Monthly Archives: December 2019

Business Advice, Business Investment, Start Ups

Birmingham Enterprise Community Launches £1.5 million fund raise to support next generation of Midlands businesses

Birmingham Enterprise Community (BEC) has launched a fund raise that will support the growth of exciting early stage ventures looking for support within the Midlands region by providing direct equity investment as part of their FORWARD Accelerator programme based in Birmingham’s award winning Alpha Works.

The fund, which is to be raised through private investment under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), will form part of a radical and comprehensive package of support received by the businesses as they join the FORWARD Accelerator Programme, launched in July 2019, which will also include access to a pool of international mentors, support from partners such as IBM, Google & Amazon, workspace, coaching, access to both local and global networks and support to gain follow on finance.

Businesses will be invited to apply to FORWARD from 2nd January 2020 with the next programme commencing in April 2020.

Daniel Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Birmingham Enterprise Community, said:

“Since our official launch in January 2018 we have rapidly developed into a significant source of support for startups within the Midlands region. The establishment of this fund signifies another radical step forward for Birmingham Enterprise Community and the businesses that it serves.

“It also sends out the signal that the Midlands is making serious moves in becoming a place where you can both start and grow your business”.

Environment, Technology

Christmas e-waste proving devastating to the environment

With Brits set to spend millions of pounds on new electrical items and appliances over the festive period, one environmentally conscious company is calling for consumers to consider the devastating impact of their seasonal spending.

Almost 1.4 million tonnes of e-waste is landfilled in the UK every year – a weight 100 times heavier than the Eiffel Tower. December is said to be one of the worst months for waste, with kerbside collection volumes increasing by c.25%.

Unfortunately, without decisive action, eSpares believe e-waste rates will continue to escalate. Head of brand, Ad Casey commented:

“According to our latest research, 75% of Brits don’t attempt to fix appliances when they break down, while 10% prefer to throw away appliances when they became dated and unfashionable. Entirely damning stats when you consider that 70% of all e-waste is classified as ‘unaccounted for’.

“While splashing out at Christmas is somewhat of a British tradition, we can’t overlook the implications of our wasteful behaviour. In fact, the latest stats suggest that every UK resident creates more than 15kg of e-waste per annum.”

The message from eSpares is clear. Think twice this Christmas about whether or not you need to buy new – it’s almost always easier and cheaper to repair rather than replace.

To inspire a national movement when it comes to fixing broken appliances, eSpares has launched #FixFirst – an initiative that provides householders with FREE comprehensive information on how to fix appliances and help protect the environment. The company’s Advice Centre features more than 500 ‘how to’ videos, 700 fault fix articles and 9,000 appliance manuals, all of which help consumers to fix – not throw away.

For more information about the #FixFirst campaign, visit https://espares.co.uk/fixfirst.

Apps, Cleaning & Facilities Management, Technology

Launch of innovative app is boost for housekeepers

Fast-growing InnuScience UK, which has pioneered the use of smartphone training apps for the past five years with the vision of making training simple and enjoyable, has launched a new hospitality training app.

The information-packed app features a COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) quiz to be used for the training of housekeepers as well as a training video for users of the InnuScience Trio Kleen programme in a Housekeeping environment. It is available to be downloaded from iTunes and Google Play Store.

Nick Winstone, UK Managing Director of InnuScience, said:

“For ease of use and accessibility we have ensured the app is free and no passwords are needed. The training process involves watching a video via the app, taking a simple quiz, and once complete, staff are issued with a certificate of completion. Through this innovative and structured approach, we have been able to cater for our growing customer base – issuing over 1,500 certificates a month.

“We have invested in ensuring all our product equipment have colour coded stickers, that they match up to the products and the product labels, so that after training staff can easily use the products.

“At InnuScience understanding our clients’ needs, as well as their customers, is key for us. Therefore, we have made it our mission to ensure the staff using our products are fully trained and equipped with all the information they require to carry out their tasks to the highest standards.”

InnuScience UK, headquartered in Milton Keynes, is now an established global leader in commercial cleaning systems based on biotechnology, and has products competitively priced compared to conventional cleaning products – for instance, the cost in use of its flagship Connected Cleaning product can be from as little as two pence per litre.

InnuScience is the youngest and fastest-growing of the top 15 manufacturers in the UK, supplying biotechnology-based cleaning products to the Hospitality, Facilities Management, Building and Care Sectors.

Charity & CSR, Property, South East

Sussex company supports homeless charity this Christmas

A Worthing-based estate agency chain has announced that it will be supporting local homeless charity, Turning Tides, this Christmas.

Launched via a collaborative video, Jacobs Steel is appealing on behalf of the charity for a list of items that are urgently required for the local people sleeping rough this December. The items include:

• Edible – coffee, sugar, squash, juice and biscuits
• Clothing – men’s small waist jeans
• Miscellaneous items – anti-bacterial spray, bleach, toilet cleaner, toilet rolls, tea towels, sleeping bags. Bath towels, clean and unstained single duvets and pillows

Items can be donated at any of Jacobs Steel’s six West Sussex-based offices.

Pat Barton, Managing Director of Jacobs Steel, said:

“My fellow managing director, Matt Jacobs, recently took part in Turning Tide’s sleep out fundraiser where he spent 12 hours on the streets of Worthing armed with just a sleeping bag and some cardboard. It was a true eye opener for him so we decided that this year we would host an appeal to support the charity. They do outstanding work, particularly with the young homeless across the county so we knew we had to act. Our donation stations are now open and we are hoping that we can exceed the charity’s expectations with our collections.”

The appeal video can be seen here https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnOli4G3-hFVgqcDSvuZTjCy6bV00w?e=2finf2

For more information on Jacobs Steel please visit https://www.jacobs-steel.co.uk/. For more information on Turning Tides please see https://www.turning-tides.org.uk/.

Manufacturing

kp secures five-year supply of post-consumer recycled PET with Viridor

Klöckner Pentaplast (kp) – a global leader in sustainable fresh food protective packaging, together with Viridor – the largest UK-owned recycling, renewable energy and waste management company, have agreed a transformative five-year collaboration, locking in an annual supply from Viridor of 8,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled PET to kp.

The agreement strengthens a long-standing partnership and common commitments towards a sustainable and circular economy for food packaging. Securing a stable supply of post-consumer material is fundamental to drive change at scale for an improved recycling system in the UK.

The five-year agreement will be fulfilled by Viridor’s new £65m Avonmouth Resource Recovery Centre which will make kp their largest rPET flake customer and subsequently their largest buyer of rPET flake in the UK.

In the first two years, Viridor’s largest UK multi-polymer processing plant will produce 60 kilo-tonnes (KT) of recycled plastics from 81KT/year feedstock consisting of 1.6 billion bottles, pots, tubs and trays. With the plan to raise volume to 63KT from 1.7 billion bottles, pots, tubs and trays in year three, increasing volume year on year. From this, 8,000 tonnes a year of the recovered and processed post-consumer recycled PET will be supplied to kp.

kp is delighted that this exclusive collaboration with Viridor helps towards achieving kp’s commitments to increase use of recycled content in their packaging as part of their Positive Plastics Pledge, launched in September 2018, working towards a true circular economy.

Adam Barnett, President of the Food Packaging division at kp, said:

“We are thrilled to announce this extended agreement with Viridor, which has been a significant partner of kp’s for many years.

“We have celebrated the first successful year of our Positive Plastics Pledge and are proving that plastic is a valuable material and when managed responsibly through the right infrastructure, can be collected, sorted and recycled into sustainable, recyclable packaging, while maintaining food safety, security and ultimately preventing food waste. We are engaging consumers through our on-packaging messaging, advising them that the food they buy is packaged with protective material made from 100% recycled PET, and is recyclable.

“We also want to take our partnership with Viridor to the next level of circularity as we continue to meet our common goals in true closed loop tray to tray recycling. As a strong and stable end market, kp is driving change at scale for a circular future.”

Viridor’s Managing Director of Recycling, Simon Hicks, said the agreement with kp was part of the company’s continuing commitment to translating circular economy ambitions into a practical reality in the UK.

He said:

“Viridor has listened to the feedback it has received in its annual UK Recycling Index which tracks public sentiment on recycling. UK residents want their recycling efforts at home rewarded with clear evidence that plastic which has been designed to be recyclable and can be returned to the economy. This is what the partnership with kp will accomplish. We will continue to encourage depositing the Right Stuff in the Right Bin and we, at Viridor, will then ensure that UK plastic is given another life. It need not be, single use.”

Viridor Resource Management Managing Director Keith Trower said:

“Viridor is delighted to have formed this partnership with kp, a company with which we have enjoyed a longstanding relationship. It is this kind of collaboration which will have a meaningful impact on creating a truly circular economy.

“It also demonstrates that plastic is not only an extremely versatile and valuable resource. Both companies have extremely high standards in terms of sustainability commitments, and this is how we deliver significant environmental and economic benefits.”

Case Studies, Technology

Partners in Enterprise heads to the cloud with help from Curve IT

Technology specialist Curve IT has completed a digital transformation project for fellow Brighton business Partners in Enterprise.

The company, which offers accounting and financial management services across Brighton and the South East, has now fully migrated its key IT platforms to cloud-based services, using Microsoft’s Office 365. It has also begun using a range of cloud-based productivity and communication applications, including SharePoint, Yammer and Teams to foster greater collaboration and information-sharing. Collectively, these applications have enabled Partners in Enterprise to build a centralised hub for communications and information storage.

The project also involved replacing an unreliable voice over IP (VoIP) telephone platform with a new system, to improve call quality and reliability. Curve IT also provided full training on the new system, ensuring that all Partners in Enterprise’s staff were rapidly brought up to speed.

In practice, this means the accountancy firm’s staff can now access their documents and data from anywhere, and work in teams on the same documents or projects. In turn, this enables more flexible working practices, smarter teamwork and more robust information security protocols, because data is not stored directly on staff devices.

Ryan Headlam, managing director at Partners in Enterprise, said: “It was a very easy choice to work with Curve IT – the company has so much experience in helping organisations migrate to the cloud and understood exactly the working practices and benefits we wanted to get out of it. We’ve gone from a telephony system which was no longer fit for purpose to having a really unified and collaborative approach to communications, which is helping our staff to work together more effectively and will provide a solid platform for growth.”

Simon O’Hare, Managing Director of Curve IT, added: “We’re really pleased to have helped Partners in Enterprise take this important step into the cloud. Office 365 and the additional applications the firm has deployed offer a huge amount of flexibility and the ability to really tailor the applications to individual needs. The move to cloud services will support the firm for years to come.”

Absence Management, Health

Survey warns: “Avoid sick colleagues to safeguard health at Christmas.”

Avoiding sick colleagues may be our best chance for holding the seasonal lurgy at bay.

According to research commissioned by London-based cleaning company Cleanology, 66% of us blame coughing workmates for causing our own illness, with dirty toilets and keyboards coming in second and third.

While over half of workers (53%) have caught a cold from a colleague who should have taken a day off, the survey found that today almost two-thirds of workers feel under more pressure to go to work when they are ill than they did a year ago.

The report looked into behaviour around illness and work, and at attitudes towards workplace hygiene. It found that when it comes to cleanliness, many resort to taking things into their own hands. Carrying of cleaning wipes has become commonplace, and over a third have cleaned their own desk. Almost as many are cleaning the work kitchen.

CEO at Cleanology, Dominic Ponniah, said the research gave new insight into the culture around cleanliness and illness. He said:

“While only a quarter of people blamed a dirty workplace for catching an illness, two out of five carry cleaning wipes. For us, as a cleaning company, this is a telling insight into the standard of cleaning in many workplaces.

“Our findings also raise important questions about standard work practices and whether businesses would benefit from encouraging people to work from home. More than half of those surveyed had caught a cold from a colleague, while 62 agreed that they are not able to work to the best of their abilities when they are sick. Respondents felt guilty for coming to work coughing and sneezing, and 57 per cent of FMs felt that they were likely to make mistakes.”

The survey was conducted by Sapio Research, which questioned 1,056 respondents. Of these, 51 were facilities managers.

Gender differences were highlighted, with one third of men taking sick days, compared with just under a quarter of women. Men are also more likely to work from home when they are sick.

However, the odds are not all stacked in the favour of men – 25 per cent of male workers reported having to take matters into their own hands by cleaning the workplace toilet, compared with just 17 per cent of women!

Benefits, HR News

Three quarters of companies now manage benefits online

Three quarters (75%) of UK companies now administer their employee benefits online, according to new research by Specsavers Corporate Eyecare. The survey among over 500 HR decision makers and heads of businesses investigated the administration processes and associated advantages for companies of all sizes across the country.

The 75% who manage benefits online is made up of 44% who administer all benefits this way and a further third (32%) who do so for some benefits. The figures are even higher for companies that provide workplace eye care, with a huge 91% stating that they manage at least some, if not all, benefits online. Just a quarter (25%) of respondents said they do not handle benefits electronically.

Ease of use and efficiency were the main advantages given of administering benefits online, with cost control, environmental reasoning and communication all also placed strongly as plus points. The figures show:

What do you believe are the advantages of administering employee benefits online?
• Ease of use 53%
• Efficiency/time savings 52%
• Cost control/helps manage budgets 37%
• Eco friendly (paperless) 35%
• Helps communicate our benefits 33%

Jim Lythgow, director of strategic alliances at Specsavers Corporate Eyecare, commented:

‘Healthcare and health-related benefits are frequently cited as the most popular employee benefits among staff. Eye care is an integral part of this.

“The fact that companies are now able to manage so many of these benefits online is an important step forward. The easier and more cost-effective benefit administration becomes, the more likely it is to be offered. For health-related benefits, this is of course good news for employees, but also for their employers who will also be likely to profit from the increased health and wellbeing of their workforce.’

Specsavers Eye care is available for companies in the form of eVouchers, which can be purchased, distributed and overseen through an online portal. This makes the benefit transparent in terms of who is accessing it, how much it is costing, as well as making it easy to allocate vouchers and communicate the advantages of the scheme. There are, of course, also environmental advantages in that the entire process can be paperless, right up to the individual employee presenting the voucher to their local optician on their smartphone.

To find out more about the benefits of implementing corporate eye care online, visit: www.specsavers.co.uk/corporate

Appointments, News

Edtech company Atom Learning strengthens team with two senior appointments

Fast growth edtech company Atom Learning has announced two senior appointments, as the company accelerates expansion in the UK and internationally. David Joerring joins Atom Learning to lead the company’s business development and growth team. He comes from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where he was a strategy consultant, with a particular focus on working with the public sector and government.

Meanwhile Tom Digby has joined the company as lead developer. He will be supporting Atom Learning as the company expands the tech team. He will lead digital architecture and design. He is a highly proficient react developer with eight years experience as a front end developer. He comes from the Stylist Group where he was the head of digital product.

Atom Learning uses AI to transform educational outcomes. With ambitions to become the Netflix of education, it is an adaptive learning platform, using machine learning to determine the optimal learning pathway for children at key stage 2. The new appointments will drive the development of its innovative learning platform, Atom Prime. The company is witnessing 50% growth month on month.

According to co-founder Jake O’Keeffe:

“I am delighted to announce these senior hires as we rapidly scale our platform within the education sector. David brings fantastic experience within public sector and government as we look to develop our offering across the UK State sector and overseas.

“Meanwhile Tom’s huge experience in digital product development will be invaluable as we ensure Atom Prime becomes a vital component for schools looking to build excellence in results for key stage 2. Both of these appointments will help us develop our mission to democratise learning.”

The headcount has trebled in the past three months, with Atom Learning expanding into the UK State sector, following a trial in the independent sector – over 250 Preparatory Schools now use the platform. It is also undergoing an international expansion, now operating across Asia, Africa and the Middle East and was shortlisted for AI Business of the Year at the National Business Awards last month.

Tax

Many tax breaks are pointless, say Researchers

Tax concessions amounting to billions are not effective and should be abolished, according to research by the University of Cologne.

The study, conducted by FiFo Koln, ZEW Mannheim, ifo Institute and Fraunhofer FIT, evaluated a total of 33 German tax breaks that add up to 7.4 billion euros.

Tax benefits are important, broadly applicable and potentially efficient instruments for creating incentives for private activities and for promoting policy objectives.

However, Dr Michael Thoene, Head of the Fifo Institute for Public Economics at the University of Cologne, says,

“of the 33 tax breaks in Germany, 10 measures got an overall rating ‘weak’ because they were found to fall short of their expected objectives, therefore, they need to urgently be fixed or abolished completely.”

“The tax losses examined for the individual measures range from just under one million to well over one billion euros a year,” says Sven Stoewhase, head of Fraunhofer Institute’s quantification team.

The tax breaks mainly include reductions and exemptions that are provided for energy, electricity, car and income tax and they were rated against a framework that assesses them for: relevance, effectiveness, sustainability, transparency and monitoring.

The authors suggest that tax benefits must be monitored with particular vigilance to ensure that they don’t miss their purpose or lead to dead weight effects. Otherwise governments are losing billions unnecessarily.