In Brief: ASOS chief visits Yorkshire; Sponsors line up; EMSc expands; Gorilla Glue teams up with Torque

THE head of pioneering online fashion retailer ASOS will speak at a Barnsley conference designed to inspire other businesses to take advantage of the internet.

Nick Robertson OBE, co-founder and chief executive of ASOS, will head the line-up speakers at the Connected Business conference, funded by Enterprising Barnsley.

Robertson will tell the ASOS story from its set-up in 2000 to its status today as the world’s most visited fashion website, worth £4bn on the London Stock Exchange. The online company now has customers across three continents and its huge 530,000 sq ft distribution hub in Barnsley is key to its global operations.

Other speakers will include digital entrepreneur and broadcaster Tom Scott, who will provide an insight into the power of the web and social media for business, and Barnsley-based business owner John Sanderson who will talk about developing his company, Pitstop Productions, into an international enterprise which supplies sound, music and animation products from a network of studios around Europe and the USA. Its clients include Sony and Sega.

Connected Business takes place next month.

KEY business sponsors have been announced for this year’s Hull Freedom Festival, as the City of Culture bid gathers momentum.

KC, the Wykeland Group and Hull College have pledged their support for the event, which is funded by Hull City Council, Arts Council England and James Reckitt Library Trust, as well as private sector sponsorship.

Gary Young, business and consumer director at KC, said: “Freedom Festival is such an important part of the city’s cultural programme and plays a key role in the City of Culture 2017 bid. KC is backing the bid 100%, and Freedom could be the clincher for it, which is why it’s crucial for everyone in the city to get behind the event.”

The Wykeland Group said Freedom is an important and integral part in the city’s cultural development and its reputation.

Managing director, Dominic Gibbons, said: “We believe the cultural regeneration of the city is as important as its physical regeneration, and never more so than at this current time as Hull vies to be City of Culture.”

EMSc (UK), the manufacturer of voltage optimisation solution Powerstar, is expanding its distributor network in Australia thanks to growing market demand for the company’s products.

Powerstar is proving a success across many different market sectors and is being installed in government buildings, education facilities, sports and leisure sites and large retail chains.

Managing the expansion in Australia on behalf of EMSc (UK) is Sam Czyczelis, general manager of EMSc (Australia) Pty. Czyczelis recently visited the UK head office in Sheffield for two weeks to finalise plans for the company’s continued expansion in Australia. The visit also included technical and product training, discussions on marketing and commercial strategy, as well as meetings with suppliers, agencies and partners.

EMSc (UK) is accredited with the Made in Sheffield accolade in acknowledgement of the quality of its manufacturing process, its expansion into international markets, and the overall success of Powerstar, which is exported worldwide to countries including Cyprus, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Spain, Malta and South Africa.

THE Gorilla Glue Company has appointed Yorkshire-based logistics services provider Torque to provide its new warehousing solutions.

Torque is now storing all products and consumables, plus providing a full pick and pack solution, for Gorilla Glue’s UK arm, based in Chorley, Lancashire. Torque’s headquarters in Wortley, Leeds, and other Yorkshire sites in Bradford’s Cutler Heights Lane and Holme Lane total almost 1,000,000 sq ft and employ nearly 500 people.

The Gorilla Glue Company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, was founded over a decade ago after the glue was discovered being used on teak furniture in Indonesia. The family-owned and operated company has since expanded its offerings and is committed to focusing on recycling initiatives, a greener manufacturing process and reducing waste.

Vanessa Hope, head of sales and marketing at Torque, said: “Kitting and making floor displays are part of our added value proposition to our clients. We’re really looking forward to working with Gorilla Glue as they continue to grow in the UK.”     

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