North West business briefs: LCRCA; CyberFirst Schools & Colleges; Appleby Creamery; DEXT; RightQlik; Freshfield
More than 600 jobseekers, 30 employers and 12 training providers attended a post-Eurovision recruitment fair at ACC Liverpool, which offered more than 650 vacancies in the visitor sector and other parts of the economy.
The ‘Beyond Eurovision – One Step Further’ event built on the success of the city region’s Eurovision recruitment drive which aimed to fill thousands of vacancies in the thriving hospitality and leisure sector ahead of the Song Contest in May. It featured hospitality and leisure firms as well as the NHS, health and social care providers, the Army and firms working in logistics, security and retail – with some roles attracting salaries of more than £30,000-a-year and on-the-day job offers made to suitable candidates.
Early figures from the event show 74 people were offered jobs on the day, with 127 securing second interviews and 129 application forms handed out. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority executive director for investment and delivery, Aileen Jones, said: “Eurovision was a huge boost for the Liverpool City Region, its people and its visitor economy, and the recruitment fairs we held were extremely popular and very successful.
“This latest event builds on that momentum, widening the focus from the visitor economy to other sectors, including health, social care, security, logistics and retail.”
The latest event was the last in a Eurovision-themed recruitment campaign organised by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Liverpool City Council and the Growth Platform, with venue support from ACC Liverpool.
Work is now under way to gauge the economic effect of hosting Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine, which saw an estimated half a million extra visitors to the city region and a TV audience of 162 million viewers. A report is expected later this year.
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Lauren Monks of IN4Group, Charlotte, from Winstanley College, Ben Wallace, Norbert, from Moor Park High School
A pioneering programme backed by global tech businesses and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has resulted in £1.57m of social impact in less than 12 months, establishing 13 local schools and colleges from Lancashire and Greater Manchester as among the best in the UK for cyber and STEM education.
This means that for every £1 invested in the programme, there has been a Social Return on Investment (SROI) of £2.57 in the regional community, further boosting cyber education in the North West Cyber Corridor. CyberFirst Schools & Colleges is an initiative set up by the NCSC, part of GCHQ, and delivered by IN4 Group in the North West, to encourage a more diverse range of young people to pursue careers in the cyber sector.
The programme is focused on the most disadvantaged and deprived communities with more than 35% of the students supported by the pupil premium, which is a grant given to schools from the Government to improve the education of underprivileged children. There has been an investment of more than £600,000 and a contribution of in excess of 2,200 hours dedicated to the CyberFirst North West programme from across the public and private sector, including its Apex partners: IBM, Northrop Grumman, KPMG UK, QinetiQ, Roke and BT.
CyberFirst North West has exceeded targets in its first year with 13 schools being awarded formal recognitions and 29 events facilitated to promote and encourage an interest in cyber. To mark this achievement, Ben Wallace, the Secretary of State for Defence and MP for Wyre and Preston North, spoke at a celebration event held at BAE Systems’ site in Samlesbury.
He said: “By opening up opportunities for young people to build exciting careers in cyber skills in the North West, we are expanding the range of durable careers in this area, bringing both benefits to those involved and the wider community. This is absolutely about up-skilling and levelling-up and I am hugely heartened to see the investment and progress being made.”
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Maurice Walton
A thriving Eden Valley company has invested £150,000 in renewable energy. Appleby Creamery, which is based on the Cross Croft Industrial Estate in the town, has installed 480 solar panels on its roof. These provide up to 180kW of generation capacity, with the surplus being sold to the National Grid.
Managing director, Maurice Walton, said: “This is all part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability at the creamery. Electricity usage is very high here and we want to be as green as possible in our operation.”
The scheme has included grant funding from The Lake District Foundation and Westmorland and Furness Council, through the ‘Greening Eden’ initiative. Mr Walton said: “During the day the panels are supplying all our power and, once we install a suitable battery storage system in early 2024, which will be partly funded by Cumbria LEP, we hope to become almost self-sufficient in electricity and reduce consumption of LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas).”
Appleby Creamery was founded in 2007 by Mr Walton and his wife Sandra, Alan Mandle and his wife Ruth, and Bob Parmley. It started in smaller premises close by and, after continued expansion, moved to its current site five years ago.
The business, which employs 17 staff, sells its cheeses at high-end farm shops and retail outlets around Cumbria and further afield, such as the Fenwick department store in Newcastle.
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DEXT directors, Neil Bracewell and Dr Gareth Evans
A Lancashire firm has won a contract with national restaurant chain, Nando’s, for its pioneering heat recovery system that harvests the wasted heat in a restaurant’s extract stream and diverts it back into the heating and hot water system to be used again.
Neil Bracewell, director of DEXT Heat Recovery, said: “In a typical restaurant, like Nando’s for example, 100s of kW of energy travel through the extract duct every day. Without intervention, the energy wasted over a year would be the equivalent of heating 30 houses for a year. Our system gives restaurant owners a means of tapping into that valuable energy and recycling it. The technology is so effective that it will pay for itself within two years.”
He added: “Research and development has been intense over the last decade or so. We’ve been back to the drawing board countless times because we refused to compromise on quality, and now we can see that hard work really paying off.”
Nando’s was the first big name to trial the system at its Parrs Wood site in Manchester. For much of the year at Parrs Wood, the system used this recouped energy to provide all the space heating and hot water requirements for the entire restaurant without the need for gas or electric heating. In the UK’s coldest winter months, it worked in conjunction with the existing heating system to improve efficiency.
Now with a DexThermic on 14 sites, Nando’s is keen to implement the technology at its other 400+ restaurants across the UK. Nando’s head of sustainability, Sam McCarthy, said: “We would love to roll it out across all our restaurants. Nando’s has set a net zero target by 2030, so sustainability is really important to us.”
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Andy Patrick
Chester-based analytics software company, RightQlik, has been acquired by London data strategy consulting services solutions provider, Ometis, for an undisclosed sum.
Ometis says it is the main dedicated UK partner of Qlik, the US-based business analytics platform. It says this strategic move underlines its commitment to enhancing customer support and expanding its market presence in the Qlik ecosystem for analytics, quality and data integration. The acquisition of RightQlik brings the skills, expertise and extended resource capability of Ometis to RightQlik’s customer base.
Andy Patrick, managing director of Ometis, said: “We are thrilled to welcome RightQlik to the Ometis family. This acquisition reinforces our commitment to supporting and empowering customers in their Qlik journey. Our existing offering will enable us to provide customers with a comprehensive suite of solutions, consultancy services, training and advanced analytics opportunities. Together, we will continue to assist customers in harnessing the full potential of their data and driving business success.”
Chris Safhill, owner of RightQlik, said: “Joining forces with Ometis is a tremendous opportunity for RightQlik and our valued Qlik customers. We have always been passionate about enabling organisations to unlock actionable insights through our Qlik-based analytics software.
“By aligning with Ometis, with their strong Qlik expertise and customer-centric approach, we can amplify the impact of our solutions and expand our reach. This partnership will undoubtedly deliver exceptional value to Qlik users across the globe.”
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Simon Turner
North West PR and marketing communications consultancy, Freshfield, has been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Communications Marketplace framework for the North West.
Freshfield, which has a public sector team and offices in Preston and Manchester, secured its place on the marketplace following successful appointment through the registration process.
CCS, an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, is the UK’s largest public sector procurement framework and allows public sector organisations to procure a wide range of PR and marketing communications services through approved agencies such as Freshfield. These include local authorities, NHS trusts, housing associations, schools, colleges and universities.
Freshfield works with a range of public sector and local authority organisations covering areas such as business support, education, healthcare, inward investment and regeneration. Its client experience includes Lancashire County Council, Preston City Council, Boost; Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub, Two Zero Scaleup, Bolton at Home, Lancashire LEP, LTE Group, NHS and the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
Simon Turner, Freshfield CEO, said: “We are proud to have secured a spot on this important framework and it’s a great opportunity to grow our work and impact in this arena. Our team love working in the public sector as it’s very much aligned to our purpose, giving us a chance to help organisations have a real impact on people and communities.”
