Essex - Our Position is Your Strength for Starting a Small Business in the UK

Feb 24
11:48

2011

Alexander A

Alexander A

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Essex provides an ideally located, vibrant business environment with a long history of innovation and entrepreneurship and is home to a large community of early stage businesses, technological innovation, inspirational talent and creativity. This is displayed in a dynamic economy, low unemployment and a high concentration of R&D intensive companies.

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Essex provides great opportunities for investors thinking of starting a small business in the UK or expanding its operations. Essex’s unique blend of business,Essex - Our Position is Your Strength for Starting a Small Business in the UK Articles skills strengths and industry, its proximity to other vibrant economies and a great location in relation to the rest of the UK and to continental Europe means that Essex is a top location for any business.

Essex is a gateway to London, the Midlands and to Europe. Stansted Airport, the ports of Harwich, Tilbury and the planned London Gateway port, three national rail routes and direct feeds into the national road network give the county a logistics and transport resource that is one of the best in the UK.

As well as being a dynamic location itself, its proximity to the economies of London, Cambridge and mainland Europe means that Essex is uniquely place at the heart of the UK’s major business, industrial and transport networks. Businesses enjoy a location famed for its quality of life and benefit from high value business support services.

Essex has a vibrant and varied business community and is home to world leading companies spanning many sectors including advanced technology, creative industries and environmental technologies. Its entrepreneurial and dynamic workforce generates a higher than average number of start up businesses, a highly skilled workforce and high levels of employment, resulting in Essex having one of the most buoyant economies for starting a small business in the UK.

The University of Essex is one of the UK’s leading academic institutions and together with Anglia Ruskin University and Writtle College they offer excellent research and development facilities and business resources for a range of sectors. This is the place to be in an era of knowledge based business.

Investors starting a small business in the UK also benefit from the huge growth Essex is currently experiencing which is focussed on the strategic and economic growth nodes around Thames Gateway South Essex in the south, Haven Gateway in the north-east and the M11/ Stansted corridor. As well as the above the county is greatly benefiting from the 2012 Olympics, further development of Stansted Airport and Crossrail.

All in all Essex offers investors, both from the UK and overseas, a rich business environment, an unequalled transport infrastructure and an unrivalled proximity to key areas of the UK and Europe.

Ford: Britain’s most popular car brand  - case study automotive sector

INVEST Essex case studies highlighting Essex companies who are leaders in their fields

Oliver Rowe, Corporate Communications News Manager has encouraging words for anyone starting a small business in the UK “With its strategic position on the Thames, plus excellent motorway and rail connections, Dagenham is the UK and European transport hub with thousands of vehicles, engines and components passing in and out daily.”

 Ford, based at four locations in Essex, has been Britain’s best-selling car brand for over 30 years, and its commercial vehicles have been market leaders since 1965. The company currently sells around 440,000 cars and commercial vehicles each year and aims to be the ideal vehicle available for all motorists; including families carrying people and luggage, small car drivers, performance enthusiasts and van drivers. 

To maintain its advantage, Ford concentrates on continual design development with increasingly high-tech feature content, offering competitive, fuel-efficient motoring and a combination of style and value that is increasingly drawing customers out of premium brands.

  Essex plays an important part in Ford’s operations with 9000 of the company’s 13,000 UK employees based in the county. Oliver Rowe of Ford Britain Public Affairs explains, “The UK head office at Brentwood is responsible for marketing, sales and service of the Ford vehicle range, while the Dunton Technical Centre, near Basildon, leads on engine, transmission and complete commercial vehicle development for all future European products.  The Dagenham plant produces around a million diesel engines a year, from a 1.4 up to a high performance V8 unit and forms a core element in Ford’s European transport hub for parts and vehicles.”

 Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre in Basildon has been responsible for developing many famous Fords including the Fiesta XR2, Escort Cosworth, Sierra XR4x4, Granada, Capri, Focus and Transit van. Its most recent development is the global all-new Fiesta which is selling successfully in markets throughout the world. Dunton is home to over 3,000 engineers with extensive research and development facilities, including high speed and special surface tracks, indoor laboratories, rolling roads, crash simulators and test cells. 

“Essex has proved beneficial in terms of recruiting the high calibre of staff Ford need,” says Oliver Rowe. “Dunton, for example, had very specific requirements for engineers with power train expertise when it became a centre of excellence.  Many of the skills were available locally, but for specialists considering relocating, Essex’s quality of life proved a very attractive proposition.  We also find that the Essex location encourages suppliers, contractors and other partners to co-locate here.” 

The Essex base is important for the company’s manufacturing and distribution strategy.  “The new A13 has improved road links to the rest of the UK, while a deep water jetty and train spur give us plenty of options for distribution to other UK plants, as well as European and international sites via the River Thames, motorways, Channel Tunnel and rail links.”

 Starting a small business in the UK is made exciting by the presence of companies such as Ford, one of the outstanding success stories for the Essex business community, with its long track record of engineering excellence, product quality and market leadership.