NAA Update: This is a bumper edition of your newsletter containing lots of important information that may offer significant benefits for your business – please take a few minutes to review the stories
There have recently been many important automotive announcements, such as the launch of the Automotive Sector Strategy and the associated Advanced Propulsion Centre and the Automotive Investment Organisation (AIO), which are summarised below in this newsletter, along with the latest news that the new Bentley SUV is to be manufactured at Crewe with £800m investment and 1,000 new jobs.
It has been a good news July, I have enjoyed seeing our sporting success in tennis, rugby union, cricket and cycling and then we have had good news of the royal birth and today we received the announcement that Crewe will be the manufacturing location for the Bentley SUV that will be launched in 2016; there will be an investment of £800m and it will create 1,000 new jobs. All I need is for all of you to fill in your application forms for paid membership of the NAA and I will be a very happy Chief Exec!
It has been a busy month for events with both an NAA Members Networking Meeting and a Business Excellence Networking meeting, in addition I have also attended two other events that I thought you would like to hear about and potentially will look to become participants in the future!
I was given the opportunity of attending the gala dinner for the International Festival for Business (IFB) in Liverpool during June & July 2014. The event was launched on 3rd July 2013 by Prime Minister David Cameron. Although I had heard about the event before, it was the first time I had the opportunity to understand more about the event. The aim is that the IFB will deliver:
- Over 100 events throughout June & July 2014
- An engaged audience of 250,000
- Global representation
- £100m direct investment into the UK
- A catalyst to double UK exports by 2020
The festival will focus on a number of key business sectors and themes, the Manufacturing, Science & Technology theme will be held during w/c 23 June 2014. More information can be found on www.IFB2014.com. I am sure that I will be mentioning more about this in future months…
I had the opportunity to attend the launch of the SMMT 14th Sustainability Report at the beginning of July. It was good to see how the KPI’s of the industry within the UK have improved for economic, environmental and social performance, but what I found surprising is that these figures were generated by 19 signatories of which only 4 were not vehicle manufacturers. If these figures are truly to represent the whole of the automotive industry then shouldn’t it also include more companies from the supply chain? Please take a look at the report on www.smmt.co.uk/sustainability and I am sure that if you are interested in contributing to next year’s report then the SMMT would like to hear from you.
There have also been many other important automotive news announcements recently, which are covered in this newsletter – I strongly recommend that you take a look as they could have significant positive impacts upon your business.
While we are still enjoying the warmth of the summer, now is the time to start thinking about the NAA Awards that will be held at the Annual Dinner on 6 November at Carden Park Hotel. Elsewhere in the newsletter you will see more information about how to enter the awards, please ponder on this during your summer holidays and then in late August/ September get your application form in. The advance bookings already means that the event will be larger than last year, so if you want to see your company mentioned during the awards ceremony then enter now!
Please take a look at the article on the launch of the automotive strategy further on in this newsletter, even if all you read is the summary. But also take a look at page 45 where Electron Technical Solutions have been included as one of the case studies.
It has been a very busy, successful year so far for both the NAA & the Automotive Industry in the UK, so I suspect that like me you will be looking forward to some time off to relax with the family – enjoy it and we will be back with our next newsletter at the beginning of September.
Carol
