southtyneside.info
Business Community Representative
Who we are?
The business community in South Tyneside is a wide variety of organisations involved in a number of different activities. There is a handful of large organisations (employing more than 250 people), several medium sized companies (employing 50 to 250), and a vast array of small organisations (employing less than 50 people).
Between us, we cover the retail, service and manufacturing sections of the economy. What we all have in common is the desire to succeed, which, in itself, will create employment, levels of business, and profit, in addition to having a highly dependable, loyal workforce with statistics for employee turnover, absenteeism and industrial disputes which all fall below the national average.
Some people are surprised to learn that there are more than three thousand registered businesses in South Tyneside.
What we have to offer
Once we have succeeded in establishing the means of co-ordinating the views, needs and contribution we have to offer the local economy, we can have a telling effect on the fortunes of South Tyneside. It is our aim to make a sustainable commitment to the borough's aims and objectives, by providing employment opportunities, career progression, and finding out what we have to offer the local economy by focusing on issues like maximising local sourcing. If everything we need could be brought within South Tyneside, whatever that may be, then there is the opportunity to create and satisfy demand, so generating higher business levels, as well as stimulating employment.
What we need is to establish a register of those needs, which cannot be sourced in South Tyneside, which can then be analysed to identify genuine gaps in the local supply chain. Support for business start-ups based on such needs will be fundamental to what the business community has to offer.
Who we are in touch with
In the past, communication from and within, the business sector has proved to be a problem. Organisations worked successfully independently of each other while the council seemed happy to leave well alone.
Recent events clearly suggest that attitudes have changed and that there is a togetherness in South Tyneside which needs the business community to be in touch with itself. The Chamber of Trade, Chamber of Commerce, the Business Club and the South Tyneside Enterprise Partnership (STEP) have begun to promote joint events of mutual and beneficial interest to business.
A problem continues to exist in that the silent majority is still absent and needs to be engaged in the new spirit evident in South Tyneside.
We are also in touch with the Council and the Community through the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), and STEP. Business sector representatives are involved in all three, but more are needed. The Council is on record as calling for business input to the various steering groups and working parties involved in the Transformational Plan, as well as ongoing bodies such as the Community Area Forums (CAF's) to which business views are needed. The Council is also keen to understand how they can help local businesses and is entitled to expect business to reciprocate.
Key Contact:
Geoff Ford
Chairman & Chief Executive
Ford Component Manufacturing Ltd
> More about Geoff Ford
Contact Details:
East Side
Tyne Dock
South Shields
Tel No: 0191 454 0141
Fax: 0191 456 0028
E-mail:geoff.ford@fordcomps.co.uk
