North-East faces challenges for a brighter future

WHEN I noticed that the reporter who had signed-in at Nissan’s reception desk before me was a bloke called Xavier Champagne I suspected that this was not going to be a typical day on the North-East business beat.

That instinct was proved correct.

The Prime Minister with a Daruma doll

I was later joined on a factory tour by a man whose chief claim to fame was playing a hatched-faced robot in a TV sitcom, and a former Radio 1 DJ who makes Alan Partridge look hip.

TV presenter Robert Llewellyn, aka Kryten from Red Dwarf, and top 40 countdown DJ Mark Goodier, were among the guests, along with scores of foreign journalists, including my effervescent mate Xavier, invited to the launch of the Sunderland-built Nissan Leaf.

The original batches of the electric Leaf hatchback have been on sale in the UK since 2011.

However, its green credentials were undermined by the fact that it was transported from Japan.

The toxic emissions from the transport ship alone scuppered Nissan’s claim that this was the most environmentally- friendly model on the market.

The Wearside version, which first rolled off the line on the Thursday before Easter, finally offered the region’s motorists a chance to feel smug about their carbon footprints.

Nissan are past masters at these showpiece events.

As we assembled in a makeshift theatre, a Leaf appeared stage left with star guest David Cameron in the passenger seat.

The stage backdrop fell away to reveal the production line in all its glory.

It was undeniably impressive stuff.

The Prime Minister then took part in a traditional Japanese good luck ceremony, when he coloured in the eye of a Daruma doll – a weird-looking thing with a massive crimson head and blank expression.

I think you know where I’m going with this gag, so we will move swiftly on.

As if the day had not been sufficiently bizarre, we were then ferried back through the sprawling Nissan site in a coach showing a video of classic war film The Great Escape.

Gary Dawson, managing director of Middlesbroughbased AV Dawson

We only managed to watch a short burst. I did not get the chance to see if Steve Mc- Queen cleared the barbed wire fence this time around.

If he had I would not have batted an eyelid.

By that point nothing would have surprised me.

Cable ties

IF you are wondering what to get Vince Cable for Christmas then a new tie could be just the job.

I would say head over to Tie Rack, but the staple of airport departure areas, along with Blockbuster video and niknak emporium Collectables, was among this year’s High Street casualties.

In November, the Business Secretary came to Newton Aycliffe, to unveil a scale model of the train factory that Hitachi will open in 2016.

He was sporting the same polka dot tie he had worn on each of his last four visits to the region.

Perhaps he can treat himself to a new one if that 11 per cent pay rise goes ahead?

Among the audience of business leaders and Japanese journalists was MP James Wharton, whose private member’s bill to hold a referendum on the UK’s membership with the EU was making its way through the Commons.

I commented in that week’s paper it was ironic that the Tory backbencher was happy to celebrate the £82m investment Hitachi was making in the North-East, while championing a cause that jeopardised the region’s chances of securing similarly vital boosts in the future.

The Japanese firm’s move, which will create thousands of factory, supply chain and construction jobs, would not have occurred if we had severed ties with Brussels.

That’s not an opinion, it’s what Hitachi Rail bosses have repeatedly said.

Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn made similar comments a few days later when he warned his company could quit the North-East if Britain left the EU.

It is great to see homegrown success stories, such as Aycliffe’s Ebac, which will become Britain’s only manufacturer of freezers and washing machines next year.

But overseas investment is vital too.

In June, we highlighted this by producing a supplement, which included a Japanese language translation, showcasing some 50 businesses in the North-East with owners, or parent companies, in Japan.

Many of them came here to establish bridgeheads into European markets. In doing so they created thousands of jobs.

Risking those relationships could prove disastrous for our region.

As Dr Cable would agree there is no point loosening ties just for the sake of it.

Famous name preserved

THE Whessoe name can trace its origins back to an ironmonger’s shop opened by Quaker William Kitching in 1790.

It grew into an international group of companies which designed and manufactured nearly every type of engineering product, from underground tunnels to reactor vessels for Britain’s first nuclear power station.

Business Secretary Vince Cable in Newton Aycliffe to unveil a scale model of the factory that Hitachi will open in 2016.

In March, when Samsung’s construction and trading division bought what remains of the once-mighty Whessoe, it chose to retain the famous name.

“Whessoe has a far better brand value in this particular market than Samsung, we have brought that pedigree into the group,” Steve Kim, new chief executive of the Darlington firm told me, after a division of the Korean firm better known for making mobile phones bought a piece of industrial history.

Pedigree is an apt word to use for Whessoe.

A history book of the firm would offer readers a pretty comprehensive overview of British engineering.

Whessoe helped pioneer everything from the railways to high-tech cryogenic storage tanks.

It supported the war effort by making hulls for Churchill tanks as well as parts for Mulberry Harbours and landing craft used during the D-Day landings.

Where once it had 3,000 workers it now employs a team of less than 100 design and project management staff.

But the name has survived.

That is something to celebrate.

Tees Dock

IT dominates the wall when you walk in, a black and white reminder of Tees Dock and its workers’ kaleidoscopic memories.

A group of dockers are posing in the photograph, their gazes every bit as individual as their appearances.

Some stand, others choose to kneel, their flat caps, cigarettes, and mix of vests, jumpers and overcoats a reminder of a different employment landscape.

They had moved from Middlesbrough Dock, today’s Middlehaven development, to be part of the vision created by the Tees Conservancy Commissioners.

Sitting in the same maroon leather chairs as the commissioners once did and surrounded by the room’s deep brown wood panelling, I met former dockers in PD Ports’ Middlesbrough Queens Square headquarters.

Tees Dock was the first dock to be built in the UK since the Second World War, and reached 50 years’ service in October, having previously overseen cargo such as helicopters for the Falkland Islands, the first Datsun cars, and Bluebirds made by Sunderland’s Nissan.

John Wade, Tony Shannon and Ken Ivison regaled me with tales of Carlsberg and caviar, and a colleague known as the Hungry Goose.

Mr Wade, from Stainton, near Middlesbrough, said: “It was the best place in the world to work and the togetherness of the lads was unbelievable.

“When I got there on the first day, there was a brick shed and two cranes.

Later, I remember working with Norman Bage, who we nicknamed him the Hungry Goose.

“He took the first Datsun off and that was fantastic.”

It was hard work, but there were some lighter moments.

Mr Shannon, from Stockton, said: “It was really hard graft and so physical, but you got used to it.

“I reckon if they put the bags we lifted on the back of a donkey at Redcar beach, they would be liable for cruelty.

Steve Kim chief executive of Whessoe, in Darlington

“When the Carlsberg ship came in, we all volunteered for that job.

“The alcohol stayed in the hatch, and we always needed a bit more time to work on that one.”

And Ken Ivison, from Nunthorpe, also near Middlesbrough, recalled another apparent treat.

He said: “One of the ship’s hatches was full of caviar.

“We had never seen anything like that before, never mind tried it.

“Some liked it, but I wasn’t keen.”

A truly fascinating insight into their lives and the industry.

Still going strong

NORTH-EAST firms have faced many challenges throughout the year, with increased employment and significant contract wins countered by job losses and closures.

But the shifting environment did not affect some of the region’s longer-standing companies.

AV Dawson, on the banks of the River Tees, in Middlesbrough, marked its 75th year with continued investment.

The third-generation company, founded when Arthur Dawson paid £50 for horse Dina, her shoes, and a cart to pull coal around the region, is one of the UK’s leading haulage, shipping, warehouse and rail service firms.

This year, it launched a £10m investment programme, complete with a £2.5m Tees Riverside Intermodal Park rail terminal linking to the East Coast Main Line, which can handle trains carrying up to 80 containers and store up to 1,200 loaded containers.

It also carried out work on a £3.2m deep water quay while lengthening its quayside to attract larger ships.

Another family company maintaining its success was T Manners and Sons, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, which built wings for the Sopwith Camel and SE5 fighter aircraft in the First World War.

It used 2013 to build on its 153- year history.

Entering the year on the back of contracts worth £2.5m, the construction and joinery company created posts after being buoyed by energy efficiency work and deals to work on a number of North-East schools.

Peter Spoors, head of the firm’s marketing and business development, said: “We have done 150 years and we have every intention of repeating that.”

Fourth-generation engineering firm Francis Brown, in Stockton, also strengthened its 110-year standing.

The company, spawned from a wire store in 1903, designs and makes cranes and winches for launching and recovering remote operated vehicles in the subsea energy market, and pressure vessels and incinerators for chemical firms.

Those skills came to the fore earlier this year when the company secured a deal to build launch and recovery machinery for Soil Machine Dynamics, in Wallsend, near Newcastle, which were sent to Brazil.

It also won its largest export order from a Chinese company to use its experience of working with pressure vessels.

And 159-year-old Pickerings Lifts, in Stockton, also created jobs and aimed to expand further after adding a maintenance division to supply heating, ventilation and air conditioning services.

Pickerings, established as a pulley, block and chainmaker the same year that Britain went to war in the Crimea, makes specialist passenger, goods and access lifts, escalators and loading systems, and has seen turnover increase from about £23m to more than £30m.

It employs about 320 workers in seven UK offices, including 110 in the North-East, carrying out projects for London’s O2 Arena and the National Railway Museum, in York.

Success stories

ONE of the best aspects of The Northern Echo’s business desk is the opportunities it offers to meet companies and reveal just why North-East industry is renowned across the world.

We have revealed how thermal imaging firm Solo Ti, in Darlington, supplies worldwide cruise operators and international fire services and Navy crews with life-saving equipment, after it had already worked with the White House, Nasa, the SAS and Ferrari.

Deputy Business Editor Steve Hugill, centre, gets involved in the training at Falck Safety Services, on Haverton Hill Industrial Estate

Our pages have featured Crafter’s Companions, in Coundon, near Bishop Auckland, as entrepreneur Sara Davies, who set the crafting supplies business up in her bedroom, secured a £150,000 deal with a major US retailer to send thousands of its flagship paper crafting tool to more than 1,100 stores.

We have also followed Emerald Biogas, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, as its £8m food waste energy plant grew from inception.

The factory is initially converting 50,000 tonnes into heat, power, and bio-fertiliser every year, which bosses say would be enough to power up to 2,000 homes, has officially opened.

But we have also been different and gone into industry.

We learnt survival techniques at offshore firm Falck Safety Services, near Billingham, Stockton, made ice cream at R&R, in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, and produced beer at Black Sheep Brewery, in Masham, North Yorkshire.

A great insight.