Civic Trust Award for Focus Consultants project

Project manager Focus Consultants is celebrating after a scheme the company was involved in scooped a key Civic Trust Award.

SeaCity Museum in Southampton was one of 32 projects across the country to receive one of the awards, which are given to projects that make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the environment.

Focus, which is based at Phoenix Business Park in Nottingham, and has offices in Holborn, London, Endeavour Park, Boston, Princess Road East, Leicester, and Aubourn, Lincoln, was the project manager for SeaCity in conjunction with Southampton City Council.

The £15 million maritime museum opened in 2012 – 100 years after the ill-fated Titanic set sail from Southampton – and development involved converting the grade II* listed former Magistrates’ Courts adjoining the Civic Centre, Southampton City Art Gallery and the Guildhall. It is the centre piece of a major regeneration of the city’s new Cultural Quarter.

“Focus Consultants is proud to have been part of the team that developed Southampton SeaCity Museum, and we are delighted to hear the news that it has won a prestigious Civic Trust Award,” said Focus Consultants partner Steven Fletcher.

The Civic Trust Awards is the longest standing architectural and built environment awards scheme in Europe, having been established in 1959. Civic Trust Award level schemes must demonstrate excellence in architecture or design, sustainability, inclusive design and make a positive social, cultural, environmental or economic benefit to the local community.

Building constructor for SeaCity was Kier Construction and architect was Wilkinson Eyre Architects, with the exhibitions being designed by Urban Salon and installed by 8Build.

Focus Consultants supported the City Council in development of the Heritage Lottery Fund applications for round 1 and round 2 of the SeaCity project. The company acted as project manager for the whole scheme, including the building and exhibition works, and also contract administrator for the exhibition works.

Focus is a multi-disciplinary company which specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the Midlands and the UK. Focus has secured more than £900 million of grant assistance, and delivered more than £1 billion of projects and programmes since 1994.

For more information about Focus Consultants visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Brewery says cheers to the Food and Drink iNet

A Leicestershire brewery is raising a glass to the Food and Drink iNet (Innovation Network) after being given a grant to help with expansion plans.

Langton Brewery Ltd at Thorpe Langton, near Market Harborough, has launched a new service offering personalised bottles of beer following a grant from the iNet, which is run by trade organisation The Food and Drink Forum.

At the same time, the company has also invested in new printing and bottle-labelling machines to make it more efficient.

The brewery, which currently employs four people, hopes the move will boost business and allow it to employ another person.

“The Food and Drink iNet aims to support innovation within the East Midlands food and drink sector, and this is an excellent example of a business looking to introduce new ways of working and new products,” said Richard Worrall, director of the Food and Drink iNet.

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the iNet offers business advice to the sector, and aims to build on the tradition of innovation in the food and drink industry in the region by helping to create opportunities to develop knowledge and skills, and to help research, develop and implement new products, markets, services and processes.

The iNet awarded a £2,895 grant to Langton Brewery Ltd towards the investment of just over £7,000 in the expansion project.

“We anticipate that, by being more IT-accessible, by offering this bespoke service, and by having an in-house labelling facility, we will be able to develop a new part of the market, expand and respond quickly to customer needs, improve our efficiency and increase profit margins,” said Langton Brewery director Alistair Chapman.

“We would like to thank the Food and Drink iNet for the support we have received.”

The brewery, which supplies to retail, wholesale, pub, food service and mobile/party bar customers, has now developed its website to take online orders for personalised bespoke bottles of beer.

It will help the company to move into the gift market, which is a new area for the business.

Previously the brewery hand-labelled 30,000 bottles a year with pre-printed labels, but the additional investment in printing and labelling machines will be far more efficient, added Mr Chapman.

The Food and Drink iNet is managed by a consortium, led by the Food and Drink Forum and including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Lincoln, and the University of Nottingham. It is based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, with advisors covering the East Midlands region to offer a range of support to small and medium-sized enterprises that work in the sector.  

For more information about The Food and Drink iNet visit www.foodanddrink-inet.org.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Food and Drink iNet grant helps apple snack idea to evolve

A Leicestershire company has developed a crunchy new apple snack using fruit that would previously have gone to waste, thanks to a grant from the Food and Drink iNet.

Omniceutica Limited has invented a process which transforms pulp from cider making, as well as surplus, ungraded or bruised fruit, into bite-sized servings.

The firm, based at Asfordby Business Park, near Melton Mowbray, was awarded almost £10,000 from the Food and Drink iNet under a Collaborate to Innovate project to develop the concept.

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and run by trade organisation the Food and Drink Forum, the iNet aims to encourage innovation in the East Midlands food and drink sector.

Glen Martyn, director at Omniceutica said: “We are converting a freely available resource that is currently seen as waste from the fruit processing and cider industries into a nutritious and commercially viable snack. The amount of food wasted throughout the food industry is of huge financial and environmental concern so the timing of this innovation is right.”

Jo Murphy, an advisor with the Food and Drink iNet, said that tackling waste and finding alternative uses for by-products in the food and drink sector was a key target for the industry.

“The Food and Drink iNet has funded a number of projects under its Collaborate to Innovate programme which focus on positive ways of reducing waste in the sector,” she said. “Omniceutica has come up with an inventive way of creating a new product using ingredients that would previously have been thrown away.

“The technology will also benefit small and medium-sized enterprises in the East Midlands, such as cider makers and other producers, who could now have a productive outlet for some of their waste products – saving money on disposal costs and creating additional revenue.”

Omniceutica is a specialist product developer and offers other services through its consultancy. One of its specialist areas is in food, offering its research and development services to companies, ranging from start-ups through to larger global organisations.

Omniceutica develops and produces pilot-scale production batches to test ideas and concepts in readiness for commercial scale up.

The iNet grant has funded work to source ingredients and develop a new drying process that is less energy intensive and retains more nutrients than conventional systems.

The work has also involved experts from the University of Nottingham carrying out initial analysis of the snack’s nutrient content.

Omniceutica is exploring patent issues before the product is prepared for marketing and sale through licensing agreements to larger manufacturers.

Since the company was formed in 2010, its staff have collaborated with clients locally, nationally and around the world. It also works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has substantial expertise in intellectual property and patents.

The Food and Drink iNet, is managed by a consortium, led by the Food and Drink Forum and including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Lincoln, and The University of Nottingham.

It is based at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, with advisors covering the East Midlands region to offer a range of support to small and medium-sized enterprises that work in the sector.

For more information about the Food and Drink iNet visit www.foodanddrink-inet.org.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk