Business tel 2102

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Tu esTuesday, day, Febr uary21, 21, 2012 2017 June 19, 2012 Tuesday, August

www.scunthor petelegraph.co.uk/business www.hum berbusiness.com www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/business www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/business

Westminster Cooking up awowed treat: by Powerhouse push Young’s goes gastro see page 21

Breaking the mould Firm’s focus on as job targets exceeded future finances page seesee page 2 2

see page 16

Knauf investment will Offices are final piece help future-proof site of potato empire puzzle

by Dave Laister by Dave Laister Business Editor

Business Editor dave.laister@gsmg.co.uk

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dave.laister@gsmg.co.uk

MULTI-million pound expansion projecthas is underearly £3-million been way at a into majormaking South invested Bank manufacturing northern Lincolnshire a plant. central hub for the needs boosting capacity at its of Knauf someis of the UK’s biggest distinctive Immingham potato sellers. plasterboard more Elsham Woldfacility, has justwhere become the than 100 people are new headquarters foremployed. AKP Group, New plant and infrastructure supplier to supermarket giant is being brought in, notchip only Morrisons and major providing an McCain. economic boost for manufacturer the German giant and the UK A state-of-the-art office block, team, but part of the works will temperature controlled potato also future-proof the site as it storage facility and grading line, adapts to changing raw material together supply. with extensions to existing handling areas have just Gypsum, which is used been completed, with the to manufacture plasterboard, the 13-year-old firm headed by Richard finish for internal and Arundel moving thewalls whole ceilings in homes, hotels, administration back into the area commercial and industrial from York.is a by-product of settings, The son ofpower Grimsby town centre coal-fired generation. Now and Freemanfor Street marketsenergy as demand fossil-based grocer David Arundel, who also declines, as witnessed in close used to acton asthe a potato merchant quarters Humber, Knauf to is the area’s fish and chip shops, increasing import-handling joined forcesaswith capability, wellSuffolk as exploring businessman Bruceopportunities. Kerr in 1999. further recycling The former KPhave potato storage Recent years seen a focus facility which with has now been on sourcing, Grimsby’s substantially Tioxide plantdeveloped, previouslywas a major acquired 2007, when a project supplier,in and – together with the began to grow skin port-proximity – a finished key factor in potatoes on the of in Axholme. the decision toIsle build North “We Lincolnshire wanted to show wein could East back 1990. produce the required It arrived followingquality the success locally that supermarkets were of a first UK plant at buying in from Herefordshire, Sittingbourne in Kent. Scotland even importing,” Built toorthe same technical he said. “Morrisons backed us has with it specification, Immingham and weon went to Yorkshire Forward gone to service the (the scrapped regional construction industry development agency) requirements in the putting north of together a plan. We and thenIreland tied the England, Scotland supply chain up and got the with plasterboard and thermal funding.” laminates, with a 107-strong team. Thatwhile equated to £700,000. With And much of the production is for the domestic market, Morrisons’ rapid growth in the innovation seen products retail world, has the business has been developed to dealand withworking fire propelled quickly, resistance, steel protection and with Eastoft-based L Harrison & sound reduction. Co, the infrastructure to allow for

W:149.53mm H:98mm

Peter’s warm welcome to British Steel

TRANSFORMATION COMPLETE: Richard Arundel, managing director of potato processor AKP. Picture: Jon Corken

See page five

Litigation over Will Mary fear approve business rates issue high street leases?

see see page page 26 22

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64 St Peters Avenue Cleethorpes N.E. Lincolnshire SPEAKERS: Sir Roger Carr, left, DN35 and Gavin 8HPEsler.

Top table is set for CBI dinner

www.rjsolicitors.co.uk

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Sir Roger Carr, president of the CBI and Gavin Esler, best known for his role as a presenter on BBC Newsnight, have been confirmed as the guest speakers at one of the region’s leading business gatherings later this year. The CBI Yorkshire and Humber Annual Dinner takes place at Leeds University on October 10. It will be one of the first events with John Fitzgerald, port director for Grimsby and Immingham, as chairman of the region. Mr Esler is an award-winning television and radio broadcaster, novelist and journalist. His latest book, due to hit the shelves next month, focuses on lessons that can be gleaned from leaders in how they tell stories, and will be the subject of his speech to the area’s business bosses, and their guests. For more information about the dinner, which is frequently well represented by the South Bank and features a drinks reception within Parkinson Court, home to the famous Marks & Spencer archive and art gallery, e-mail katya.menhennet@cbi.org.uk or visit http://yorkshire-annual-dinner.eventbrite.com

your daily port of call £20m milestone passed further increases has now been put in place. “We have taken two years to get to this,” said Mr Arundel. “We got the grant funding for storage and grading operations in 2009, and built the storage throughout 2010, to be open for that harvest. We have had potatoes in from 2010 and 2011, and the whole project has been finished with the offices just now. “Our desire is to have more quality potato producers local to this site. It would cut down on transport costs. There is still a lot of potential, it will help the environmental footprint and this part of the world has the ability to A spokesman grow some of thetold bestBusiness potatoes in Telegraph: “We is are adding extra the country, that what we are capacity to the calcination process majoring on.” area of the It will A total of 44site. people aregenerate now

employed, handling 120,000 tonnes of potatoes a year. Of that, 35,000 tonnes are self-grown, with a growing group in this region and around another site in Suffolk, contributing the balance. Recently 15 employees were added, with three graduate trainees also part of the company, specialising in growing, logistics and technical elements, including agronomy. The remaining investment has seen a fleet of six Mercedes rigs brought in to deliver the potatoes to customers, with the primary route Morrisons’ packing operations near Harrogate. Keen to cultivate a prosperous future for Lincolnshire potato extra capacity and should be farmers, the 32,000sq ft storage completed by August.” facility and 4,000 sq ft two storey Immingham was–last extended office development which drew in 2006, with a new unit Office massively inspiration from Genesis

Park on Grimsby’s flagship Europarc development, will be officially opened this week by increasing and capacity then. The Agriculture Horticulture latest energyBoard management Development chairman technology incorporated, John Godfreywas CBE, himself a the whole plant insulated and two North Lincolnshire farmer. huge heat exchangers added, Mr Arundel added: “We’re savingforward 10 per cent of the plant’s looking to opening the energy new cold requirements. store and grading facility The new project is being – the uncharacteristic weather delivered have by North Killingholme’s conditions brought us a Cube3 Construction. challenging year, but the opening Graham director, said: event is justMarshall, rewards for everyone’s “Wework. have worked extensively for hard them new sincefacility we set will up six “The notyears only ago, building on the a previous enable us to meet demand of relationship. We have done lots of our biggest customers, but we’ve small and medium-sized also successfully improvedcontracts the and we have been helping quality and freshness of ourthem with this expansion since potatoes bymajor reducing the early part handling of last year.” transportation, and using ● latest See page the cold24. store technologies.”

A FURTHER £4-million of investment across the region this last quarter has seen the total funds issued by Finance Yorkshire climb to £23-million. for the latest andinbreaking The money, available to firms northern Lincolnshire in seedcorn, loan and equity linked business news around the – investments – ranging from £15,000 to £2-million is there to help small and medium sized businesses Humber regionrequirements. meet their growth and development The figure amounts to 224 investments in 183 small and medium sized enterprises since August visit humberbusiness.com 2010, leading to more than 4,600 jobs created and safeguarded in the region. In the last quarter alone, the venture capital and loan fund completed 30 investments totalling more than £4.3 million. Alex McWhirter, chief executive of Finance Yorkshire, said: “We are looking forward to building on these figures and helping more companies achieve growth in the coming months. “We urge established and early stage companies to continue to speak to us to see if Finance Yorkshire can help turn their ambitions into a reality.” Supported by the European Union, it has attracted £30-million investment from the European Regional Development Fund, £15-million from Yorkshire Forward’s Single Programme, and £45-million match funding from the European Investment Bank. For information visit www.finance-yorkshire.com

CONTENTS:Energy P8 Food Chemicals Process Ports &10 Logistics 13Support Energy 16-17 Business Support 18 Training15 19Food Care16 ersTraining 20 Commercial VehiclesVehicles 23 Commercial Property 28 Laister’s Last Word CONTENTS: P610 Chemicals P8/Ports and12 Logistics Business 12 Careers 14 Business Solutions 17 Commercial 18 Diary 20 Commercial Property 21

Do you understand what costs may be involved? Do you understand the opportunities? Do you know that right now there is funding support for wages for certain apprenticeships?

PROFESSIONAL PROVIDER OF & Environmental Training Apprenticeship funding changesSafety, from May Health Thursday 16th March 5:30 – 6:30pm GTE-E01-S3 STE-E01-S3

Apprenticeship qualifications have already COURSES AVAILABLE IN: E K^, EĂƟŽŶĂů ŝƉůŽŵĂ ͻ E K^, EĂƟŽŶĂů ĞƌƟĮĐĂƚĞ ͻ /K^, DĂŶĂŐŝŶŐ ^ĂĨĞůLJ Employer Briefing See Page 3 for more details... started to change Contact marketing@northlindsey.ac.uk to book a place


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