Bedford

Brand News

The First Letting at St Martins Business Centre

Paradigm Audio Visual Limited have recently taken a lease of Unit 9 St Martin Business Centre, a 10,351 sqft industrial unit. The letting follows the recent purchase of the estate by Centurion Industrial Asset Management (CIAM) in conjunction with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, and an extensive refurbishment of the two vacant units.

St Martins Business Centre is located on Cambridge Road which has excellent access to the A421, the recently upgraded dual carriage way which links Bedford to the A1 and M1. Other occupiers on the estate include Fuji Film and the RSPB.

Hybrid Air vehicles & Blue Bear wins Airshop Contract

Two Bedfordshire companies are playing a major role in the development of an unmanned 'eye in the sky' airship for the US Department of Defence.

The £350 million contract award will be to develop up to three Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) systems for the U.S. Army.

The vehicles will be developed over the next 18 months by Hybrid Air vehicles and Blue Bear, both locally based at Cardington Hangars and is a real local success story, which will no doubt create new jobs in the area.

The airships, will be capable of typically flying three week intelligence missions at 20,000 ft and will be used initially in Afghanistan but is also planned to work with law enforcement agencies, border patrol organisations and scientific research bodies.

Bedford manufacturer expanding after acquisition

A Bedford manufacturer of electronics components is in rapid expansion mode. ASteelFlash (formerly MRP Electronics) plans to recruit 25 new employees before the end of the year and will invest £500k in relocating its operations to a new 50,000 sq ft facility in Bedford – doubling its existing floorspace in the process.

This will take capital investment in the company’s Bedford operations to a cool one million pounds for 2010, having already invested around £500k in new equipment. Currently employing 130 staff and based on the current order book they have vacancies for a further five skilled staff over the coming months with a further 20 staff required in Q4.

BMI Healthcare entrusts Movianto UK with transport services in three year contract

Movianto UK, the Bedford logistics company specialising in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, has been contracted by BMI Healthcare to provide transport services to all BMI Hospitals within the United Kingdom.

The UK’s largest independent provider of private healthcare, BMI Healthcare, has entrusted Movianto UK with the transport of medical requirements to its hospitals and clients around the United Kingdom.

The company decided to outsource transport services to Movianto UK as the company is specialised in the logistics of healthcare and pharmaceutical products. Its expertise in the healthcare area played a significant role in the decision as did the company’s experience and knowledge of the market.

Eco cash boost for Bedford firm Bluechip

A company in Bedford has become the first UK business to receive a half million pound interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust. Bluechip, in Priory Business Park has received the loan due to it's newly opened UK premier data centre, which will only use half the energy of typical data facilities of a similar size.

Among the gains that the company is set to experience through the £5 million development are in terms of operational costs and speed of services.
These include evaporating cooling technology, which is more energy efficient that traditional refrigeration and has the capability of reducing electricity usage by 60 per cent.

SDC wins coveted Award

Bedford construction firm SDC were proud to be part of the winning team at The Homes & Communities Academy Awards. The coveted Places for All Award was awarded in relation to the Castle Quay scheme in Bedford which comprises four residential blocks of up to seven storeys with retail units on the ground floor of two of the blocks and separate restaurant units overlooking an archaeological park featuring newly exposed and consolidated archaeological remains, located within the castle grounds.

The Award seeks to strengthening communities through culture and heritage and seeks to reward the most innovative development and community based project.

The judges said that "Castle Quay used the development site's heritage to create a new place from a previously neglected area and give it a unique identity". During the period of construction a number of community projects took place on site.

Charles Well makes it two in a row at National Industry Awards

Bedford based Charles Wells Pub Company is celebrating after winning the top accolade at a National Awards ceremony for the second year running. The Publican Awards are seen as the pub trades ‘Oscars’ and recognise the best licensees, pubs and pub company’s from across the UK. Charles Wells was named Pub Company of the Year for tenanted estates of more than 200 pubs – a title it first won in 2009

Autoglass® boosts customer contact centre with new recruits in Bedford

During a time when unemployment is high across the country, Autoglass whose HQ is located in Bedford, is boosting its customer contact centre team with 40 new advisors.

As the aftermath of the worst winter for more than 25 years has left Britain’s roads in tatters with the number of potholes increasing by the day, Autoglass has reported record numbers of calls this year, as a direct result of windscreens cracking because of the pressure they’re being put under by worseing road surfaces, and loose tarmac chipping screens.

BIOGEN Receives Royal Seal of Approval

BIOGEN’s AD plant is the first of its type in the country where it is fully integrated into a large scale farming operation and the Integrated Anaerobic Digestion plant, in Bedfordshire was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal.

The local firm to Bedford leads the way in the rapidly expanding UK Anaerobic Digestion industry producing clean, green energy from food chain waste.

Its Twinwoods plant is capable of accepting up to 30,000 tonnes of food chain waste per year from the 20-30 million tonnes of food waste produced by the UK. Combined with 12,000 tonnes of slurry, it can produce over 1MW of electricity (enough to power 1,000 homes) and over 1.5MW of heat.

BIOGEN, part of the Eco-technology division of the Bedfordia Group of companies, produces renewable energy and fertiliser from a combination of food waste diverted from landfill and pig slurry. The enthusiastic response of the Princess showed this was clearly a subject close to her heart.

‘One of my pet whinges’ Her Royal Highness announced in an impromptu address to the gathered guests, “is what doesn’t happen to food waste and all other waste but BIOGEN seems to me to be proving not just the art of the possible but what is really necessary, and it’s done so efficiently and well.’

Significant Warehousing & Distribution Win For Movianto

One of the world’s largest manufacturers of drugs that combat bacterial infections, cardiovascular disease and tuberculosis, Lupin Pharmaceuticals, has selected Movianto to provide warehousing and distribution services for its UK market entry.

Lupin Pharmaceuticals’ warehousing and distribution operation will be run from Movianto’s Bedford operations centre and warehouse facility. From this central location, individual product lines will be picked and transported overnight via Movianto’s 30,000m2 capacity UK network of eight strategically located MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) approved depots for next day delivery to wholesalers and pharmaceutical chains.

Brewery in Bedford near full capacity after guzzling Courage

The Wells & Young brewery in Bedford has almost reached full capacity following its swoop for Scottish & Newcastle’s renowned Courage portfolio of ale brands. Just months after taking on production of the Youngs range of ales, the Eagle Brewery will increase its total production by a quarter, or 115,000 barrels a year, hitting almost 600,000 barrels per annum. At least 15 new staff will be hired as Wells & Young takes on the full production, marketing and sales processes of the Courage brand, bringing the operations down from the Courage facility in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, over the next few months.

Bedford company pumps £18m into cleantech venture

The Bedfordia Group has invested £18 million into the growth of a business that aims to reduce the massive amounts of methane produced every year by the dumping of food waste onto UK landfill sites.
The Bedford based company has merged its BIOGEN subsidiary with new acquisition, Greenfinch Ltd, to create the UK’s leading Anaerobic Digestion (AD) firm, BiogenGreenfinch.

AD produces renewable energy and bio-fertiliser by recycling food chain waste. The new deal brings in Greenfinch’s R & D capabilities and process flow technologies to BIOGEN’s operational expertise, including 25 Ludlow-based staff complementing BIOGEN’s 18 employees.

The enlarged business now holds the unique position in the UK of having the capability and capacity to deliver a fully integrated AD solution to the agricultural, food, waste and water industries and to local authorities. It will target the entire UK human food chain which produces 18m tonnes of landfill waste every year. This in turns produces methane, a greenhouse gas said to be over 20 times more harmful than CO2.

If you are a Bedford based company and have some exciting news, please let us know!
Please contact 01234 276261 or email Simon.dunning@bedford.gov.uk