Revenue increased by 10 per cent to a record £5.5 million at Bicester-based Hardide Plc, the provider of advanced surface treatment solutions, due to strong oil & gas sector demand, new aerospace work increasing in the last quarter and successful recovery of cost inflation in selling prices. The company reported significant ongoing growth in aerospace business, with strong core oil and gas business which still has growth potential. It has seen early success and a promising future for coating turbine blades in the power generation sector, with further strategic potential in green ..read more

Hardide plc, the provider of advanced surface coating technology, has appointed Stephen (Steve) Paul as Interim Chief Executive Officer with effect from next Monday (12) February . Steve will succeed Philip Kirkham at the Bicester manufacturer who, as announced on 1 November 2023, is stepping down after leading the company for more than 11 years. Steve had a successful 30-year international career in various managing director, commercial development and performance improvement roles for the leading global surface treatment business, Praxair Surface Technologies, now part of the Linde Group. Si ..read more

Dymag, the Chippenham-based lightweight wheel manufacturer, has announced its latest investment, which comes from Hankuk Carbon. The funding from the South Korean advanced materials manufacturer will be used to further the global mass-production of Dymag’s technology, which is lighter, stiffer and stronger than a traditional cast allow wheel, which is particularly useful for electric vehicles. It follows previous funding from the UK government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI), alongside several rounds from Puma Private Equity. The combined investment will help to accele ..read more

A collaboration between Vodafone and Coventry University will open the UK’s first 5G Standalone (5G SA) Media Innovation Lab in Coventry. Working alongside Vodafone engineers and academics from the University, broadcasters, media companies and the software development community will be invited to the lab to develop 5G use cases for the media industry. The next generation connectivity environment will be powered by a 5G SA network. Originally deployed in 2020 to enable healthcare students to take immersive, real-time AR and VR tours of the human body, Vodafone and Coventry University will now e ..read more

Cheltenham-based training technology provider Pennant International Group has announced improved performance in its year-end financial results for 2022, with an increase in gross profit margin and reduction in losses. Pennant announced loss before tax of £1.4 million in 2022, compared to a loss before tax of £2.5 million in 2021. This is despite revenues reducing to £13.7 million from £16 million, with changes in the group’s business mix raising its gross profit margin to 42 per cent, from 27 per cent in 2021. Operational highlights for the year include an £8.8 million contract from Boeing Def ..read more

Councillor Barrie Jennings, of Stratton St Margaret Parish Council, and the Arkell family unveiled a commemorative plaque on the site of Arkell’s Brewery where John Arkell, founder, started brewing in 1843. John Arkell was born into a farming family in 1802 in Kempsford, South Gloucestershire.  He emigrated to the New World in his late twenties and took with him a group of local people who sought a refuge from the tough conditions endured in agriculture at that time. They arrived in Canada and set about farming.  John established a strong community and a village around his farm which ..read more

Milton Park-based fusion innovator Tokamak Energy’s magnet technology will be exposed to extreme conditions to test lifetime fusion power plant performance in a United States national laboratory. Tokamak Energy built and commissioned its specialist gamma radiation cryostat system – a vacuum device to provide thermal insulation for the magnets – at its Oxfordshire headquarters as part of its mission to deliver fusion power in the 2030s. The bespoke test system will now be disassembled, shipped, and rebuilt at the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) based at the Department of Energy’s Sandia Labora ..read more

Birmingham City Council has agreed the first Open Access agreements with Telecoms infrastructure providers to use council lampposts to host ‘small cells’. These add greater network coverage and device connection capacity for mobile networks where large masts alone cannot meet user needs. Usually agreements such as this would take more than a year but support from WM5G has reduced this to just six working weeks. The open licensing agreement has been led by the Digital City and Highways teams in the Council and will speed up access to the city assets, resulting in faster deployment of 5G across ..read more

Bristol-based National Composites Centre has announced a new partnership with the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The Bristol-based composite research and development facility will support UKAEA on the HASTE-F programme by sharing knowledge on applications of Silicon Carbide Ceramic Matrix Composites in future fusion power reactors. Funded by the Royce Materials Challenge Accelerator Programme (MCAP) and led by UKAEA, HASTE-F is focused on addressing key engineering challenges in the use of silicon carbide composites (SiC/SiC) as a fusion material. Working with UKAEA, the NCC have identified a ste ..read more

The Growth Index, which returns for its second year, is an independent league table from ORESA which lists UK companies with the fastest growing sales. It ranks businesses by compound annual growth rate in sales over their last two financial accounting years, showcasing the most successful sectors and companies in the UK. This year, eight companies from our regions have been included in the listing. This includes second-place Bristol-based artificial surfing facility, The Wave, and MAATS Tech, a Cheltenham-based supplier of cable and flex lay. #2 – The Wave – Bristol. An artificial inland sur ..read more