Velocys, the sustainable fuels technology company, has revealed that further to the award of the grant from the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT) Advanced Fuel Funds of up to £27 million for the Altalto Immingham Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Project, announced on 12 December 2022, Altalto Ltd has completed the work necessary to claim the first tranche (£7 million) of the grant up to 31 March 2023.
In addition, the project has obtained the first tranche of private funding for the period from 1 April 2023 from its existing private sector participants.
The Altalto project’s aim is to deliver a commercial waste-to-SAF plant in Immingham. The DfT grant and matched funding will enable Altalto to complete the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) stage of the project. Following the completion of FEED and a successful final investment decision, construction will commence in 2025 with full commercial operation expected in 2028.
Since the award of the DfT grant in December, the Altalto Immingham Project has entered into a number of technology license and engineering services agreements with project technology licensors and the FEED contract with Bechtel Limited, utilising the first tranche of grant funds provided by the DfT. Pursuant to the terms of the grant, further draw down of the grant is subject to demonstration of project milestones with matched funding requirements to be met over the two years to 31 March 2025.
In March 2023, the company announced the appointment of a leading global investment bank to advise on the financing of Velocys’ Reference Projects and to assist in obtaining the matched funding from private sector investors, which is on track to be in place during Q4 2023.
Velocys’ cash contribution to the Altalto Project over two years from April 2023, including its contribution to the first tranche of private funding of £1 million, is not expected to exceed £8 million, with Velocys intending to recover any funding it provides at the earlier development stages (as from 1 April 2023 onwards) following receipt of third party project investment.
Spencer Group makes engineering first by using app to monitor employee wellbeing
Hull-based Spencer Group is is the first engineering company to adopt the Hapstar app to support employee wellbeing by enabling them to track their mental and physical health, set happiness actions, access support and resources and provide anonymous feedback.
The app holds no identifying information about the user, but Spencer Group can use the data to gain a clearer understanding of its workforce’s wellbeing, identify and respond to trends.
Every employee has a Hapstar login and is encouraged to use the app as little or as much as they want. Data is collected on teams, rather than demographics, to ensure anonymity.
HR Director Yvonne Moir said: “The engineering industry must think outside the box, embrace new initiatives and, where possible, new technologies to address the issue of mental health. At Spencer Group, we’ve always taken a proactive approach as industry leaders in employee wellbeing. This means seeking out innovative solutions that help break the silence around mental health in engineering.
“We’re using a data-driven, people-centred approach with Hapstar. The data is all completely anonymous. If a Spencer Group employee asks a question via the app, it will be sent through to the HR team who can respond, without identifying the user.”
If the question affects others in the workplace, Spencer Group might create an internal blog post to address the issue. If questions or data indicates a particular team is feeling underappreciated, Spencer Group can look at ways of addressing the issue.
Hapstar CEO Adam Campbell said: “Innovating in the world of wellbeing, with the goal of changing the way businesses support their people, is no easy task.
“We’ve been developing the concept and technology of Hapstar for over four years and our approach to a truly data-led wellbeing strategy has evolved immensely in that time. A large driving force behind that evolution has been the insights and support of the team at Spencer Group.”
Administrators of 4D Pharma secure sale of manufacturing subsidiary and intellectual property as employees in Leeds made redundant
The administrators of 4D Pharma plc have sold 100% of the share capital of its wholly owned subsidiary, 4D Pharma León, S.L.U. (León), to Bacthera AG, and the intellectual property of 4D Pharma Group to CJ Bioscience Inc (CJ), while 30 employees based in Leeds, Aberdeen and Cork have been made redundant.
Bacthera is a Joint Venture of Chr. Hansen A/S and a Lonza Group Affiliate and was set up to serve the needs of the emerging LBP industry.
The site in León, Spain, is a GMP-certified, proven live biotherapeutic product (LBP) manufacturing plant, equipped with bioreactors of various sizes up to 3,500 L.
The sale preserves more than 40 jobs at the site, and provides León with a new parent company which is keen to invest in the long term future of the facility, such as upgrading the site infrastructure and downstream processes, including the introduction of state-of-the-art filtration and spray drying technologies.
James Clark, Managing Director at Interpath and a joint administrator of 4D Pharma plc, said: “Achieving a solvent sale of León is a great result for all involved. It sees more than 40 jobs saved, and allows León to continue to serve the LBP manufacturing market. This was a complex sale of a Spanish entity with a UK parent to a Danish and Swiss joint venture firm. Successfully navigating these complexities has led to a good result for creditors.”
Lukas Schüpbach, CEO, Bacthera, said: “This acquisition allows us to bridge our capabilities in development with our solutions for commercial manufacturing, adding capacity for the entire LBP market. Additionally, offering the direct transfer of clinical manufacturing into the León site will allow our customers to accelerate their products on the path to commercialisation.”
In a separate transaction, the intellectual property of 4D Pharma Group, including its patent library, pipeline assets, and bioinformatics platform technology, was sold to CJ Bioscience Inc.
CJ is an independent corporation of CJ CheilJedang’s RedBio (pharmaceuticals and healthcare) and is interested in accelerating the development of microbiome-based novel drugs.
However, as it was not possible to sell the Group solvently, the Group’s 30 employees based in Leeds, Aberdeen and Cork have been made redundant. However, the sale will ensure that the drug development expertise and innovative technology of 4D Pharma developed over the past ten years will contribute to accelerating the development of microbiome-based drugs under CJ.
James Clark said: “The sale to CJ is a success for science and will see the continued advancement of the research and development that the 4D Pharma Group pioneered. This was a complex, cross-border sale to a multinational buyer and, while it is has unfortunately not been possible to transact on a solvent basis, it can still be considered a successful result for creditors.”
A spokesperson for CJ Bioscience official said: “Through this contract, we have acquired global-level competitiveness in the development of new drugs based on microorganisms, and we will continue to explore new drug candidates through follow-up clinical trials, in addition to the existing candidates that are awaiting FDA clinical trials this year.”
Specialist College appoints new Principal
Communication Specialist College Doncaster has appointed Laurent Berges principal to lead the organisation.
He joins the college, part of Doncaster Deaf Trust, with 27 years’ experience of working in the post 16 Further Education sector. His previous roles included Group Executive Director of Curriculum at DN College Group (which consists of Doncaster College and North Lindsey College in Scunthorpe), Group Director of Teaching Leaning and Assessment, also at DN Colleges Group, preceded by 15 years as Senior Leader – Head of Curriculum at Wakefield College.
Laurent, who is originally from the South of France, has lived in South Yorkshire for more than 20 years. He said: “Although I am originally from the South of France, I have been a resident in South Yorkshire for 20 years. As a local resident, I have always regarded the College and the Trust as a national institution, because of its reputation and the amazing opportunities that it provides to deaf / hard of hearing and other communication needs young people and adults in the region and further afield.
“I am passionate about education and vocational education in particular. Since 1996, I have lead on a wide range of study areas including hospitality, catering, hairdressing, beauty therapy, animal care, horticulture, health and social care, childcare, art and design, professional courses Business School and Access to Higher Education programmes – for young people (aged 16 to 18) and adults (19+).”
Communication Specialist College Doncaster offers a range of vocational courses for young people with communication difficulties and helps them to gain work experience, life skills and ultimately employment. The college has a strong reputation of delivering a tailored provision for its students.
Alexis Johnson, Chief Executive of Doncaster Deaf Trust said: “We are thrilled to welcome Laurent to our college. He is an experienced senior leader in education with a great track record and we are looking forward to working with him and helping him to create a vision for the future for our already amazing college that further improves our offering for students who need specialist support.”
Nottingham frozen food wholesaler acquires Barnsley competitor
One of the UK’s largest independent family run frozen food wholesalers, Hopwells has acquired one of its competitors, Windsor Foodservice.
The move will support Hopwell’s strategic plan to expand its service offering and geographical reach.
Hopwells was established in 1975 and is headquartered in Nottingham. The wholeslaer operates a fleet of over 110 vehicles from six distribution depots throughout England and offers its customer base a comprehensive range of frozen food products and chilled goods, including premium fresh meat and poultry from various branded manufacturers and suppliers.
Windsor Foodservice, which is also a family run business, was set up in 1989 and is headquartered in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The business employs over 70 staff and supplies over 3,000 catering customers.
In 2013 the business created Pete’s Patisseries – a top of the range luxury dessert range; and in 2017 launched Windsor Fresh Meat which offered top quality meat products at competitive prices.
Browne Jacobson corporate lawyer, Sam Sharp and associate Ruairi O’Grady advised on the deal.
Sam Sharp, who leads the firm’s UK & Ireland food and drink practice, said: “Both Hopwells and Windsor are well respected in their markets, are built on strong family values, and have excellent reputations for providing quality service to their longstanding customer base, so it was a pleasure to have been involved in the merger of these two similar businesses.
“This move will enable the newly merged business group to further develop and grow its product portfolio and position itself as a major player in the food wholesaler sector.”
Tristan Hopwell, Managing Director of Hopwells, added: “Hopwells is an independent family business which prides itself on its traditional family values. Windsor is also a family business, and we both celebrate the successes our family ethos brings to our customers.
“Hopwells and Windsor Foodservice have both grown our businesses from the ground up, we’re both excited to bring together our joint experiences to form a leading position within wholesale.”
ABP recycles trio of end-of-life cranes at Immingham
Three Gottwald cranes together weighing 900 tonnes are being decommissioned after 40,000 hours of service each at ABP’s Port of Immingham – but nothing is going to waste.
As part of sustainability the 60-metre-high HMK 260 cranes are being stripped of their parts and what is left will be cut up and sent to the scrapyard for recycling. Operationally, the port still has some of the same models in service, so parts have been retained to reduce future maintenance costs.
Simon Bird, Director of the Humber ports said: “We’ve been investing significantly in cranes, and with the three new Liebherr cranes on site and working, we can now retire these Gottwald ones.
With our sustainability strategy we have been able to salvage about £250,000 worth of parts from these cranes which will be utilised in our robust maintenance programme to ensure similar models can be kept in service until it’s time to retire them.
“It’s part of our wider strategy investment in future proofing the Humber ports and giving our customers the confidence that the ports remain resilient, and we are giving them what they need in having reliable and efficient cranage.
“The new Liebherr cranes are more energy efficient running on hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) with an option to switch to all electric.”
The Gottwalds, dating from 2002, were replaced by Liebherr 420 mobile harbour cranes in an investment of £9.7 million. They arrived last November and can offer greater versatility being deployed on any quay, though primarily used for bulk cargo handling and scrap handling.
The new cranes use the Liebherr hybrid system which comprises of a diesel generator which runs on HVO and the option to switch to all electric, which achieves a greater performance while reducing fuel consumption at the same time. The sustainable hybrid drive reduces the emission of CO2 and other harmful substances but also gives more power.
This is all part of ABP’s £32 million investment in port equipment in the Humber to maintain customer demand as part of a wider Group investment.
Crane deconstruction specialists BDB Dismantling Ltd of Barnsley have secured the tender as principal contractor to dismantle the cranes and break them down into smaller components. Some of the salvage includes drive axles, electrical items, cameras, monitors, joysticks, and an entire luffing ram system including hydraulics.
More new equipment and cranes are in the pipeline for delivery, including a new mobile harbour crane currently being built in Sunderland, which will arrive in the Port of Hull later this year.
Abbie Eaton to join Clare Balding and Gyles Brandreth at Bridlington Business Day event
Following the recent announcement of Clare Balding as keynote speaker, the organisers of The Business Day have announced Abbie Eaton will join the line-up of speakers for the event taking place on Friday 9 June at Bridlington Spa.
The Business Day is an annual networking event tailored to a day of discovery insight, with over 700 business leaders coming together for the event hosted by Gyles Brandreth.
Abbie Eaton is one of the most exciting female talents in the male dominated world of Motorsport, having raced for over 20 years and amassed several championship titles.
She is also known for her role as the Test Driver in Amazon’s hit TV show, The Grand Tour. In which she sets lap times in the featured cars, and also joins Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond on their trips and challenges abroad.
Her career has been filled with some extreme highs and crushing lows quite literally, breaking her back in 2021 to then overcoming the odds to get back in a race car only six months later.
Stephen Parnaby OBE, Event Director said: “Abbie adds an exciting new element to The Business Day with her inspirational story of facing an overwhelming setback and bouncing back to even greater heights and the success she has achieved in the world of Motorsport”.
CATCH catches new employees for welding and pipefitting apprenticeships
Immingham-based Catch is to expand its apprenticeship provision to cover welding and pipefitting thanks to the appointment of two new employees.
Joel Broddle and Lewis Bugg have joined the team within a Welding Pipefitting Hub, an employer-led project to fill a skills gap.
Joel, who joins as Head of Welding & Pipefitting, will have the responsibility to drive the project forward and collaborate with industry partners whilst designing, developing, and delivering training and competency solutions to help bridge the skills gaps.
Lewis joins the team as Pipefitting trainer and will ensure that the learners who come to the centre have the suitable knowledge, skills and behaviours to make the transition into industry. Lewis was an apprentice at the CATCH facility in 2007 and is returning back after time in industry and education.
Joel and Lewis are joining CATCH from Grimsby Institute, where they have played a leading role in developing excellent training provision that is well regarded in the industry.
CATCH Chief Operating Officer James McIntosh said: “Joel and Lewis coming to CATCH is a major coup for the organisation. They join us with an excellent reputation from employers and people in the training sector and I am excited to see how they can progress Welding & Pipefitting training in the region – as it plays a critical role in ensuring our employers have a skilled and competent workforce.”
Joel said: “I am really pleased to be joining CATCH, at the forefront of our regional training needs. The Welding and Pipefitting Hub is an exciting addition to CATCH and I am really looking forward to getting started and working with the employers to deliver exceptional courses. The area is going to need skilled people to close the growing skills gap and we want CATCH to be the place people think of first for their training needs.”
Lewis added: “I am feeling very nostalgic having the opportunity to return to the place where it all began for me. I’m looking forward to stepping into the role and bringing my knowledge and skills after making this journey myself to the next generation of skilled tradespeople.
“After working in the industry and with some of the companies we hope to have on board, I’ve seen how the skills gap that has grown within the sector and I am keen to start bridging this gap for the future of the industry.”
Charity’s race night helps fund numeracy and literacy training
A charity which focuses on raising the levels of literacy and numeracy across Hull and East Yorkshire has raised more than £5,500 to help fund its expansion.
It comes after Run With It held a hugely successful Race Night at the MKM stadium in Hull, where one of its centres is based.
Run With It works with schools and education providers, including special needs and adult learners, to provide bespoke lessons outside of the traditional classroom. By bringing young people into more informal environments and teaching real-life experiences, their approach has become a proven method, making learning fun as well as transforming their understanding.
Lisa Dawson, Director of Run With It, said: “We are so grateful to everyone who came along to our Race Night and gave so generously. There must have been nearly 200 people in total and they all had a great time.
“As a charity we rely on donations to help fund our work. We know that the traditional classroom environment doesn’t suit all children and, since we began our work over twenty years ago, we have helped thousands with our programmes, all of which are designed to support the delivery of literacy and numeracy within the national curriculum.
“Whilst we currently work out of three locations, including Hull’s MKM stadium, the Flemingate shopping centre in Beverley and Bridlington Town football club, we are continuing to grow. That’s why we are excited to open a fourth base in the region this year.”
Keyland to create over 5,000 jobs across five Leeds development sites
Keyland Developments Ltd, the property trading arm of Kelda Group and sister-company to Yorkshire Water, aims to create 5,680 jobs and unlock up to £225m gross value added across the Leeds City Region through the development of five sites which will align and support Leeds City Council and its ‘Leeds Local Plan 2040.’
At the heart of the Leeds Local Plan 2040 sits meeting the needs of residents, communities and businesses through health and wellbeing, inclusive growth and environmental impact. The proposal submitted by Keyland for the development of these five sites will strive to deliver significant benefits to support these priorities from Leeds City Council.
The identified sites for development are Dunningley Lane in Tingley, Astley Lane in Swillington, Moor Road in Bramhope, Shadwell Grange in Roundhay and Hough Side Road in Pudsey.
Across the 97.3 acres that these development opportunities encompass, Keyland will look to deliver not only over 5,000 new jobs but also 560 new homes for approximately 1,288 new residents and over 1.1 million sq ft of commercial employment space whilst unlocking up to £225m gross value added.
The proposals for the five sites have been supported with figures facilitated by Keyland’s Valuation Tool which calculates the value each site adds across six different capitals. Keyland’s innovative approach to sustainable development aims to deliver more long term value using the tool’s six capitals. These capitals are:
- Natural Value – growing a naturally better environment through enhancing biodiversity, green infrastructure and monitoring energy and water consumption and transport emissions
- Social Value – creating communities that bring people together by good job opportunities and improving social connectivity as well as ensuring accessible and universally designed buildings with safe and secure neighbourhoods
- Human Value – generating wellbeing through the creation of construction employment as well as local employment and increasing the opportunities available for recreation and physical activity
- Intellectual Value – enabling everyone to thrive by providing strategies to enhance skills through apprenticeships and employment innovation
- Manufactured Value – shaping places and buildings by creating high quality buildings as well as conserving and enhancing local heritage and increasing resilience through reducing flood risk
- Financial Value – giving back to society and communities through investment and the local economy
The valuation tool indicates that Keyland could create an additional value of £606m, over the life cycle of these five developments, when compared to business as usual approaches. Keyland estimates that each capital will provide additional value of Natural £72m, Social £55m, Human £74m, Intellectual £10m, Manufactured £53m and Financial £342m.
Luke Axe, Land & Planning Director at Keyland Developments Ltd, said: “The purpose of our Six Capitals Valuation Tool is to deliver added value through creating exceptional developments. Traditional measures of value only take into account a proportion of the total impact of a development.
“Sustainable development is at the heart of everything we do, so we take time to thoughtfully understand, measure and manage the impact of our developments and how they can bring the most benefits and value to the region. The delivery of these five developments will significantly support Leeds City Council’s vision and strategic objectives for the region’s future.”
