There really is nothing like celebrating our great business community success and highlighting the work created by businesses of all shapes and sizes and the recent North East Business Awards do just that.
Year on year these awards recognise the achievements of a wide range of organisations, so it was with pride that the BIC handed over the title of ‘Not for Profit Organisation’ to Beamish.
This much loved museum is a great asset to the region and its exciting £23 million development plans could potentially create up to 120 new jobs; which will by nature provide a massive boost to so much more than visitor numbers alone.
Job creation is vital to the work that we do here at the BIC and over the past 20 years we have helped create over 7,000 jobs, and we currently have over 130 businesses on site and have supported many more across the region.
I was therefore delighted to hear that BIC’s very own chief executive, Paul McEldon has been shortlisted in EY’s North of England Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. For he is certainly is in good company, nominated alongside Jeff Winn, managing director of Winn Solicitors and Kevin Brennan, chief executive of Quorn Foods.
It is a great honour for Paul to be up against such strong achievers, Winn Solicitors have aims of growing its national presence and has expanded rapidly from a team of eight to 290 employees.
Likewise, it was announced recently that Quorn are to create 400 jobs across Teeside and North Yorkshire.
These figures help inspire business success and shape the region, so it is important we take time out to honour those that are contributing to making the North East a great place to do business.
The optimism of job creation doesn’t stop there, employment prospects have improved with an increase of 2.2 per cent expected in employee numbers in the next 12 months. This equates to 450,000 new jobs in the private sector with SMEs leading the way in terms of planning on taking new staff, according to the latest ICAEW/Grant Thornton UK Business Confidence Monitor (BCM). Small business and social enterprises play a vital role in creating jobs and driving economic growth in not just the region but nationwide.
Within the North East employment has increased by 40,000 in the last quarter compared to the same time last year, meaning the region now has a record 1.2 million people in work and according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures for December 2013 to February 2014 illustrates that the private sector is growing rapidly and creating new jobs at record levels.
Excellent news for business confidence within the region.