NAA Update: More Awards success for the North West, and NAA Business Excellence funding needs to be used up!
Torotrak wins the 2014 SMMT Automotive Innovation Award, Michael Straughan and Richard Else make it into the Top 100 People in Manufacturing, JLR employee wins a Pride of Merseyside Fundraising Award, and if you want to win an NAA Business Excellence Award next year, then the funding is about to run out
It doesn’t feel as if it is the end of the year while I am sitting here writing this with the sun coming in through the window, but the weathermen are predicting a rapid drop in temperature this week, and as the weeks and events in my diary slip past I know that we are at the end of the year!
I have been very fortunate to attend three completely different but inspiring events in a period of 10 days at the end of November. Firstly I was a guest of Jaguar Land Rover at the Pride of Merseyside Awards and as any of you know who have watched the national equivalent on television, it is very difficult to keep the eyes dry while hearing about the amazing work of others. Please take a look at the article where a JLR employee won the fundraising award with the ‘Barrow for Marrow’. They will be continuing the fundraising by taking five months off work and travelling to China and back via a bicycle to raise more money.
The second event was the SMMT 98th Annual Dinner where the 2014 SMMT Automotive Innovation Award, sponsored by GKN Driveline and supported by The Times, was won by North West company Torotrak for its Flybrid KERS for buses and commercial vehicles; again take a look at the article.
The following night saw me in Birmingham for the launch of The Manufacturer’s first ever list of Top 100 People in Manufacturing. This saw two members of the NAA Board, Richard Else and Michael Straughan, both on the list, and Michael made it to the Top 20; well done to both of you! Another notable name locally that appeared on the list is Gareth Humphries of MBDA for his work with young people and specifically apprentices.
One item that has come across loud and clear during 2014 is the need for us to sell or market more of our achievements as a group of companies to a wider audience; be that on a national automotive basis or outside of the sector and that is why you may have heard from us recently. We are looking to generate quarterly information on the news, funding and growth activities of you, our members; we will refine the process, but please make sure that we get all your good news stories, however small, so that we can go and shout about the success of the NW.
Hopefully you, like us, have had a very successful year and I would like to remind everyone that now is the time to think how you want to utilise the last remaining £’s available within the NAA Business Excellence project. We currently have 152 Business Excellence members; have reached project number 125 with other short-term potential projects being discussed for early January 2015. All monies need to be spent by June 2015, so that doesn’t give you long to plan, execute and conclude a project. We have allocated £1,185,000 to projects to date, leaving £53,000 available for Merseyside companies and £45,000 for companies in the “rest of the North West”. Please contact one of the NAA team now to discuss any potential projects.
We are trying to work with the Local Enterprise Partnerships to ensure that there is some future cover for similar activities; but we are far from the final solutions at this time – we will keep you informed during next year. As a reminder, if we, the NAA, are to be successful in sharing the good news from the NW, obtaining funding support for you all and also assisting you all in your growth and the development of the supply chain, then we need your support as paid members of NAA; if you are not a paid member, then please make a New Year’s resolution to move from being either a BE Member or someone on our database to becoming a paid member.
It just leaves me to wish you all a happy and relaxing Christmas with your families, and best wishes for 2015!
Carol
