The Middlesbrough-based firm is teaming up with the world's leading independent real estate consultants, Knight Frank, to spread the word more widely about the facilities and support available to tenants at the business park which is located between Middlesbrough and Redcar on Teesside.

Situated in outstanding landscaped grounds, The Wilton Centre provides a wide range of business space on flexible terms and tailor-made to meet the needs of the modern occupier.

Office sizes from 1 desk to 500 are supported by a service package including reception, café and restaurant as well as retail and presentation space.

Stephen Brown, Partner at Dodds Brown, said the Centre delivers the optimum business solution, coupled with outstanding communications and an abundance of car parking.

"We are delighted to be marketing such superb space and unique amenities," he added. "It is set in stunning grounds yet within reach of all the region's major conurbations."

Tim Evans, Partner at Knight Frank, said marketing The Wilton Centre is a 'very prestigious instruction', adding:

"We are delighted to be working with Dodds Brown on it and look forward to bringing it fully to the market with them and the Wilton Centre Team."

The Wilton Centre's Accommodation Manager, Steve Duffield, said he was sure the recent appointments would benefit The Wilton Centre immensely as it continued to expand and improve.

"The combination of an agency with strong local knowledge and a consultancy with an impressive list of contacts is an ideal one with which to take The Wilton Centre to another stage of its ongoing development," Steve added.

The licensing company, which develops transformational biopolymer technology, only moved into the Wilton Centre 18 months ago but has already had to take another laboratory and a large open plan office, in addition to its existing lab and two small offices.

"The flexibility and facilities of The Wilton Centre, which is our main development site, are ideal for our scale up plans," said CEO Phil Goodier who divides his time between the centre and Plaxica's research facility at Imperial College in London.

"But, most importantly, its laboratory and semi-tech facilities are second to none and being based here also gives us access to the pool of skilled chemists and engineers in the local area."

Plaxica currently employs 25 people, the majority of whom are based at The Wilton Centre. It is now preparing to recruit operators for its pilot plant which will be commissioned in the second half of this year. Located in the Wilton Centre's semi-tech area, this will demonstrate the process of taking a range of renewable sources and converting them into a high performance plastic, PLA.

"It's the way forward as the plastics industry looks to reduce its carbon footprint by using renewables wherever possible," said Mr Goodier.

GB Oils Ltd sought the emergency management solution as it continues to meet the latest HSE recommendations concerning multi-tank and multi-bund scenarios. iResponse will be an integral part of its emergency response training, allow it to manage its own emergency pre-plans and assist Emergency Responders, should an emergency situation arise.

Ross Coulman, Operations Director at CPD said iResponse had been developed specifically with the HSE's recommendations in mind. GB Oils has signed a license agreement that allows it to utilise iResponse at eight facilities on its COMAH and petrol storage sites.

Tammy Brantley, GB Oils' Head of HSE, said: "We wanted a tool that would help us prepare our emergency response plans and also allow us to run a variety of scenarios to help us manage the risks if our operations change, which iResponse does."

CPD Limited has been operating for over 40 years and is now a leading hub for the development of IT solutions for the oil, gas, petrochemical and process industries.

The specialty business, which is dedicated to delivering the full service requirements of the chemicals sector, shares its heritage with the Centre, having been borne out of the management buyout of the distribution function of ICI.

Its decision to now make The Wilton Centre its North East headquarters therefore sees the company turn full circle.

The circumference of Agility's story commenced more than a decade ago and has gone from strength to strength. A major milestone was the acquisition of Agility by the Public Warehousing Company (PWC), a major global logistics company headquartered in the Middle East.

Having expanded rapidly through acquisition, PWC went in search of a new name and Agility - the name from the North East - could not be beaten, not even by the best Californian branding gurus. Agility's name is now known worldwide with over 550 offices in more than 100 countries.

Agility's chemical business integrated and coalesced under the global Agility brand as a 'New Logistics Leader' and continued to grow and thrive with two main headquarters in Stokesley and Liverpool and with regional headquarters in Singapore, Dubai and Houston.

Andrew Jackson, President and CEO of Agility's chemical business, who himself started his career working in The Wilton Centre, said:

"In the early days it was right to create some distance between who we were, as a division of ICI, and what we wanted to become as Agility. But now, the time is right to connect ever more closely with our customers and the chemical industry at large.

"Moving home to The Wilton Centre is an excellent opportunity to get back to our roots, demonstrate our outstanding supply chain solutions credentials at first hand and continue full steam ahead."

More information at: www.agilitylogistics.com/chemicals

Phoenix Training Solutions Limited was established in 2005 by Peter Bianchi and Mark Poole, both former senior managers with the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB).

The duo have recruited two more staff for the new office and are now keen to capitalise on major contracts they have with the government of Dubai. A three-tier, safety-training programme developed by Phoenix is now compulsory for all new build site workers in the country and a similar programme is in the pipeline for Abu Dhabi.

"Wilton has always been a hub for the process industry and The Wilton Centre offers the whole package - quality offices, training facilities and excellent amenities - in an ideal location," said Peter.

For more information, visit www.phoenixsolutionsuk.com
Peter Bianchi can be contacted at peter@phoenixsolutionsuk.com or phone 01642 438166.

The majority of the evening's £17,000 prize money was donated by the category winners to local schools. The total amount awarded by the annual event to fund local school science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects over the past 5 years is now £109,000.

Compere for the evening was Wendy Gibson and the speaker was former Olympic athlete Kriss Akabusi MBE.

The evening was rounded off with the ConocoPhillips Outstanding Contribution Award for the individual who has made the most significant contribution to the region's process sector. This year it went to Dr Robert Hardy who led the management buyout of the BASF Cramlington site to form Aesica Pharmaceuticals in 2003.

A full list of prize-winners is available at:
http://nepic.co.uk/media_centre/news/details.asp?ntag=1087

Established in 1967 as a breakaway from Cambridge University, AVEVA has served the Oil & Gas, Power and Marine industries, among others, for 45 years. Today its products and solutions are used globally by over 2,000 customers and divided between three portfolios - AVEVA Plant, AVEVA Marine and AVEVA Enterprise.

Steve Parvin and Steve Milbourne, who are based at the centre, head up and manage information engineering within the AVEVA Enterprise portfolio. They focus on solutions that enable customers to capture, cleanse and store high quality engineering data.

Steve Parvin comments: "Steve and I are both based in the North East, so it made sense to have a conveniently located office at The Wilton Centre. Other members of AVEVA will also utilise the facility for customer presentations and visits."

The ORC technology, which can be used over a wide range of applications, takes low temperature waste heat from the process industries and generates CO2-free electricity which can be either used immediately on site or exported to the grid.

The fully-automatic prototype unit (pictured) is now operating successfully and generating CO2-free electricity from a waste hot water source at Huntsman Tioxide. This is a first for the UK process industries.

The unit's concept and design was developed by DRD Power on Teesside and Roger Mallinson, DRD's Director, said it was extremely pleasing that the first unit was being operated here too.

"Our units offer an opportunity to generate electric power economically from heat that would otherwise be wasted," he added.

"The amount of electricity that could be generated from the waste heat on Teesside alone would be equivalent to a large power station!"

HG Systems, the UK's largest independent control systems integrator, is completing an upgrade of Lucite International's Alpha Stage 2 pilot plant.

The plant is used to design and test step out technologies for manufacturing MMA (methyl methacrylate) - an essential ingredient in the global acrylics market. The new technologies will be used in future Alpha plants.

"Working with HG Systems has proved to be a big advantage. Being in the same building, there's always someone on hand to give support and assistance, whenever we have needed it," said Steve Frank, Senior Research Scientist, at Lucite.

HG Systems has five offices in the UK and Middle East, and recently chose the centre as its newest site so that it could tap into its skill base and recruit local engineers and project managers.

The HG family of companies operates in many sectors, including chemicals, energy, nuclear, food, metals, and oil and gas.

- HG Systems Ltd will be hosting a free seminar on Process Safety, Energy Management, and Process Improvement Initiatives in April / May in the Wilton Centre, jointly hosted with its strategic partner, Siemens.

To register contact Altaf Rahman on arahman@hgsystems.co.uk / 07976924767

The funding supports a biogas plant being built by BF Biogas, a company within the Earthly Energy Ltd group, which is based in The Wilton Centre.

During 2012 the company is constructing five anaerobic digester plants across the UK, the first one in Middlesbrough. A closed and odourless facility, it will turn garden and farm waste into green electric power for up to 6,000 family homes (6.25 MW) and will extend it to up to 11,000 homes in 2013 (11 MW). A natural, clean fertiliser remains after power generation which goes straight back onto the land.

Yotta Karanicolas, Earthly Energy's General Manager, said, "The Government's vote of confidence by funding the green energy production is a clear sign that this form of clean, green energy is the future in power generation."

Auto Executive Ltd has become the first company of its kind on Teesside to put all its drivers through the NVQ Level 2 in Passenger Vehicle Driving Safety and Customer Care.

Director Trevor Hill said passenger safety had always been his number one priority and the course was a fantastic opportunity for them to expand upon this.

"It brought an added level of customer service skills from our drivers and refreshed their outlook on road passenger safety and awareness," explained Trevor.

"It is always good practice to keep these in the minds of professional drivers so it plays an important part in our ongoing commitment to ensure a continued excellent service."

All Auto Executive's 14 chauffeurs passed the course with flying colours.

Auto Executive has also been busy improving other aspects of its ever-growing business. Thanks to a joint project with Sabisu, another Wilton Centre tenant, it now has a bespoke despatch and booking system.

Trevor approached Sabisu after realising that he needed a system that could manage a booking from start to finish, with all the data in one place. After trying many systems already on the market, he concluded that, because Auto Executive was different from other taxi firms, they needed one to be designed from scratch.

"Sabisu was happy to accommodate the challenge," he said. "And the fact that they are located just along the corridor from ourselves, made the process a lot smoother - if we needed to change some aspect or had any issues, we just popped into their office for a chat.

"The end result is fantastic and has made our service a lot more cost-effective and efficient."

Steve Duffield, Wilton Centre Accommodation Manager, said with over 60 businesses based in the centre there was a huge variety of skills and services on offer.

"Tenants often find the solution they need can be provided just around the corner, just as Trevor did, and save themselves valuable time and effort at the same time."

Plaxica has already doubled its accommodation at The Wilton Centre business and science park, located between Middlesbrough and Redcar, in advance of building the plant. Now, in preparation for commissioning it in the second half of this year, it is looking for new staff to join the team and run the plant.

The proposed plant will demonstrate the process of taking lactic acid derived from renewable sources (such as sugar from plants) and converting it into a high performance plastic.

"It's the way forward as the plastics industry looks to reduce its carbon footprint by using renewables wherever possible," said CEO Phil Goodier.

The company only moved into The Wilton Centre 18 months ago but has already had to take another laboratory and a large open plan office, in addition to its existing lab and two small offices.

"The flexibility and facilities of The Wilton Centre, which is our main development site, are ideal for our scale up plans," said Mr Goodier who divides his time between Teesside and Plaxica's research facility at Imperial College in London.

"But, most importantly, its laboratory and semi-tech facilities are second to none and being based here also gives us access to the pool of skilled chemists and engineers in the local area."

Plaxica currently employs 25 people, the majority of whom are based at The Wilton Centre. This number will go up to 30 once the current recruitment process is complete.

The Centre's Accommodation Manager, Steve Duffield, said he was delighted to see Plaxica grow so rapidly.

"The Wilton Centre is an ideal base for small or start up companies as there is the opportunity to expand without moving elsewhere," he added.

"We are always pleased to see companies develop and grow while at The Wilton Centre but the speed of Plaxica's progress is very impressive. It is an ideal operation to have at the Centre, complementing other organisations also here, and we wish them all the best with the pilot plant."

For more information about and/or an application form for the new roles at Plaxica, email jobs@plaxica.com

CompactGTL, the pioneer of modular gas to liquid solutions, supplied its plant to Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in Brazil where its Research and Development Centre successfully concluded its qualification test programme of the small scale GTL facility and approved its process conception for use by Petrobras.

This approval of the plant's performance is a significant milestone for CompactGTL while it continues to undertake project studies, on behalf of clients worldwide, for commercial scale modular gas-to-liquids technology.

Nicholas Gay, CompactGTL's Chief Executive said: "It has shown the plant can be robust, with the operational availability expected of large scale commercial facilities.

"We can now progress our plans in conjunction with clients throughout the world to develop commercial scale modular gas to liquid plants."

The CompactGTL solution offers an alternative to gas flaring and incorporates all aspects required for commercial application in treating associated gas at remote onshore and offshore oilfield locations.

At The Wilton Centre, CompactGTL continues to strengthen the team at what is now an established training centre for its clients.

The move makes it one of the fastest growing technology companies in the UK and also secures jobs at TMG's bases in The Wilton Centre and Runcorn.
CEO John Bookless said he was very excited about the acquisition and what the larger company will deliver to its growing list of customers.

"As we focused more and more on IT infrastructure performance during 2011, it became clear that our customers would benefit from the focus that TMG IT can offer them in terms of a totally-managed, IT end to end environment," he said.

The TMG name has been changed to ITS Managed Services.

The development of a Small Scale AD Technology (SSAD-TECH) platform is designed to make a technology previously only within the reach of large, profitable organisations, available to smaller enterprises.

It will provide underpinning process technology for the development of a series of commercial products for the local treatment of organic waste to produce energy (either as biogas, heat or electricity) and digestate, which can be considered as a non-fossil fuel derived fertiliser.

The design will enable farms and food manufacturers to generate income and power as well as resolving the issue of biomass waste disposal. Its aim is to also reduce the capital costs of a small AD plant while delivering a process capable of accepting biomass feed streams, saving significant land fill tariffs and generating power, and/or revenue from the sale of power, for the end user.

The scheme will run over two years and has a total budget of £880,000. It is being progressed with grant funding from the government-backed Technology Strategy Board.

CPI Director of Sustainable Processing and Advanced Manufacturing, Dr Chris Dowle, said CPI was delighted to be leading the project.

"It represents an excellent opportunity to drive the evolution of this key technology. Anaerobic digestion will play an important role in achieving a low carbon future," he said.

Anaerobic digestion has been cited by the government as a way of reducing carbon emission, providing energy security and generating green jobs. Already home to existing AD development facilities, CPI is ideally placed to co-ordinate, direct and deliver the project.

The company, which prides itself on its core value of 'Our Business is to support Your Business', provides a diverse range of tailor-made packages for project management, training, consultancy, and general business support solutions.

It has seen its business steadily increase over the last twelve months.

MD Philip Cooper says that it was The Wilton Centre's wide range of facilities and professional image that convinced him to base his company here.

Adding: "Having the right location and support available from the start has been instrumental in helping PHILXAM to successfully complete a number of contracts already."

"We now aim to increase our client base so moving out of shared accommodation into our own office is ideal."

To contact Philip call 01642 438176/0779 269 1259, or email enquiries@philxam.co.uk

Ian Elcoate, MD of Tad Web Solutions which is based at The Wilton Centre, was delighted to be given the opportunity to play host to Mathieu Camps Budynek and Guillaume Averlant, both in the region as part of an exchange partnership between Teesside University and the University of Toulouse in France.

The computing students are spending 6 months in the Middlesbrough area, continuing their studies but also working as interns with local companies. This gives them invaluable work experience while, at the same time, extending their English language skills.

Local companies are invited to 'bid' for the interns by submitting a project idea with an outline of the technologies and skills required.

And Ian, who only formed Tad Web Solutions last year to offer web design, hosting and e-marketing, was delighted to be successful.

Around 50 percent of Tad Web's clients are North East-based existing SMEs and new business start-ups.

While Ian and his son, marketing assistant Matthew, concentrate on working with existing clients and attracting new business, the two students - who have high quality programming/design skills - are focusing on the creation of a geo-location based web portal, being developed in conjunction with a number of partners, and a web-based educational tool.

"The key to our company's development is extending our client base and moving into more complex applications made available via a web browser," said Ian.

"There is no way we could have afforded to employ people specifically to develop the applications so the arrival of Mathieu and Guillaume is enabling it to happen much sooner than I would have expected."

"The only cost to ourselves is their travelling expenses which, for a small business, is ideal!"

Ian had been operating as a sole trader (under the name TeesADS) since completing his MSc in IT in 2005, but an increase in the volume of work meant he needed to recruit a marketing assistant and, consequently, a larger office. Tad Web Solutions was formed in September 2011 and moved into The Wilton Centre two months later.

"The centre could not be beaten on services and price when we were looking to expand," said Ian.

The Wilton Centre's Accommodation Manager, Steve Duffield, said that it was very encouraging to hear about the expansion of Tad Web's business and the centre had been delighted when the company decided to be based there.

"It is also great to hear about businesses supporting the university exchange scheme by offering valuable work-based experience," he added.

And the changes, made at the end of last year, are proving a great hit, according to Catering Manager Sean Wentworth who runs the outlet on behalf of Taylor Shaw Catering.

"It has gone down a storm - better than we ever thought it would," he said. "We are stocking a range of everyday grocery items, including pet food, so that's the evening meal sorted for everyone at home - without leaving your workplace!" he said.

"The only thing we don't stock is fresh produce but if the demand is there, we will definitely consider doing so in the future."

Called 'A Kingfisher's Tale', the production is the culmination of a year-long Tees Valley Voices project 'Making an Opera' which is due to be performed in the autumn.

Joan Carter, Chair of Tees Valley Voices, said the children had been very excited to give their first public performance of some of their work.

The choral debut formed part of the repertoire performed for employees and the choir's sponsors - The Wilton Centre, Foster Wheeler Energy and Sabic - and also included classical, soul and gospel singing.

Wilton Centre Manager Dave Willis said it was a pleasure to be able to support such a talented group of youngsters.

A collection taken at the end of the concert raised £99.25 for Zoe's Place.

- £792.65 was raised for the annual Children in Need appeal through activities organised by Gillian Hainton-Smith with help from Taylor Shaw, the Post Room and Medacs.

- £135.86 was raised from poppy sales for the British Legion.

- Over 60 gifts were placed under the Centre Xmas tree for the Women's Refuge at Redcar, for which Children's Team Manager Kate Harland said a big thank you!