News
Queen’s Award winner finally gets hands on the prize
Local consulting firm scores triple gold with new partnership Sales Growth Consulting, a data and insights consulting firm and C&W Chamber member, is excited to share news of enhancements to its research services. By partnering with a researchas-a-service (RaaS) platform, with more than 5,000 registered experts globally including PhD students, consultants and industry veterans, Sales Growth Consulting will be able to compile relevant data to answer business critical questions faster. This will yield: 1. enhanced data quality 2. faster delivery lead times by up to 50% 3. lower client fees by as much as 30% Sales Growth Consulting helps SMEs by providing independent market and competitor landscape data that supports business planning, decision-making and crucial funding requests. Victor Chauhan, managing director of Sales Growth Consulting, said: “Previously, compiling such detailed and meaningful data like this was labour-intensive and timeconsuming. Now, we’re able to enhance the quality of our research by leveraging these experts, reduce our lead times and offer lower fees; it’s a huge win for our clients.” To celebrate the launch of its new partnership, Sales Growth Consulting is offering fellow members from the C&W Chamber of Commerce 10% off the total fee for any research project commissioned before 28th February 2021. To learn more about Sales Growth Consulting and how the firm helps local SMEs grow, visit www.sgc-ltd.com
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An aerospace company finally received its coveted Queen’s Award for International Trade – more than six months after finding out it had landed the prize. Arrowsmith Engineering won the award – one of the most prestigious business prizes on the planet – after recording a 996 per cent increase in export activity over a three-year period. But, due to Covid-19 restrictions, the company had to wait until December before it could actually lay its hands on the prize as it welcomed Craig Tracey MP, Louise Bennett, Chief Executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber
of Commerce, and the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire Timothy Cox, to present the award at the company’s base in Exhall. Jason Aldridge, Managing Director of Arrowsmith Engineering, said: “This is a massive achievement for everyone here at the company and, although we’ve had to be patient and wait to receive it, it was well worth it. “We’ve also had another bit of good news this week with the company successfully securing the Fit for Nuclear (F4N) Accreditation to help us increase market share in this sector.”
Jason Aldridge, Louise Bennett, LL Timothy Cox, Craig Tracey MP, Martin Porter (Arrowsmith)
Louise Bennett added: “The Queen’s Award is one of the biggest prizes a business can win anywhere in the world. It opens doors across the globe like no other award can and we are very pleased and proud to see Arrowsmith Engineering receiving it. “The company continues to innovate and look at new markets which is exactly what businesses need to do as we look to grow out of the Covid-19 crisis.”
The Lord Lieutenant said: “I am delighted to present the Award on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen. Arrowsmith Engineering are an excellent company and I am pleased that they have been recognised for their outstanding achievements. The Lieutenancy is always keen to find similar companies of all sizes to consider putting themselves forward for this prestigious award.”
Alchemie invests in Warwick site
Alchemie has invested £70,000 in a new high-speed vacuum mixer machine at its Warwick site. With more than 30 years’ manufacturing experience in
the polymer resin industry, the company was finding that it was encountering bottleneck issues in the production process, something caused by batch size productions. As a result, it was having a direct knock-on effect of customer lead times slipping. Therefore the company, which formulates, manufactures and supplies epoxy and polyurethane resin products, identified the need for a machine that could offer the flexibility of mixing volumes. With the new machine, Alchemie has unlocked the ability to be adaptable in its approach to the mixing of small
and large mixing volumes. In turn, this has allowed the company to increase its offering to clients in industry sectors such as composites, Formula 1, rail, oil & gas, pattern-making, foundry and modelmaking. The machines will be used primarily for filled and unfilled epoxy resin formulations and filled and unfilled polyurethane resin formulations. The power of this new mixer will enable materials of low and high viscosity to be mixed thoroughly while under vacuum, resulting in a mix which is a smooth air void-free material. Cliff Jones, general manager at Alchemie, said: “With the
development of specially designed attachments, the machine will give Alchemie the flexibility in the mix volumes it can produce efficiently. This flexibility will reduce the bottleneck created in the production of materials, improve the overall manufacturing process and reduce customer lead times. “This purchase forms part of a large-scale investment the company is embarking on to futureproof our business and help us deliver higher levels of customer satisfaction in the coming years.” For more information visit www.alchemie.com
Driving the future of transport and logistics Serco has engaged with key stakeholders and businesses from the transport and logistics sector in Coventry and Warwickshire to understand future challenges in the labour market, skills shortages and skills gaps as the industry moves towards automation. This work is part of the Skills Support for the Workforce Programme which Serco’s Employment, Skills & Enterprise business manages in Coventry & Warwickshire. Skills Support for the Workforce is a programme developed to upskill employees within small and mediumsized businesses, providing
recognised accredited qualifications and bespoke training courses to enhance employees’ skills, increase the competitiveness of businesses and boost the local economy. As the programme is cofinanced by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), a wide range of training can be accessed at no cost to the business. Through survey work and delivery of an online roundtable event, which was attended by more than 30 delegates, Serco was able to engage key strategic partners including the Local Enterprise Partnership,
Growth Hub, Chamber of Commerce and a range of small and large businesses. The event comprised an impressive breadth of presentations from key stakeholders and businesses working in the transport and logistics sector. As a result, Serco has gained first-hand insight from the sector to inform the design of future regional service delivery that puts employer needs at its heart. Serco is now in discussions with key stakeholders and businesses that attended the event with a view to organising further roundtables to engage with industry on topics such
as the labour market and the future of employment and skills programmes in the region. To get involved with future roundtable events, or to find out more about the Skills Support for the Workforce and Skills Support for Redundancy programmes, please contact Laura Johnson, partnership coordinator, at laura.johnson3@serco.com
Award-winning business broadband with Glide In one of the first awards events of the season, Glide walked away with the award for Best Infrastructure at the 2020 Estates Gazette Tech Awards. Glide’s national network provides 1,500km of uncontended fibre to around 100,000 addressable premises on large, underserved business parks across the country. Thanks to its affordable gigabit technology, Glide brings competitive advantage to its customers, particularly in areas that are harder to reach or neglected by the bigger players. As one of the very few ISPs physically laying its own fibre on its national 100Gbit/s core network, Glide is,
according to CEO Tim Pilcher, “very proud of our network and the benefits it brings to our customers – and we are delighted to have its excellence recognised by Estates Gazette.” However, it’s not just Glide’s infrastructure that wins awards - it’s the whole package, which is why Glide was awarded SME Service Provider of the Year at this year’s Connected Britain awards. This award is given not just for excellent connectivity, but to the company that best meets the needs of the business customer with a wider portfolio of ICT products. It’s reflective of Glide’s broadband not just being faster and more reliable, but its focus on enabling businesses to harness
a range of technology more effectively to ensure they’re ready for the challenges of their industry. According to Connected Britain’s judges, “by providing ultrafast broadband to almost 1,200 businesses in some of the country’s most difficult-to-reach SMEs, Glide was the clear forerunner in this category, helping to keep businesses competitive wherever they are situated.” Glide is committed to continuing the build of its fibre network to support SMEs – the backbone of the UK. To learn more about Glide ultrafast broadband and to check if your postcode is covered by our network, visit glidegroup.co.uk/fibre-leased-lines-voip
www.cw-chamber.co.uk
