Tree-mendous Christmas bonus of TV

FIVE am start, FOUR days notice, THREE men, TWO artificial Christmas trees and ONE long trip in a white van for the ultimate television promotion.
It may not be the 12 days of Christmas as we know it but it was a festive adventure for Grimsby company Easyplants.co.uk and I.

So how exactly did this come about?
The BBC's Declan Curry and his team embarked on a green Christmas campaign this year, on the breakfast TV show, and for part of it they brought two giants of the industry together - a major grower, and a major importer.
Pete Drinkell has been dealing in artificial greenery for three years, using the internet as a key sales tool from his base off Freeman Street. This year Christmas trees direct from China surpassed all expectations.
Jim Rudderham, forestry and conservation manager at Elveden, Suffolk, is also a master of his game, selling real trees to families and local authorities for use in town and city centres. He has East Anglia covered, and also supplied a 75ft tree to the good people of Cardiff, and catered for St Paul's Cathedral.
So with the face of business on the Beeb in the morning acting as referee, the two sides had a two-round showdown on what was best - on live TV before 9-million people.
Good natured, concise discussion was the order of the day. Mr Rudderham had the carbon neutral standpoint as a major plus, adding the fact that it was easily dealt with in an environmentally sound way. With artificial trees made from oil-based plastics, our Pete pushed the longevity of his products, rather than what goes into making them. One tree can last 10 years, and negates the need to lose forestry. But he also struck a chord with the in vogue status of such products, with special colours allowing customers to tailor his offerings to their individual tastes.
Had the argument got dirty he had amunition too. While researching the local habitat the previous evening, we found a couple in a pub that buy from Elveden. They told how they use hair spray to stop the needles from dropping - the single biggest complaint from real buyers. So much for carbon neutral!
It didn't stray that way though, so he also refrained from mentioning the three artificial trees within Mr Rudderham's impressive farm shop, and I didn't mention my real tree in my front room - well you wouldn't want to let the side down would you.
I called a score draw, Declan was just happy to get back to the warmth, having also juggled reindeers and Newfoundland dogs in the three hour window.
It was a world away from his London Stock Market home, but it got those famous cheeks a little rosier without a glass of Champers in sight.
He even snaffled a copy of Grimsby Telegraph Business hot off the press, though it had cooled somewhat on the journey south - through frozen (and sometime flooded) fen.
So what now for Easyplants?
It has been treemendous (sorry) publicity. Pete can now add 'as seen on BBC' to any marketing material, he has photographs of him with the national icon of business journalism, not to mention raising the local profile of the business through the Grimsby Telegraph.
Then there's the curry I treated him and his business partner Mark Patterson to, though I think such national exposure was the Christmas present his graft has really earned.
Tomorrow it will be back to the day job of non-seasonal artificial plants for homes and offices... until September when the Christmas run-up starts again, with China and containers.
For more information visit www.easyplants.co.uk

Eastern promise is a delight to hear.

FOR 10 years the loyal, dedicated workers at what was once Courtaulds have had to deal with upheaval, uncertainty and the loss of hundreds of colleagues as the company has changed ownership three times.
With the arrival of major investment from China, the remaining 170 will be hoping it is third time lucky, and that the potential so many have seen in the carbon fibre plant can be realised.
It has been a long wait, and on top of it an agonising fortnight of protracted negotiations, as detail has been dissected and deadlines moved further and further back to accommodate the best possible result.
Every few hours I was in touch with the administrators and unions as this deal emerged. The feeling that it was going to be positive was there from an early stage, but so much can emerge when the detail is under so much scrutiny. No doubt documents have been translated, discussions interpreted and everything scrutinised to the nth degree.
So when Bluestar said yes, it must have been like mana from heaven for the workers and their families.
Despite a rich history of nearly 50 years producing some of the highest quality speciality fibres for uses ranging from clothing to aeroplane brakes, the past few years have been increasingly difficult.
The plant originally opened as Courtaulds in the late Fifties, pioneering the manufacture of hi-tech fibre Tencel and bringing more than 1,000 jobs. It was at the forefront of the industry’s technology, and is still regarded as way ahead of the competition.
It struggled in the Eighties, with periods of closure as the textile industry slumped.
It was then bought out by Acordis in January 1998. But Tencel is no longer produced at the Grimsby plant, and in 2001, 200 jobs went when the viscose plant was sold off.
On Friday, May 13, last year, administrators were called in by Acordis, which employed 475 workers at that time.
The consortium of private investors then put together the deal to save the plant from liquidation in October, by which time 200 jobs had been shed by the company, and operations in Bradford closed down.
Massive hopes for a new beginning last autumn fell flat, with new company Fibres Worldwide Ltd not lasting a year before calling on business recovery specialists. A major reason was the massive energy prices last winter, they hit in Fibres’ infancy, at a time when it had no credit history to buy gas in bulk, and was forced to pay ridiculous spot prices to keep the plant running.
In the first few months of the new era, production lines were pulled because the cost making the fibre would incur was more than it could sell for.
New markets were approached, but all the time the energy prices caused a major problem.
Then, on September 26, exactly 11 months to the day that a new dawn was heralded for the plant, 215 remaining members of staff found themselves back in the control of administrators Deloitte.
A speciality line was quickly closed with 40 jobs lost. Since then the business recovery giant has continued to run the firm, all the time working towards today’s ending, first looking at the bids, then going through due diligence and finally crucial and protracted negotiations involving lawyers for both parties.
Deloitte walk away with great credit. The TGWU wrote to them to say thank you, for once the first deadline came they could have said enough and shut down. Instead they did a difficult job with compassion and care, and with it maintained a key part of the south bank's make up.
Perhaps because of the unsuccessful venture last time out, they saw it as a personal challenge too. The professionalism and dedication of all involved, and from David Service down to the post room and gatehouse, it has proved worthwhile.
All of us at the Telegraph wish them well.

Come on Town!

AT last.... Grimsby Town FC will have an answer to the proposals for a new stadium a year and a day after submitting the planning application.
It has been a long wait for the fans, but the work done behind the scenes by both North East Lincolnshire Council and the football club cannot be understated.
Since the concept was first drawn up, the Mariners have played in every division of the Football League, and new stadia have popped up everywhere from Doncaster to Darlington and Stoke to Swansea.
Now the team find themselves in the lower reaches of soccer's hierarchy, but that is no reason to put the plans on hold.
Blundell Park has operated for more than 100 years. Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have all been there, so who knows what the future could hold. What is clear is that money is more important than it ever has been. A good footballing side now needs funding, as well as finding. Stadiums need to operate as mini-business hubs, and not just for three hours on every other Saturday for nine-and-a-half months of the year.
Independent reports have highlighted Great Coates as the prime site. If what is being proposed can be developed then Grimsby will have a gateway to be proud of.
Forget ideas about the fish docks, this project is too far down the line and that area of town is still a working zone. This stadium was needed back in 1994, it was certainly needed in 1998, and it is no different in 2008 or 2018.
So come Janunary 25th there can only be one decision surely?
Up the Mariners.

Guest Blog: Andrew Palmer, deputy director of CBI Yorkshire and Humber, gives his take on the Government's Leitch Review of Skills.

Nobody reading the Leitch report could deny that we have to raise our game on skills if the UK is to seize the opportunities that globalisation brings and mitigate its downsides, at a time when jobs for the unskilled are becoming more scarce.
Currently, too many employers remain confused and bewildered by the skills infrastructure. There is a clear need to ensure a better match between publicly-funded courses and the training and development that employers and employees are looking for.
Companies will wholeheartedly endorse Lord Leitch’s central tenet that the skills needs of employers - and their employees - should be put at the heart of the UK's adult training system. Leitch is right to advocate that training should be demand-led, and that public funds should only go to those vocational courses accredited by employer-led Sector Skills Councils.
Business already spends £33 billion a year on training and is more than willing to play its part in upskilling the workforce further to safeguard the UK's competitiveness. The CBI will encourage its members to respond to Leitch's call for employers to help their employees gain a basic skills and GCSE-level qualification by using the Government's 'Train to Gain' initiative.
There is no magic bullet that will solve the UK's skills shortfalls. These are long-term challenges requiring long-term thinking. Despite suggestions that compulsion could be revisited, Leitch is right to have focused on incentives and reforms, rather than compelling firms to train, for which a good case has never been made. As Leitch highlights in today's report, a blunt 'one size fits all' form of compulsion is unlikely to be effective.
Lord Leitch's report provides a blueprint for reform that could, if fully implemented, put us on course to improve the UK's skills profile dramatically over the course of the next two decades. It is now up to Government to deliver Leitch's vision.

Oiling the wheels of fish dock relocation...

HOW do you solve a problem like an antiquated fish dock?
Andrew Lloyd Webber had the right idea, go public. And now the private businessmen behind a new plan for the dock estate have revealed their intentions for a still-thriving part of Grimsby’s food economy.
Intention from all parties has abounded for sometime now, it pre-dates my arrival at the Telegraph, let alone the business desk.
And while it is a commercially sensitive subject, and I appreciate this, all the work is being done behind closed doors.
This bold move by QA and its clients may encourage a more publicly angled decision-making process. And while we accept the council is there to represent us, it would be helpful if there was chance to explore public opinion on THE issue for an area of the town that has left a legacy that has touched us all.
The publication of these plans is a major step, in which direction I am not completely sure, but a step nonetheless.
But location, location, location is the key issue, and time is a significant factor too.
Traditionalists will argue that a major part of the fishing industry should stay on the fish docks. Others will point to the fact that such a high percentage of it is ‘landed’ in containers and aeroplanes from Iceland that ease of road transport should be the key factor.
Access is certainly an issue in Grimsby. With a weak bridge one way into the docks and the need to cross the railway line at the other, there are major infrastructure issues for long-term sustainability.
But on the flip side, Grimsby’s most successful export Young’s Seafood, stands proudly on Grimsby fish docks and will not be budging any time soon.
Europarc has a strong food manufacturing base already, and plans for a Humber Seafood Institute – itself not without location controversy – have been passed by the local authority for Europarc.
Both schemes have their obvious benefits and challenges and both will need financial support from the regional development agency to prosper.
What is clear is that this has gone on long enough, and if this helps make the process more open and pushes it higher up the agendas of all involved, then transparency is a good thing. A unified approach, whatever the decision, is vital. To ensure it happens in Grimsby is paramount.

Refuelling the masses from mash

FOOD waste to energy. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue and takes a little more understanding than most subjects, but it could be quite a coup for North East Lincolnshire.
EnCycle, the company that has harnessed the technology to make electricity out of past sell by date pizzas, pastas and pork chow mein, has found a home in Stallingborough.
Planning consent and environmental regulations allowing, it will be another major win for Europe's Food Town.
It will add to the list of vital services for food producers that includes: logistics, maintenance, storage, labour, cheap land and amazing access to raw materials.
Waste is an issue getting close to energy when it comes to pricing. Both have major impacts on the environment, and the balance sheets of the companies that make Grimsby great.
By getting this company here, a place where it will thrive, we are helping to secure manufacturing where labour is intensive. We don't want to lose another Bird's Eye, and this company may just help to ensure that.
A second part of this is the amazing power hub that is rapidly building up here on the Humber south bank. May it continue.