BM164_32_33_34Q7.qxd:Layout 1 31/8/08 22:00 Page 2
Area Focus: The North East
These are real
businesses aiming to
make real money, and
have a higher survival
rate than most start-ups.
launching in October 2007, have already es-
tablished a strong client base.
‘We’re working well as a business because
we’ve got all the responsibilities carefully
planned and divided up between us,’ says Al-
ison. ‘I’m an illustrator and I also manage the
company finances. Louise is a typographer
and very confident at networking and sales.
Gemma deals with project and client manage-
Top, Mark and David from Halch (see p.34)
ment, PR and the company database.’
The girlies (I’m not being sexist here – that’s
Left, Alison and Louise from Attention
what they call themselves) have focused the
business around creating strong brand identi-
prising that the university has devel- ties for their clients, and have an impressive
oped a strong enterprise culture. It portfolio of logos, stationery sets and brand-
has successfully ‘spun out’ dozens compliant websites. They reckon that much of
of small businesses from its aca- their success is down to the high level of sup-
demic programmes, many of them port they have received.
with great potential as customers
and partners of established
Business Facts: the North East
businesses.
Back in March I visited the • The north east region’s traditional business
university to find out what’s on offer. profile in the SME sector has been based
In the incubator
around small engineering and other techni-
cal firms that originally grew up to support
The Incubation Unit at the University of chemical, heavy engineering and shipbuild-
The Regeneration Game
Teesside is based in a 100-year-old school ing industries on Teesside and Tyneside.
The thing about Teesside is that you need building on Middlesbrough’s Victoria Road. On
to look a little deeper. If you do, you’ll find that the outside, it looks like something from a by- • Today, the region has a reputation for
it’s an area with an enterprising and pioneer- gone age – all red bricks, tall windows and strong IT skills. Teesside and Tyneside have
ing spirit that has grown out of the strong tech- separate entrances marked ‘boys’ and ‘girls’. a large number of small software compa-
nical and engineering history of the north east. The interior is a different story. Recently nies, with the north east beginning to rival
But during the 1970s the area experienced refitted, it houses a training base and office Cambridgeshire’s ‘Silicon Fen’.
severe decline – Middlesbrough still contains space for graduate businesses.
two of the top five poorest postcodes in the These are real businesses aiming to make • A particular driver of innovation in the area
country – which only began to be reversed in real money, and, because of the level of train- is the presence of four major universities:
the 1980s. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, ing and support that the University gives them, Durham, Newcastle, Teesside and Northum-
visiting the city and famously announcing that they have a much higher survival rate than the bria. The high quality of life for graduates in
‘something must be done’, pushed through the average start-up. The one-year rate is 100%, the region leads a high proportion of
foundation of the Teesside Development Cor- with 83% surviving for three years and 71% students from other areas in the UK to
poration and put the area back on the road to passing the five-year mark. remain in the north east when they have
some sort of prosperity.
Your Attention Please!
finished their studies.
Central to the commercial growth of the
area in the last decade or so has been the The first business I met in the Incubation • The north east’s tradition of ‘metal bash-
University of Teesside. Established in Middles- Centre was Attention Design (www.attention- ing’ businesses continues, and it remains a
brough in 1930 as a technical college, it be- design.co.uk). Attention is a web and print net exporter on international markets - firms
came a university in 1992, and has swiftly agency founded by Alison Jones and Louise in the region export their products all over
become a world leader in some very exciting Skelton, both recent graduates of the Univer- the world, including specialist engineering
areas – in particular, computer animation and sity of Teesside. At the moment the business is products to China and the USA.
games development. small – the staff consists of just Alison and
Given that its specialisms are directly Louise, along with account manager Gemma
focussed on real-world industries, it is not sur- Pithers. But they have big ambitions and, since
Business Matters issue 164 • 33
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68