B2B Boosts Baxter's Business

Teesside’s B2B Manufacturing Centre has assisted 27 projects in its first year, helping small and medium-sized enterprises to use information technology to make their businesses more efficient.

The B2B Centre was launched over a year ago by the University of Teesside with the support of regional development agency, One NorthEast, the Warwick Manufacturing Group and the European Regional Development Fund.

The centre aims to improve the region’s economy by assisting small and medium-sized companies to get the most out of information and communications technologies.

An example is the way the B2B Manufacturing Centre helped husband and wife business partners, Chris and Geoff Baxter get to grips with new technology.

In particular, the B2B team at the University have assisted the new enterprise in understanding the web and discovering how computer-aided design can help make their undertaking more efficient and competitive.

Middlesbrough-based Baxter Promotions is co-directed by Chris and Geoff with the aim of producing promotional items, including many made from recyclable products, and stimulating the jobs market for disadvantaged people.

Geoff says: “We are keen to prove you can make things whilst protecting the environment and try to use recycled materials where possible.”

The firm scooped among other things, the £8,000 first prize in a national competition in the Trading Places Awards, a government-backed event recognising jobless people who have become their own bosses. At the Awards, Minister for Work, Jane Kennedy, described Chris and Geoff as “an inspirational example of people who have overcome personal adversity and have been brave enough to set up their own business from scratch and, in doing so, changed the direction of their lives.”

Geoff worked as a manager in the print and plastics industry for 23 years before being made redundant. Chris worked as an administrator with various companies and felt pressure was on her to quit her job because she was suffering from an illness at the time.

Determined to set up a family business on Teesside, the Middlesbrough-born couple pooled their talents and launched Baxter Promotions in 2003 to help stem the tide of decline in UK manufacturing and re-cycle some of the tons of plastic that Geoff saw discarded in his years in industry.

Starting a new enterprise is quite a daunting prospect and their progress over the first 15 months was eased enormously by the help they received from two sources – the University’s B2B Manufacturing Centre and Renew Tees Valley.

Chris and Geoff met the B2B people at a trade fair in Newcastle and were eager to benefit from the expertise available at the University. The B2B Centre’s mission is to help small and medium-sized enterprises improve their competitiveness by making the most of new technology.

To date, Sajid Abdullah, the B2B project design specialist, has introduced Geoff to computer aided design (CAD) and assisted Geoff to share and communicate design information with his customers and suppliers via the Internet to reduce design and development time.

His colleague, Cheryl Percival, a graduate from the University’s Media Technology and Production degree, has given the company advice on how to develop their website.

Sajid says: “Our work with Baxter Promotions achieved several of our key objectives including assisting companies with their electronic trading.”

Kevin Ions, the B2B Centre’s SME specialist at the University, says: “We have created the capability for Geoff and Chris to increase their company’s turnover and the number and range of products they can produce themselves through our contacts in the polymer centre at Stockton Riverside College and the digital factory run by Bishop Auckland College.”

Geoff reveals: “We’ve now got more than 100 customers, ranging from Durham University to Stockton and Redcar & Cleveland Councils and one of the industrial giants of the area, steelmaker Corus.”

Promotional items produced for clients range from little furry creatures carrying logos, money boxes, coffee cup coasters, badges and pens.

Over three years to 2006, Teesside’s B2B Manufacturing Centre aims to assist a minimum of 70 companies to adopt new B2B technologies.

B2B Manufacturing Centre’s website is www.b2b-mc.co.uk and Kevin Ions can be contacted on tel 01642 384341 e-mail k.ions@tees.ac.uk

---