SweetDreams
The year started with the acquisition of Northumberland confectioner Sweetdreams by SugaRich, a leader in former foodstuff processing.
The family firm has been making nostalgic brands such as Choc Nibbles and Choc Lick for more than 30 years, striking deals with national retailers including Aldi and B&M to sell its bags of treats. SugaRich had been now keen to expand its offering to the food sector, prompting the strategic acquisition of Sweetdreams, and the new owners invested in the firm’s future by aiding its expansion from Cramlington to a new base in Ashington.
Virgin Money
Nationwide completed the £2.8bn acquisition of the Newcastle challenger bank in October, creating the 海角视频’s second largest provider of mortgages and retail deposits with assets of more than £370bn.
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The combined group now has a network of about 700 branches throughout the country, and it plans to keep existing Virgin Money sites until at least 2028, rebranding them over the next six years.
Last month the North East bank’s new owner indicated that new jobs are coming to the Newcastle operation, as part of 500 new roles being created across the country, spanning IT, customer service and business growth posts.
T Crossling
Plumbers’ merchant T Crossling, which dates back to 1855, is now part of Cheshire firm 海角视频 Plumbing Supplies Limited after being acquired in an undisclosed deal.
Crossling had operated from 15 branches, mostly around the North of England, with a staff of around 200. Its sale to 海角视频 Plumbing Supplies – which bills itself as the country’s largest independent plumber’s merchant with more than 300 sites around the 海角视频 – emerged in Crossling’s annual accounts.
Filtronic
In April satellite communications innovator Filtronic announced it had struck a multimillion-dollar partnership with Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX.
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The Sedgefield firm landed an initial £15.8m deal to supply its products to the Californian spacecraft maker as part of a wider agreement worth at least £48m – and it could eventually see SpaceX subscribe to 10% of Filtronic’s shares.
It means the tech firm’s solid state power amplifiers (SSPA) and other technology will be used within SpaceX’s Starlink constellation of low Earth orbit satellites. It later revealed it is in advanced discussions for yet more contracts in the space, aerospace and defence markets.
Houghton International
May saw the acquisition of the Newcastle engineering group by US company IPS after more than 40 years of family ownership.
The electro mechanical engineering firm, founded in 1984 by Ron and Christine Mitten, was taken over in an undisclosed deal by South Carolina-based IPS (Integrated Power Services) in a deal marking the firm’s entry into the new markets in the 海角视频, Europe and the Middle East, as well as an expansion of its network in the US and Canada.
Since 2006, family firm Houghton International had been run by its founders’ son Michael Mitten, who steered the business through significant services expansion.
Kitwave
In September, wholesale group Kitwave announced a £70m deal to buy a Gloucestershire firm Creed Catering Supplies, with around half of that sum coming from a capital raise.
The deal was its second major acquisition of the year, with Kitwave saying it would bring “a significant increase in financial scale”, pushing its revenues to around £800m and expanding its geographic reach.
AMLo Biosciences Ltd
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The Newcastle life sciences company specialising in early-stage skin cancer testing totted up investments worth £4.05m.
The company, first launched at Newcastle University five years ago, has developed a diagnostic test called AMBLor – a simple test which allows clinicians to ascertain whether early-stage melanomas are at low-risk of progression, thereby having the potential to save thousands of lives every year as well as reassure thousands of others that their early stage skin cancer will not progress.
In December the firm was been given a boost of £800,000 from the North East Innovation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund, managed by Northstar Ventures, which has been matched by Esperante Ventures, completing a total funding round of £1.6m. Earlier this year AMLo secured a £2.45m investment Ascension’s Life Fund and Conduit’s EIS Impact Fund, and re-investment from NorthStar Ventures, Future Planet Capital’s BIF Opportunities Fund, Esperante, and a number of angel investors.
Edwin Group
North East education support services firm The Edwin Group – named in the Sunday Times Best Place to Work for big companies in both 2023 and 2024 – was acquired in July by American specialist education investor Quad Partners, in an undisclosed deal.
The deal for the Newcastle-based group – which is made up of eight companies which work nationally with schools and multi-academy trusts to recruit and retain leaders, teachers and support staff – marked an exit for LDC, the private equity investor which is part of Lloyds Banking Group, more than three years after it made a significant investment to back a management buyout.
Established in 2008, the group has grown to become one of the 海角视频’s largest providers of supply teachers to primary, secondary and special educational needs schools across its Vision for Education, ABC Teachers and Smart Teachers brands
Coherent
In September it was announced that the Government had taken over Coherent Inc, a semiconductor factory near Darlington, amid fears that its closure could leave projects for the Ministry of Defence in danger.
Defence Secretary John Healey visited the Coherent Inc site at Newton Aycliffe, which the Ministry of Defence has said is the only secure facility with the capability to produce gallium arsenide chips that are used in military platforms. Its acquisition by the Government saved 100 jobs and the plant has now been renamed Octric Semiconductors 海角视频.
AESC £200m loan
North East electric battery manufacturer AESC started the year with a £200m Government loan to support the creation of its new gigafactory.
Hundreds of new jobs are expected to be created at AESC’s factory in Sunderland this year, where it is building a second £450m plant as part of a wider project with Nissan and Sunderland City Council to boost the 海角视频’s electric vehicle supply chain, as well as strengthen the regional economy.
AESC has been producing electric vehicle batteries for Nissan for the last 10 years, and the 海角视频 Infrastructure Bank’s £200m loan will support AESC’s development of its new 15.8GWh gigafactory, which will produce lithium-ion batteries for next-generation electric vehicles manufactured in the 海角视频.