Specialist toy slime manufacturer Slime Party UK has upsized its operations with a move to larger premises in Barnsley, and plans to increase its workforce by two thirds. The novelty sensory putty retailer has taken 14,291 sq ft of industrial and warehousing space at Unit 19 Redbrook Business Park in the town, and will expand its staff with ten new jobs this summer. The expanding business had outgrown its existing unit on Industry Road in Carlton, Barnsley, and is now using its new base to make and distribute its range of 16 collectible sensory putty. Agents Knight Frank, acting for landlord Industrials, secured the new unit for the company, which was started in the town in 2018 by Ruby Sheldon, and has since made more than 800,000 pots of putty to customers worldwide. Ruby said: “I set up Slime Party UK after the craze hit the UK in 2017 and my kids were trying to make it. I then devised a special compound for our products which means there’s the fun of slime, without the mess. Since then our business has grown. In 2022 there were three staff, now it’s 16 and the move will bring 10 new jobs later this summer. “Our former unit in Carlton had become too small and this new base offers racking space, the offices we need, further recruitment plans and allows easy access for distribution.” Slime Party UK supplies toy shops and stores across the world including Fenwicks, British Garden Centres and Toytown with the most distant clients being 13 toy megastores in The Lebanon.

Leeds Beckett University experts have partnered with a family-owned Bradford business to revolutionise the screening process for aflatoxin in pistachio nuts, using artificial intelligence. The academic team has established a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, partially funded by the Government through Innovate UK, to develop an innovative screening platform in collaboration with Father’s Farm Foods – a small, family-owned processor of imported fruit and nuts. Pistachios, renowned for their nutritional benefits, are particularly vulnerable to aflatoxin contamination – a carcinogenic toxin that also encourages mould growth in processed products. The key to reducing overall infection levels lies in excluding highly contaminated nuts. Currently, this involves manually inspecting the nuts under specialised lighting – a costly, time-consuming, and unreliable process that sometimes results in discarding entire batches. Dr Akbar Sheikh-Akbari, Reader in Electronic Engineering at Leeds Beckett University, is leading the project. He said: “We are developing an innovative method to identify infected pistachio nuts using hyperspectral imaging technology. This cutting-edge approach, which I teach to Master’s students at LBU, provides a detailed ‘fingerprint’ of an object’s composition. “By analysing a broad spectrum of light and breaking down each pixel, it yields significantly more information about an image. This novel technique, new to both Father’s Farm Foods and the industry, will enable the company to automate the screening process, reduce waste and costs, and enhance factory efficiency.” The team will create a hyperspectral image dataset of pistachio nuts with known infection levels – and then train an artificial intelligence model to classify new images based on their level of contamination. This groundbreaking solution represents a long-term innovation in pistachio nut processing, setting the company apart from its competitors. Dr Hossein Mehrabinejad, CEO at Father’s Farm Foods, said: “We are keen to build on the progress and growth that the company has already achieved. We are excited to take the business to the next level with this collaboration and aim to offer the screening service to other companies for a fee in the next stage – providing a long-term commercial impact to our business and industry.” There are regulations in more than 120 countries, governing acceptable levels of aflatoxin in imported pistachio nuts. So, rigorous screening is essential to ensure successful exports. Father’s Farm Foods plan to integrate this new in-house screening platform directly into their production line, enabling growth in both UK and international sales. Dr Akbar Sheikh-Akbari added: “This project is highly innovative. Applying hyperspectral imaging and artificial intelligence to quantify aflatoxin levels in pistachio nuts is an endeavour that has not been explored before.” The KTP will run for 33 months, and will be managed by a full-time Research Assistant, Sina Mahroughi, with the full support of three expert Leeds Beckett academics. Working alongside Dr Sheikh-Akbari is Dr Theocharis Ispoglou, Reader in Exercise Nutrition and Physiology in the Carnegie School of Sport, and Dr John George, Reader in Microbiology in the School of Health. PhD students and specialist lab technicians at Leeds Beckett will also share their expertise on the project.

Gainsborough-based exhaust aftertreatment systems supplier Eminox has signed Paul Clark Services to provide field support services provider. The contract with PCS, from Royal Wootton Bassett, starts this month, and will ensure Eminox customer fleets operate to the latest emissions standards. Carlos Vicente, Retrofit and Aftermarket Director at Eminox, said: “PCS has more than 25 years’ experience in providing quality services to passenger vehicle operators and will be a great asset to improve our servicing capabilities. Our customers have been loyal to Eminox and this partnership is to help us provide a more flexible and responsive field support for their very demanding sector.” The agreement will provide Eminox’s customers with fast response and support for on-going maintenance plans to ensure retrofitted exhausts fitted to their vehicles maintain Euro VI compliance. “Having a fully functional exhaust aftertreatment system not only prolongs the life of a vehicle but, compared to buying new is a cost-effective solution to achieve compliance. The rigorous testing to attain retrofit accreditation by the Energy Saving Trust’s Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme protects public health and improves air quality,” he added.