Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The selection process for Business Weekly’s 2005 East of England Business Awards has begun. The continuing internationalisation of the East of England business scene provides a mouth-watering backdrop to Business Weekly’s 2005 East of England Business Awards.

We welcome entries from the smallest start-ups and spin-outs, who may well be pre-revenue, to large private companies and quoted corporations. The playing field is levelled up across five categories so that companies compete on an equal basis. No sector is barred. This isn’t a jamboree for technology at the expense of traditional business.

Recent years – indeed the winners’ roll of honour over 15 years – demonstrates that manufacturing, engineering, aerospace, transport, childcare, inkjet, electronics, Life Sciences, HR, construction, healthcare & medical devices, design & print, renewable energy, consultancy, and a variety of other segments are represented in the Business Weekly Awards because they reflect the deeper and broader economy that the region now parades to the world.

While commercial success is cherished, we welcome world-leading innovation and disruptive products and services as much as a well manicured bottom line.

And the real beauty of this Awards event is that entrants win all the way, even if they lose out in the final shakedown for the crystal obelisks that have become the hallmark of the competition. Consider the benefits:

• All entrants are showcased in Business Weekly in the physical newspaper and our online version, offering superb free PR to more than 2m readers

• A rare and risk-free chance to benchmark your business against contemporaries

• A showcase for your products and services that could help you woo staff, new customers and even investors

• Wonderful opportunities for networking, notably at the glittering Awards dinner in 2006 where the cream of executive influencers gather

• Free branding throughout the star-studded Awards presentation evening

The criteria and an entry form are included on this page. It is a no-cost and easy process to enter.

BAA Stansted has joined the Awards sponsors for the first time this year, partnering UK Trade & Investment to present the International Trade category.

Leading global law firm Eversheds is main forensic sponsor, backed by Deloitte and Lloyds TSB Corporate.

The new Peterborough Urban Regeneration Company – just rebranded Opportunity Peterborough – is also sponsoring the Awards.

DON’T DELAY – ENTER TODAY

While the official closing date for entries is not until November 30, logistically – given the large number of entries received – the earlier you enter, the sooner we can give you the full attention your business deserves.

Sponsors compiling information on your entry may want to visit your business to vet facilities and talk to key executives. We may need to invite you to talk to judges about certain aspects of your progress. While we do our utmost to prioritise, the judging process is so thorough that we need as much time as possible to be fair to every single entrant.

So don’t delay. Enter today and hand a morale boost to your staff, suppliers, customers and investors.

2005 Awards categories at a glance

INNOVATION

For businesses with innovative technology (hi-tech or biotech) – either developed or under development – which appears to the judges to have strong commercial potential.

GROWTH & EXPANSION

For companies which can demonstrate strong growth in the last 12 months, whether in terms of turnover, staff numbers, physical premises, new products or markets.

PRIVATE COMPANY OF THE YEAR

For the private business which, in the judges’ opinion, has made most commercial progress in the past 12 months.

QUOTED COMPANY OF THE YEAR

For the public business which, in the judges’ opinion, has made most commercial progress in the past 12 months.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

For companies that have launched or expanded their international operations in the past 12 months or significantly broadened their access to global markets with new products or services.

NEW ENTRY

Xaar

• Growth and Expansion

• International Trade

• Quoted Company of the Year

Following a strong set of half-year results, Xaar is making an assault on this year’s results on four fronts – entering the Innovation, Growth & Expansion, Quoted Company of the Year, and International Trade categories.

The inkjet printing innovator recently underlined its commitment to the East of England cluster with the announcement of plans to build a new £15m manufacturing plant. It is anticipated that the move will create as many as 30 new jobs.

The company’s six-month results revealed a 19 per cent increase in turnover to £19.8m, and an 86 per cent jump in profit from operations to £4.6m.

With the launch of the firm’s OmniDot range, made at the production facility in Sweden for both Xaar and Agfa, it is likely that Xaar’s Swedish plant will become fully utilised in the short to medium term.

Xaar is pushing back the boundaries, advancing further into primary packaging and industrial graphics production such as printing directly on cans and bottles, smart cards and ID cards, DVDs and CDs. It is also investing in plastic electronics, an emerging technology which presents the opportunity for complex electronic circuits to be inkjet–printed.

It is supporting a new ‘plastronics’ technology centre in Sedgefield, County Durham – envisaged to be an open access facility for the entire European plastic electronics community.

Underpinning all of its activities is Xaar’s valuable IPR portfolio. The company has over 750 patents filed since 1986, covering the areas of technological advancement, know-how and production processes.

NEW ENTRY

Scientific Generics

• Innovation

• Growth & Expansion

• International Trade

Based in Harston on the Cambridge border, Scientific Generics Ltd is an international technology and business consultancy working with global blue-chip companies with offices in the UK, USA, Germany, Sweden and Hong Kong. It is the core business of the Generics Group, is responsible for the creation and exploitation of Generics’ intellectual property and employs, either itself or through direct subsidiaries, almost all of its staff.

Established in 1987, the Generics’ success has been in part due to its early focus and reliance on international markets, a strategy that continues to grow and evolve to this day.

Through Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government recently turned to Generics’ technology know-how to underpin its Innovate to Profit (i2p) initiative, a project that aims to help build the innovation and R & D capabilities of companies in Ireland. Generics will work with management consulting firm Genesis Consulting to provide a training programme aimed to bring world-class skills and expertise to Irish companies.

Looking west across the Atlantic, there is further evidence of Generics’ international credentials, where the US has long been an important client source for Generics.

In 2000 it acquired a technology consulting base in Baltimore to build upon this important and growing market and it soon became the US centre for technology consulting, product design, development, ethnographic research and product and technology innovation.

Together with the office in Boston, Baltimore forms Scientific Generics Inc, fielding a US-facing team of technologists, engineers and innovators and supporting international programmes with project management and technical expertise.

Generics plans to grow the Baltimore team further to offer local access to previously UK-based capabilities and increase Voice of the Customer and product development activities.

Demand for the in-house, small-batch manufacturing capability is also high with clients keen to access the rapid turnaround and high quality work offered by the manufacturing team.

NEW ENTRY

NXT

• Innovation

• International Trade

2005 could prove to be sound technology company NXT’s year as it demonstrates tangible market traction and a swelling bottom line.

In its last set of full-year results, NXT, a Huntingdon based company, which specialises in licensing revolutionary flat panel loudspeaker technology, recorded a 29 per cent increase in revenues to £2.9m, a 66 per cent rise in the number of NXT-enabled speakers shipped to 5.1 million and the launch of mobile phones incorporating NXT technology by Japanese operators, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone KK.

The announcement in January of the first mobile phone to incorporate SoundVu, the N506iS for Japan’s NTT DoCoMo network, was a major milestone for the company. It established both the relevance and advantages of its technology for mobile telephony.

NXT has developed a strong IP portfolio in sound and touch technology, but is perhaps best known for its flat-panel, SurfaceSound system, which uses a transducer to ’excite’ panels made from a variety of materials. In addition to saving space, the company claims that the acoustic properties of the technology are superior to conventional speakers.

The company’s technology can be found in audio systems, TVs, PCs and laptops, mobile phones, PA systems, cars, aircraft and in public buildings and facilities around the world.

Licensee, QinetiQ, continues to make progress in the aerospace sector, and through its partnership with Lufthansa Technik, has pioneered the concept of direct excitation of the interior trim of an aircraft, launching two Boeing 737s in the private aviation sector. The jets utilise NXT technology to turn the interior trim panels into flat, zero footprint loudspeakers which are used to great effect as part of the in-flight entertainment and PA system.

NEW ENTRY

NewGenn

• Innovation

Suffolk infection control specialist, NewGenn Research Ltd, has spent the last 10 years working to develop a full range of alcohol-free antimicrobial sanitisers, suitable for use in the home, the workplace and in professional healthcare environments.

NewGenn’s products are mutually compatible with each other, which enables the entrant of the Innovation category to take an holistic approach – the NewGenn Systems Approach – to virus and bacteria control.

NewGenn believes the onus falls on suppliers of infection control products to ensure a viable systems approach by offering a complete range of compatible products, a philosophy NewGenn claims is also innovative within the infection control field.

The Stanton, Bury St Edmunds, firm believes the Systems Approach is important in all areas where cleaning is followed by disinfection.

For instance, flexible endoscopes must be cleaned before being disinfected but many hospitals still use cleaning products that can inactivate the disinfectant. Floors and surfaces are also relevant.

The alcohol-free products have been endorsed as Islam friendly by the UK Halal Corporation, whic has enabled New-Genn to establish a production facility in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

NEW ENTRY

Library House

• Growth & Expansion

• Private Company

Research and data services company Library House, spearheaded by Doug Richard of Dragon’s Den fame, has come out breathing fire in its first ever tilt at the East of England Business Awards.

The Cambridge business was founded to provide greater transparency and access to innovation based companies. The mission is to discover these innovative companies at birth and monitor their progress from initial investment to final preparation for IPO or trade sale.

The concept was born in the US – or, more accurately, in the fertile brain of American Doug Richard, who founded Library House in 2002. He was joined as director by Charles Cotton, former CEO of Virata, and by David Gammon, who has an impressive pedigree in the City. Their complementary strengths have enabled Library House to accelerate its international expansion ahead of schedule.

Bespoke discovery technology has been specially created and customised for Library House which enables its researchers to seek out, ‘grab’, retain and store collected data on new innovation businesses.

A private company backed by leading business angels and entrepreneurs in the UK and Europe, its ‘search and deploy’ capabilities are already being utilised as a secret weapon by top corporations and market leaders in venture capital, accounting, the law, investment banking, government and academia.

NEW ENTRY

Haymills

• Growth & Expansion

• Private Company

Haymills has been involved in shaping East Anglia’s cities, towns and villages for public and private clients since World War Two, where teams worked on Suffolk air bases used by the US Airforce.

Today, the company has six successful business units working across the south and south east of the country and is proud of the buildings and achievements seen and used by millions every day.

Managing director, Julian Brandon, led the management buy-out of Haymills 12 months ago and the company has never looked back. He said: "In the past year, all business units have improved – securing work in traditional operational sectors like education and healthcare, as well as increasing the company’s influence in new areas such as high quality private residential and the environmental/arts market.

"Turnover for the last financial year end was up for the second consecutive year to £103m, with a pre-audited profit margin of £1.5m – this is testament to the hard work and concerted effort from all staff."

All activities undertaken by Haymills are related specifically to its core values, which are a genuine and fundamental guideline of how each and every person should behave, which ultimately fulfils the Haymills vision – to build long term relationships that create a business envied by all and that provides sustainable profitable growth.

In order for Haymills to provide a professional service to any client, the company is only as good as the staff it employs. To this end, the new found autonomy afforded by the MBO has meant a rejuvenated focus on training and development and a new incentive share option scheme, rewarding loyalty.

Brandon concludes: "The business plan is to grow profit by a minimum of 20 per cent and turnover by 10 per cent – through developing long term relationships, reliant upon delivering a quality construction service and repeat order business."

NEW ENTRY

Anglia Business Solutions

• Innovation

• Growth & Expansion

Anglia Business Solutions enters this year’s East of England Business Awards with another major accolade already tucked away. The Harston-based company has just enjoyed its best ever and third successful year in a row at this year’s UK IT industry Channel Network Awards.

Anglia collected the first prize for UK Enterprise Mobility Solution 2005.This award recognises Mobility Solutions that enable people to access their business applications from wherever they are located. The awards recognise real world ICT solutions across the whole of the IT, telephony, voice/data convergence and Internet industries.

The judges were particularly looking for innovative and scalable solutions where the reseller has understood the specific needs of the client and produced a tailored solution. The winning system, a business management solution with remote access and mobile vehicle tracking, was created for Inchcape Automotive, a subsidiary of Inchcape plc the International Automotive Services Group.

The solution included Microsoft Navision, Microsoft MapPoint® Location Server, Microsoft MapPoint Web Service, Microsoft Windows Mobile™ 2003 software for Pocket PCs, Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Anglia’s world-class solutions have also previously been recognised at the Channel Network Awards in both 2003 and 2004. In 2003 the company won Best SME Internet Solution, and Best SME Mobility Solution in 2004.

Anglia Business Solutions is a 23-year-old software and IT consultancy organisation. It employs around 30 people and has a turnover of £3.2m.