front cover: Steve Allen (right) at Jaguar Land Rover’s Castle Bromwich plant with Jamie Whitehead, the now retired operations director, to celebrate the company’s Chamber President’s award. See page 7.


Editor John Lamb 0121 274 3237, 0797 1144064 j.lamb@birmingham-chamber.com


Deputy Editor Dan Harrison 0121 274 3239, 0797 1144052 d.harrison@birmingham-chamber.com


Reporter Jessica Brookes 0750 8317356 j.brookes@birmingham-chamber.com


You can now read the latest issue of CHAMBERLINK and view back issues online at: www.greaterbirminghamchambers.com


under social-distancing rules rolled off the production process at Solihull in May. But in all of this, the car giant were quick to


recognised the help of much smaller fish, in the shape of WHS Plastics, of Sutton Coldfield, who supplied the injection mould tooling so that JLR could produce 2,000 3D-printed protective visors a day. The operation produced one polypropylene headband every 30 seconds. And our Business of the Year is another


glowing example of how firms have simply got on with it in the face of the worst health and economic crisis to hit the UK. Excitation Engineering Services Ltd are a small


Published by


team with a big impact. The Tamworth-based company are engineers to the power and generation industry and are renowned for their rapid global troubleshooting. Read all about our award-winners on pages 5,


Kemps Publishing Ltd 11 The Swan Courtyard, Charles Edward Road, Birmingham B26 1BU 0121 765 4144 www.kempspublishing.co.uk


Managing Editor Laura Blake Designer Lloyd Hollingworth


Advertising 0121 765 4144 jon.jones@kempspublishing.co.uk


Printers Stephens & George Print Group


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• To offer marketing and promotional opportunities within this publication to Chamber members and prospects.


Whenever we process data for these purposes, we always ensure we treat your Personal Data rights in high regard. If you wish to, you can visit www.kempspublishing.co.uk to view our full Privacy Notice and to learn more about our legitimate interests and your rights in this regard.


CHAMBERLINK is produced on behalf of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce by Kemps Publishing Ltd and is distributed to members without charge. The Chambers and the publisher are committed to achieving the highest quality standards. While every care has been taken to ensure that the information it contains is accurate, neither the Chambers nor the publisher can accept any responsibility for any omission or inaccuracies that might arise. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Chambers. This publication (or any part thereof) may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format without prior written permission of Kemps Publishing Ltd.


4 CHAMBERLINK August/September 2020


6 and 7. They were conducted for the first time online but plans are already in place to revert to a live night of drama, excitement and entertainment at the ICC next year – on 1 April.


CHAMBERLINK returns to production 10 times


a year in October – five months earlier than expected. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic we reduced the magazine to bi- monthly until February next year. But our publishers Kemps have decided that their swift recovery from the lockdown means that Chamberlink can return to full production. So we will have editions in October and


November with a joint December-January issue, as normal. We realise that many of our readers will still not be going into the office in order to pick up their copy of Chamberlink. With this in mind we are urging readers to go


to the Chamber’s website (www.greaterbirminghamchambers.com) to read Chamberlink and to subscribe for free to the magazine through our own app. Both have easy- to-read, flip-through formats. And, of course, to really stay on top of


everything that is going on in the Greater Birmingham business world it’s easy to subscribe for free to ChamberlinkDaily, which goes our to nearly 15,500 readers before 9am every day. Simply go to www.greaterbirminghamchambers.com and follow latest news. The Daily includes three sought-after advertising banners. To check their availability potential advertisers should contact sponsorship and advertising manager Russell Ashman at r.ashman@birmingham-chamber.com He can also help with advertising in our


popular weekly and monthly publications we produce online for every region and sector of the Chamber – Burton & District, Cannock Chase, Lichfield & Tamworth, Solihull and Sutton Coldfield plus the Asian Business, Futures Faces, Commonwealth, International and Transatlantic Chambers of Commerce.


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