IT consultancy plans for expansion
Family-run IT consultancy 3RS IT Solutions is planning for expansion following its first anniversary.
Wellingborough-based 3RS, which was launched by husband-and-wife team, Steve and Leila Souch in 2023, is looking to extend the company further into the East Midlands with the opening of a second branch office at Business Box in Leicester, following the opening of offices in Wellingborough and Nottingham.
Director, Steve Souch said: “North Northamptonshire will always be home to 3RS IT Solutions but the opening of our branches in Nottingham and Leicester really positions us as one of the most ambitious and dynamic IT consultancies in the region.
“We’ve seen considerable growth over the past year, with new clients coming on board and we believe that now is the right time to accelerate our growth and extend our reach and influence into other parts of the East Midlands.
“The opening of the new office is central to that plan, allowing us to create new jobs in Leicester, which is perfectly located in the heart of England and where demand for our services is high.
“The success of 3RS IT Solutions is down in no small part to the hard work and dedication of the whole team. Our strong family values, together with the team’s considerable expertise, are a winning combination and we can’t wait to see where the opening of our new office takes us.”
Marketing director, Leila Souch said: “To be able to take this next step in our business – which was set up with our sons Reuben, Riley and Rory – the 3RS – at its heart is very special.
“At 3RS, family really does mean everything. We’re so much more than just a business – we want to provide livelihoods for our team and their families, create a culture we can all be proud of and first-class service for our clients.
“We can’t wait to share our products and services with our new clients in Leicester very soon.”
RBC Brewin Dolphin wins as charity event reaches halfway of £100,000 target
The annual 3 Bunkers Golf Challenge has reached the halfway mark of its £100,000 target having raised £9,000 so far from the 2024 event which was won by a team from the Nottingham office of wealth managers RBC Brewin Dolphin who scored the most points and had the least deductions for going in a bunker.
The 2024 event took place on Friday 24 May and saw teams from Actons Solicitors, Fiscal Engineers, MAF Finance Group, Shakespeare Martineau Solicitors, RBC Brewin Dolphin and Simple Marketing Consultancy play Morley Hayes Golf Club, Charnwood Forest Golf Club and The Nottinghamshire Golf & Country Club, reaching three corners of the East Midlands counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire & Leicestershire, covering just over 70 miles within 10 hours.
Commenting, event organiser Elliot Cook said: “Whilst we were privileged to have had an enjoyable day playing golf, we were also very conscious of that fact we are doing this to raise money to help find a cure for cancer and to help young people escape abuse and neglect.
“I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who took part, to the golf courses for donating the tees, and to everyone who has donated so far and in the future as we press on to achieve our £100,000 target.”
The 3 Bunkers challenge was established in 2020 by Elliot & Bev Cook from Simple Marketing Consultancy.
All money raised will be donated to the charity Big C Little C which was founded in 2019 by business entrepreneurs, Andrew Springhall from Breedon Electrical Fire & Security and Colin Shaw, former Chairman of PKF Cooper Parry, who joined forces to create a charity that would encourage East Midlands businesses to organise events to raise money for Cancer Research, the NSPCC and other children related charities.
The organisers also thanked Econix Bio Bin, Ruddington Grange, Oulton Hall, Nuneaton, and The Nottinghamshire golf clubs for donating prizes for the auction.
The fundraising link is: https://givestar.io/ev/the-3-bunkers-challenge-2024
Law firm makes raft of promotions
Law firm Freeths has made almost 100 promotions across the business as it continues to bolster its offering throughout the UK.
A total of 95 colleagues have been promoted across all legal and business support service areas within the firm’s 13 offices including four partner and 73 lawyer promotions.
This year, over 50% of these promotions are women, demonstrating the firm’s ongoing commitment to gender equality.
Within the senior promotions, alongside 13 Legal Director promotions, there are four Partner Promotions: The Real Estate Team has seen Sarah Rowe achieve Partner; the specialist Environmental and Planning Team has welcomed Ben Derrington to Partner level; Henry Clappinson has become Partner in Freeths’ Restructuring and Insolvency Team, and the firm’s Family Practice promotions included Mark Heppinstall to Partner.
Freeths has also made a number of lateral hires over the past 12 months, including within the last three months alone Clean Energy Partner Deborah Harvey from Osborne Clarke, Patents Director Richard Ellis from Murgitroyd, Tax Partner Stephen Jones from DLA Piper, Corporate Partner Martin Smith and Insolvency Partner Su Garner, both from Knights Plc.
Karl Jansen, National Managing Partner of Freeths, said: “As a firm, we’re passionate about developing our homegrown talent and it’s imperative that our people feel properly supported in order to be able to progress their careers and provide the very best for our clients.
“I’d like to extend our huge congratulations to everybody at Freeths who has achieved promotion this year, and our thanks to all our colleagues for their hard work, commitment, and valued contributions throughout the year. These successful promotions recognise the breadth of our capabilities as we continue to build upon the strength of our offering.”
UK logistics market remains ‘prime’ destination for global investment
The UK remains a ‘prime’ destination for global investment, as deal appetite returns for logistics and supply chain management businesses.
In the first quarter of 2024, 38% of deals in the sector were cross-border, highlighting the growing interest from international investors. High profile transactions included Elanders’ acquisitions of Bishopsgate Specialist Logistics, Yusen-owned ILG’s acquisition of Global Freight Solutions and Hapag Lloyds’ acquisition of ATL Haulage Contractors.
The rise in cross-border activity comes as overall deal activity in the sector fell marginally in Q1. Between January and March 2024, 26 transaction were completed, compared to 27 in the previous quarter. However, total disclosed deal value rose to £372 million, up from £53 million for the previous three months.
According to the latest report from accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, the ‘UK M&A Update – Q1 2024’, in the first quarter of the year 42% of deals were tech-related, demonstrating that innovation is a driving force in the market, as companies seek to optimise operational performance to improve margins.
Jason Whitworth, M&A partner at BDO LLP, said: “Following on from 2023, we continue to see venture capital targeting next generation technology and growth. Investment activity within the robotics and the drone delivery operations sector is still gaining momentum.
“Albeit in its infancy, there is an argument that drone technology is paving the way for a revolution in delivery services, offering a sneak peek at a future where speed, efficiency and accessibility are dramatically enhanced.”
He continued: “When it comes to overseas interest, with a scarcity of quality mid-market businesses not already controlled by larger global groups, there has been heightened interest in remaining opportunities, creating a real value end game for those businesses building scale and a differentiated service offering.”
Deals also included London-based Skyports Series C funding led by Spain-based ACS Group, a key player in the infrastructure and construction industry. The $110m funding is set to be instrumental in advancing Skyport’s Infrastructure and Drone Service business.
Elsewhere, UK logistic company EFS Global acquired pallet and parcel distribution specialists Leeds Parcel Company, Pass the Parcel and YDL; and UK delivery and logistics service provider Yodel Delivery was acquired by YDLGP, a newly formed company backed by a consortium of investors, including boutique investment bank Solano Partners Ltd, and the leadership team behind Shift, the growing UK-based logistics platform.
Whitworth added: “Since the latter part of 2023, we have seen a steady stream of deal activity as companies strive to shake off the uncertainties of the past and gear up for the future. There has been an increasing number of bolt-on strategic acquisitions to bolster business growth and build scale.
“What is noticeable about deal activity in Q1 is the lack of primary private equity investment, with only one direct investment deal during the quarter by HIG, which acquired DX Group.
“Private equity firms appear to be in a holding pattern, waiting for clearer signs of industry-wide trading performance improvement before committing to new investment. However, private equity backed or cash-rich logistic firms are continuing to consolidate, developing their buy-and-build strategies.”
Silverstone electric vehicle firm restarts operations following restructure
Silverstone-based electric vehicle firm, Lunaz, backed by David Beckham, has restarted operations after a company restructure. It follows an entry into administration in March.
According to a report from administrators FRP, in early 2024 the company sought to raise additional funding through a series-B fund raise but was unsuccessful. In response, the board of directors reviewed the company’s financial position and concluded that it was unable to continue to fund the ongoing costs of the group, unable to repay its loans and that the company was insolvent.
Following the restructure, Lunaz will now continue electrifying classic cars and up-cycling commercial vehicles under a new structure and business entities, as reported by City A.M., with the business saying that order books are open.
Classic car electrification will resume under Lunaz Design, and commercial vehicle operations, such as bin lorries, through Up-cycled Electric Vehicles.
David Lorenz, founder, said: “We are delighted to have worked with our clients and stakeholders to create a new structure that lays the foundations for the long-term sustainable growth of the business.”
Partners secure £1m grant to reduce carbon impact of buildings with AI
An effort led by Morgan Sindall Construction, Nottingham Trent University, and the software company ConstructSys to use AI for reducing the carbon impact of buildings received a boost with a nearly £1 million grant from Innovate UK.
The award will support the significant enhancement of an existing and proven Whole Life Carbon measurement tool, CarboniCa, which was launched by Morgan Sindall Construction in 2021. CarboniCa is already being used on 100+ large building projects each year and has to date saved over 30,000 tonnes of carbon.
The Innovate UK funding will allow the partners to develop novel algorithms that automate the process of data collection and evaluation in Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCA), supporting people in decision making, which speeds up the process and achieves productivity gains.
The UK construction industry is on the cusp of a new era where WLCAs have a much greater weighting. WLCAs combine carbon measures for day-to-day occupancy with those for embodied emissions from materials and energy used to produce and assemble materials in construction and over the life of an asset.
They are on the critical path of efforts to achieve Net Zero as around 25% of UK carbon emissions are linked to the built environment and materials such as steel and cement alone account for around 15% of global carbon emissions.
Inputting data and producing high-quality assessments is a time intensive activity. By harnessing AI capability, the new system will accelerate creating WLCAs by as much as 85%. The significant time and carbon savings will in turn pave the way towards much higher levels of WLCA adoption in the sector as a whole and therefore greatly assist in the UK’s efforts to achieve carbon reductions.
Innovate UK has made a grant of £947,000 against the three partners’ research and development costs of £1,418,000. The award recognises that innovation is required to support the rapid adoption of WLCAs within the UK construction industry, with governments around the world increasingly mandating their use.
It also noted that carbon pricing, which makes emitters pay for the true cost of pollution, is being considered for introduction into the building sector. Its arrival in the UK would further stimulate WLCA demand and introduce commercial incentives to reduce carbon.
Tim Clement, Director of Social Value & Sustainability at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “We started working on the research and development phase of CarboniCa back in 2017 and the Innovate UK funding award recognises the enormous potential for further development of the tool we have already in service and helping reduce carbon in a transparent, credible way.
“Innovation in this area has much to contribute in terms of increasing confidence in decision-making around sustainability, something that can only happen with credible data outputs being made more readily available. We have an established and highly effective working relationship with our research and development partners at Nottingham Trent and ConstructSys respectively.
“Our next step is building a cutting edge AI engine into a state of the art system that drastically reduces the time taken to produce an accurate WLCA. The funding means we can develop a series of new algorithms to exploit the growing dataset of actual project data already inputted into the CarboniCa tool, streamlining the process of creating early-stage benchmarks for different building types. The algorithms will also generate insights based on human-curated product databases, to further the tool’s mission as a carbon reduction tool.”
NTU’s research team operates within the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment. It is co-led led by Professor Amin Al-Habaibeh, Professor of Intelligent Engineering systems, and Dr Emmanuel Manu, Associate Professor in Construction Management.
Professor Al-Habaibeh said: “This is a great opportunity to implement cutting-edge deep learning AI technology to enhance productivity, improve competitiveness and speed up the evaluation process of building’s carbon footprint. This will enable a better material selection and more optimum designs to address climate change.
“This collaboration with Morgan Sindall and partner organisations will bridge the gap between academic innovation and implementation and will also benefit NTU’s future AI teaching and training in wide range of disciplines as sustainability is at the heart of everything we do.”
Dr Emmanuel Manu said: “The construction and operation of buildings contribute to about 33% of greenhouse gas emissions and 40% of global energy consumption. This makes it important to address the whole life cycle of construction projects starting from the design stage to reduce carbon emissions.”
AI is a general term for describing when a machine mimics human cognitive functions, like problem-solving, pattern recognition, and learning. Machine learning is a subset of AI and uses statistical techniques to give computer systems the ability to ‘learn’ from data, without being explicitly programmed.
A machine becomes better at understanding and providing insights as it is exposed to more data. The advance of these technologies in the construction industry is one of the industry’s most compelling trends.
“Digital systems such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) have been around for a long time now and, when harnessed effectively, make a hugely positive impact in terms of successfully delivering projects,” added Tim Clement.
“When it comes to the creation and adoption of next generation solutions, such as harnessing AI and machine learning, there are even bigger challenges, such as making sure we use the technology in a highly transparent, human-centred way. That’s why the innovation we are applying to here is important and can help set a path to a lower carbon future.”
Terinex Flexibles opens net zero CO2 rated factory building near Derby
Terinex Flexibles has opened its new sustainable EPC A+ rated factory building. Believed to be the UK’s first net zero CO2 rated building to house a flexographic printing facility, it is located on a new 3-acre site on Dove Valley Park, near Derby.
The 46,000 sq ft building is big enough to accommodate the company’s future growth and innovation plans in the most sustainable way possible.
The factory and office building was opened by Frank McArdle, retired chief executive of South Derbyshire District Council. McArdle was instrumental in supporting OGM Holdings Group with the new build project at Dove Valley Park, having championed growth in the region for many years.
Other local representatives were also in attendance at the opening such as Dr Justin Ives, South Derbyshire District Council’s chief executive. Also at the opening event, were those involved in the design and build of the factory and Terinex Flexibles’ suppliers.
Parent company, OGM Holdings Group, has invested over £10m in the new facility which is more than double the size of the original Terinex Flexibles factory that was located in Ripley.
As part of OGM’s focus on creating more sustainable manufacturing sites, the Terinex Flexibles facility – designed by IMA Architects and developed by Clowes Developments UK LTD – has been built and equipped using the latest materials, machinery, technology and processes.
This has resulted in low overall energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The factory generates its own energy from renewable sources and will be able to recover and reuse energy for many years to come.
To recover energy from the byproducts of the printing process for reuse, an innovative heat recovery system has been installed, linked to an advanced regenerative thermal oxidiser (RTO). Depending on the amount of printing that is done at any one time, it is expected that between 45 – 230 kW of energy will be generated.
This energy is captured and stored as hot water in two 10,000l buffer vessels and used for heating large volumes of air that are required for drying the ink in the printing process, as well as being reused for heating rather than drawing gas from the mains.
The roof has been fitted with a solar PV panel array of 215 kWp for generating power to operate the factory, including power for the 54kW immersion heaters in the buffer vessels.
All the offices are serviced with Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR), providing a minimum of 75% energy efficient ventilation to sealed rooms. Also, the lighting power consumption is well below industry benchmarks, a night set-back system has been included to minimise overnight heating consumption and electric charging points are in situ for staff and visitor cars.
The careful use of technology and materials for the fabric of the building, windows and doors has led to a building air permeability of no greater than 5.0 m3/(h.m2) at 50 Pa. This is far below the minimum standard set by The Building Regulations Approved Document Part L2A of 10.0 m3/(h.m2) at 50 Pa.
Paul Wightman, Group Managing Director of the OGM Holdings Group, says: “We are proud to have created a state-of-the-art facility in terms of energy efficiency. As well as the fabric and services of the building, we are investing in efficient plant equipment and other energy saving devices. For example, variable speed inverter drives have been added on all pumps and fan motors to further reduce consumption.
“Being an environmentally conscious business is no longer enough. We believe achieving demonstrable 30% reductions in the carbon footprint of our Group factories by 2025 is now mandatory. We are also doing everything we can to offer our customers more sustainable flexible film options.
“These include compostable, recyclable and PCR (post-consumer 30% to 90% recycled content) materials, compostable inks, recyclable papers and reusable pallets. In terms of emissions management, we take this very seriously and as a result of investment in the latest technology for cleaning our exhaust gases, our solvent mass emissions to atmosphere will be below 20mg/Nm3, which is the most stringent target for VOCs emissions.”
£3m campaign to attract global R&D investment to the Midlands
A groundbreaking coalition of seventeen universities from the Midlands has launched a new £3m international campaign to attract inward investment into R&D, innovation and science – leveraging their global connections to drive economic growth across their region.
Led by Midlands Innovation and the Midlands Engine Partnership and hosted at Loughborough University, the Invest in UK University R&D – Midlands Campaign has been developed with a range of regional partners including the West Midlands Growth Company, Midlands Enterprise Universities and the East Midlands Freeport.
It was launched at the UK Real Estate, Infrastructure and Investment Forum (UKREIIF), which was attended by nearly 13,000 investors, delegates and developers.
Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Andrew Griffith MP, announced an award of £1.5 million from the UK’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) to support the campaign over the next two years, which has been matched by universities and regional partners.
The campaign will see universities across the Midlands joining forces to create a more ambitious offer to global investors. It will showcase the five sectors where the Midlands is world-renowned for the strength of its research and innovation: Health and life sciences, Agritech, Creative and digital, Transport technologies and Zero carbon energy. They will also leverage their international alumni, industry and university connections focused in six markets (Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the USA) to engage investors and raise the profile of the Midlands.
Aligning with the priorities of the new West and East Midlands Mayors and other local leaders, it will help promote the region as an outstanding destination for global investment. It will support efforts from government and local growth agencies to secure game-changing funding for innovation focused major regeneration projects across the region that have universities as a core partner. These include sites within both West and East Midlands Investment Zones.
The campaign will also work closely with Midlands Mindforge, an independent patient capital investment company, established by the eight research intensive universities in the Midlands Innovation partnership. Midlands Mindforge aims to deploy £250m to “invest with impact,” founding and scaling transformational science backed companies in sectors such as Clean Technologies, AI & Computational Science, Life Sciences & Health Tech. It will create highly skilled jobs in the Midlands and support the UK’s ambition to become a science and technology superpower.
The campaign announcement was welcomed at the launch event at UKREIIF by Loughborough University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Nick Jennings and Professor Dan Parsons, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.
Professor Jennings said: “I am delighted that that our consortium of universities and regional partners have been able to secure this highly competitive funding and that Loughborough University will host the Invest in UK University R&D – Midlands Campaign.
“It is testament to the trailblazing nature of the partners in the Midlands that this is being seen as a pilot to inform future national policy and practice. We are stronger together and will attract the foreign direct investment through partnership working.”
Campaign programme lead Professor Parsons added: “The £1.5m grant from the Government’s highly prestigious International Science Partnership Fund, match funded by our Midlands consortium, will accelerate and broaden our scale up activities across the collective research and innovation strengths in the regional universities. Together we will create a compelling and ambitious offer to global investors.”
Professor Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Business and Trade, who will Chair the campaign’s Advisory Group, addressed over 300 investors and partners at the Midlands Engine Reception at UKREIIF: “By supporting inward investment into science, technology and innovation, the Department for Business and Trade is key to delivering the Government’s ambition for the UK to become a Science and Technology Superpower by 2030.
“This collaboration from the Midlands is a great example of how places, universities and the public sector can come together to drive greater investment into R&D across the regions.”
Midlands Engine Partnership Chairman, Sir John Peace, said: “This funding will provide a platform for us to showcase the unique strengths of the Midlands and position our region on the global investment map. This programme is a perfect example of how the power of partnership between the Midlands Engine and our fantastic universities is helping extend the global reach of our region.”
Fresh prepared food firm acquires humous brand
Bakkavor Group, the provider of fresh prepared food with a number of sites in Lincolnshire and Newark, has acquired Moorish, the UK humous brand.
The Moorish brand was founded in 2012 by Julie Waddell and the product range includes the award-winning, UK-first, smoked humous. Today Moorish products are distributed across a number of major supermarket outlets and independent retailers, with revenue of over £2m.
Moorish will sit alongside other brands that Bakkavor is working with, including Pizza Express, The Delicious Dessert Company, The Pizza Company and more recently Pinch. The Managing Director of Moorish, Andy Atherton, will remain in a consultancy role to support the brand transition to Bakkavor’s new ownership.
Julie Waddell, founder of Moorish, said: “Since starting from my kitchen table in 2012, it’s been quite a journey to see the business grow into what it is today. I’m incredibly proud of what Moorish has achieved and have thoroughly enjoyed growing the brand and product range from scratch to success with my team.
“I feel very fortunate that for the last 12 years my job has been to create innovative, delicious products that are loved by consumers across the UK. In Bakkavor, there are so many great opportunities still to explore with the brand and I will enjoy watching Moorish flourish as the new owners take it to the next level.”
Mike Edwards, CEO of Bakkavor Group plc, said: “The high-quality, innovative Moorish products will be a great addition to our existing brands and will complement our existing dips business.
“The Moorish brand has so much more potential than just humous and we are excited about expanding it into other relevant Bakkavor categories in the future. We’d like to congratulate Julie, Andy and the team on the great brand they have built and are looking forward to it growing further under our ownership.”
A corporate finance team from Dow Schofield Watts’ Leicester office led by partner Harry Walker, director Fahim Kassam and associate director Daniel Chouciño, together with a legal team from Gunnercooke in Leicester led by Jahid Ali, advised the shareholders of Moorish. Bakkavor Group plc were advised by a team from Gowling WLG’s Birmingham office, led by Chris Towle and Andreea Serban.
Commenting on the deal, Harry Walker added: “We’re really pleased to have found a fantastic partner for Moorish moving forwards. Working with Julie, Andy and the team to prepare the business for sale and then identify the right home has been a pleasure. We are looking forward to seeing Moorish in even more outlets in the future and continuing to enjoy their amazing products!”
Works progressing on new £3.6m medical centre in Leicestershire
Midlands contractor, G F Tomlinson, is progressing works on the new Barwell Medical Centre in Leicestershire.
The new two-storey doctor’s surgery, located off High Street, Barwell, will replace the existing centre on Jersey Way, which is at capacity and unable to meet the growing demand for its services from the local community.
Due for completion in June 2024, the new medical centre will provide modern healthcare facilities to many more local people, with demand expected to grow from its current 6,400 to 11,000 users over the next five to ten years.
The additional space at the new centre will allow it to provide a greater range of much-needed health services, including physiotherapy and mental health support.
The new L-shaped building will consist of 12 consulting rooms, a space for minor surgical procedures with recovery facilities, a health promotion area, as well as 52 car parking spaces and six cycle racks. The centre will be constructed to BREEAM Excellent standards, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the new Medical Centre.
Demolition works at the unused brownfield site have already taken place which saw the removal of a former vehicle workshop and warehouse.
Adrian Grocock, Group Managing Director at G F Tomlinson, said: “To be delivering this new contemporary medical facility which will enable more local people to access vital medical care, as well as its expanding specialist services, is a privilege.
“G F Tomlinson is vastly experienced in the delivery of healthcare schemes and understand the incredibly important role they play in the local community. The team and I are looking forward to seeing this significant facility progress over the coming months.”
