Family-run motor retailer Wingrove Motor Company is under new ownership after being snapped up by a rival group.
The Wallsend, North Tyneside, business was the largest family-owned and operated motor company in the North East, having run a range of motor franchises across the region for the last 99 years. The business operated four centres in North East, including showrooms in Silverlink, North Tyneside, and Fenham, Newcastle, a body shop in Cramlington and a prep centre close to Shiremoor, North Tyneside.
The group was founded on 1925 by Newcastle cattle auctioneer John Myers Dalkin Snr, and has been run by successive generations of the family ever since. Now, eight months ahead of its centenary, the business has been acquired by fellow North East automotive business Arnold Clark, the largest privately-owned family automotive business in Europe.
The deal sees the closure of Wingrove’s site in Fenham, but all 97 members of staff - including those from the shuttered Newcastle site – have transferred to the new owners, who have reassured customers and employees that it is business as usual, with all services continuing albeit with a new name above the door.
Josh Parker, managing director at Wingrove Motor Company, said: "I would like to personally thank all our loyal customers and dedicated staff that have supported us over the 99 years Wingrove has been in operation.
"While the family have taken the decision to step away from the motor trade, we will be forever grateful for the people that have journeyed with us over the years. We wish all the staff and customers a smooth transition to Arnold Clark and we’re sure that you’ll continue to find outstanding deals and friendly customer service."
North East software firm Wordnerds has secured fresh funding of £1.6m to ramp up work on its technology.
The Gateshead-based business uses AI to train computers to understand unstructured text, with organisations such as Sainsbury’s, M&S, Network Rail and the Department for Work and Pensions all now using Wordnerds’ product.
Big organisations are tackling the task of understanding vast amounts of customer feedback from sources such as customer surveys, emails, contact centre calls, forums and social media – and collating and making sense of the information is a herculean task. Wordnerds turns the data into actionable insights, combining artificial intelligence and behavioural science to pool the data into rapid, in-depth reports and dashboards, which help companies to find the root cause of customer issues in real time.
£720,000 of the £1.6m investment comes from two of Northstar Ventures’ funds, with £160,000 from the Northstar EIS Growth Fund and £560,000 from the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. The remaining funds are from early-stage investors, Stephen Zinser and Leigh Cresswell, and a £521,000 grant from Innovate º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s Future Economy Investor Partnership programme.
Pete Daykin, CEO, said: “Northstar first invested in Wordnerds back in June 2019. They supported our team and our product through our first few years of rapid growth and have sustained us all along our journey with perspective and practical advice. As we enter a period of strong growth, we are excited to approach a new period of scaling with Northstar Ventures.
“We are also delighted to welcome new early-stage investors whose experience will be invaluable on the next leg of our journey. With some of the region’s keenest tech and software minds involved with the company at all levels we are confident we have created something remarkable at Wordnerds.â€
North East insurance broker Lycetts has strengthened its market position with the acquisition of Newcastle-based Cheviot Insurance Services.
Hoults Yard based Cheviot has been snapped up by Lycetts which said the firm “aligns seamlessly†with Lycetts’ ethos of family values and relationship-driven service. John Baty, Helen Hornshaw and Joel Marks will all join Lycetts from Cheviot and will be based within its Newcastle office.
Ian Barclay, chief executive of Lycetts, welcomed the move, saying: “This acquisition represents another exciting step in our growth strategy, enabling us to build on Cheviot’s outstanding reputation and deep community ties. We will be leveraging John Baty’s extensive expertise with complex property and cyber risks, while Joel Marks brings a wealth of family office and fund management expertise, including a £17bn Scottish Widows fund."
A supplier of bingo and fundraising products which started out by supplying working mens’ clubs in the North East has been snapped up by a Yorkshire gaming group. Crystal & Son, based in Longbenton, North Tyneside, now supplies club and fundraising products including everything from football scratch cards, bingo dabbers and raffle tickets, to bingo books, bingo machines and payment cards.
The firm – which originally traded as Bill Grimes printers but changed its name to Crystal & Son in 1991 – initially supplied working mens’ clubs throughout the North East with printing of membership cards, tote tickets and key draw tickets, but expanded the business to introduce bingo products to its portfolio.
Now the business has been snapped up by Leeds-based Dransfield Novelty Company Limited, the largest British-owned º£½ÇÊÓƵ supplier of gaming machines and entertainment products to pubs and clubs. Chris Hayley, managing director of Dransfield, said the strategic purchase – made for an undisclosed amount – marks another milestone for the family-owned business, which has traded for 75 years.
The acquisition, which comes five years after its purchase of Gameco Holdings Limited, boosts Dransfield’s range of goods and services it can supply to pubs and clubs while complementing its core operations, bringing valuable expertise to the enlarged group.
Mr Hayley said: “We look forward to integrating Crystal & Son Group into our operations and continuing our mission to deliver high-quality products and services to our customers.â€
A North Tyneside gaming startup is set to ramp up its technology after securing a £500,000 funding boost. North Shields-based BeamXR has created a game-changing streaming software development kit, which enables extended reality (XR) games to be live-streamed across popular streaming providers.
The kit is the first of its kind, and is designed for standalone XR headsets, spanning augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality (MR). The funding includes equity investment from Creative º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s North East Culture and Creative Investment Programme and equity raised from angel investors, plus a further £266,000 grant from Innovate º£½ÇÊÓƵ.
The grant amount awarded matched the total equity raised by the firm as part of an investor partnership between Creative º£½ÇÊÓƵ and Innovate º£½ÇÊÓƵ. The company plans to use the investment to expand the product capabilities of the kit, which it says enables both games developers and content creators to simultaneous stream on platforms including Twitch, TikTok and YouTube.
Beam also allows gamers to stream to their friends, with virtual cameras and two-way chat configured to fit any game. Before this investment, BeamXR had received support through Innovation SuperNetwork, which connect businesses in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ with the opportunities, finance and support needed to innovate and grow.
Paul Miller, CEO of Beam XR, said: “We see a fantastic opportunity to bring new levels of communication into VR gaming, providing tools to create exciting new social spaces that will pull more and more people into the VR experience. Our focus is on growth through enhanced community, so Creative º£½ÇÊÓƵ, Innovate º£½ÇÊÓƵ and our angel investors are the perfect partners to take us to the next stage, with ISN’s support hugely beneficial too.â€
A Durham University spin-out that has developed technology capable of generating power without emitting carbon has secured a six-figure investment.
H2CHP has secured the £600,000 cash injection led by Scottish investors Tricapital Angels and involving Sustainable Venture, and Aberdeen's Net Zero Technology Centre X accelerator programme to develop its free-piston engine that is "fuel flexible" - meaning it can generate heat and power efficiently from different clean fuels. The funding will be combined with £1.3m from Innovate º£½ÇÊÓƵ to develop prototype generators and stage industrial trials.
H2CHP intends to set up a factory in Aberdeen and a control systems team in Edinburgh, creating a number of jobs in the process.
The firm's technology was developed by Prof Tony Roskilly, an energy systems expert with three decades of experience in designing energy solutions who is chair of Energy Systems at Durham University, director of Durham Energy Institute and represents the º£½ÇÊÓƵ in the European Energy Research Alliance.
2CHP's leadership team, led by Dr Stephen Hampson, is exploring its potential in other sectors that require off-grid power. Dr Hampson, an experienced energy sector CEO with 20 years of venture capital expertise, is joined by hydrogen energy systems researcher Dr Niall McGlashan and Michael Bath, who brings experience in the aerospace and energy sectors.
Dr Hampson said: "H2CHP's innovative technology is poised to revolutionise clean energy solutions for the maritime industry and beyond. By leveraging cutting-edge research and strategic investment, we’re tackling critical global challenges like emissions reduction while creating opportunities for º£½ÇÊÓƵ-based manufacturing."
Subsea supplier JDR Cables has secured new contracts and £30m financing after winning guarantees from the º£½ÇÊÓƵ Export Finance scheme.
The North East-based manufacturer of umbilicals and power cables is set to grow on the back of several new contracts for energy transition projects in Europe and the US. Starting next year, JDR will work on connections for what will become the largest offshore wind farm in the US, Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.
Now, underpinned by an 80% º£½ÇÊÓƵ Export Finance guarantee, lenders HSBC º£½ÇÊÓƵ, Societe Generale and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) have issued a performance bond providing the funds to carry out new contracts. It is the third such export finance deal for JDR, which was supported in 2015 and again in 2022 when a £100m working capital loan was agreed by the same group of lenders to support the firm's construction of a new subsea cable factory in Northumberland. That deal also helped safeguard 270 jobs at the firm's existing bases at Hartlepool and in Cambridgeshire.
JDR's Cambois facility is due to create more than 170 jobs and will be capable of manufacturing both land and subsea cables used to connect offshore wind farms to the energy grid. Once opened, the plant will be the only one in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ capable of manufacturing high-voltage subsea cables from start to finish.
Monika CupiaÅ‚-Zgryzek, chief executive officer at JDR and TELE-FONIKA Kable, said: “We are proud to be at the forefront of the global renewable energy transition. The support from º£½ÇÊÓƵ Export Finance is pivotal in enabling us to expand our operations and meet the growing demand for high-quality, high-voltage subsea and land cables.
â€This investment not only strengthens our market position but also underscores our commitment to innovation, job creation, and the decarbonization of the energy sector. As we continue to grow, we remain dedicated to contributing to the º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s leadership in offshore wind manufacturing and the global push towards net-zero emissions by 2050."
