The 100-place nursery teamed up with the Winton Court care home in Winlaton for regular sessions that bring young children together with older residents in the home. The activities have promoted quality interactions through which the residents and children have developed strong relationships and residents have reported an increased sense of purpose. Childsplay wants to develop the project further to help tackle loneliness within its community, and is working with Newcastle and Northumbria universities to demonstrate the impact the project is having on those taking part.

Cell Pack Solutions specialises in custom battery packs for diverse industries that are manufactured at its South Tyneside facility. In response to the growing demands of a broader customer base and increased manufacturing levels, the company embarked on a mission to maximise its production capacity while maintaining the high level of service its customers expect. An in-house IT team developed an app that provides a more accurate and in-depth view of the processes required to assemble its custom battery packs. It incorporates several features designed to enhance the company’s operations.

Big Bite revolutionises how organisations create, collaborate on and publish digital content. Starting out as a small Middlesbrough startup in 2011, it has evolved into an industry leader working with companies including The Times, the V&A, and Amnesty International. The company aims to push the boundaries of what major global brands and publishers can achieve via WordPress, designing and delivering a number of innovative projects. Big Bite is currently developing and marketing standalone plugins and editorial tools that aim to diversify the company’s revenue stream and elevate the agency’s profile within the worldwide WordPress sector.

The Newcastle-based commercial law firm says that looking after people is key to its success. The company has a strong commitment to training and apprenticeships and its culture aims to ensure equal opportunities for career progression and training. In 2022 Muckle was awarded Investors in People platinum status and it has made its ‘people’ strategy a key part of its next five-year business plan.

AR Power says it is “passionate about sustainable energy solutions”, with that ethos extending to creating a positive impact on the environment and its team members. The company has invested in training for staff and has increased holiday allowances in a bid to improve work-life balance. Team members are given paid volunteer days and excellence is rewarded through a bonus scheme. Over the next 12 months AR Power is looking to extend share options to recent hires.

Established in 2006, razorblue is a leading provider of managed IT, cybersecurity, connectivity, cloud, and software solutions. The Teesside firm is focused on the well-being and development of its workforce, with measures introduced including wellness programmes, an annual learning and development budget, and a commitment to inclusivity. The company is planning a new programme of incentives for its team designed to support both the physical and mental health of its employees.

Berwick-based Allan Brothers is the UK’s oldest manufacturer of traditional timber windows and doors, having been founded in 1811. The company has refined its age-old hand making skill with advanced manufacturing equipment, and also aims to contribute to the economic growth of the region through apprenticeships and training opportunities, as well as support for charities and events in the local community. The company is forecasting a 20-30% increase in turnover over the next three years, generating local employment opportunities.

Cramlington firm George Smith is a manufacturer of upholstered furniture, making up to 100 handmade pieces of furniture each week. The company combines a commitment to traditional principles of craftsmanship with the embrace of new ideas and techniques. Each George Smith piece uses responsibly-sourced, sustainable materials which are sold at showrooms in London, New York and Los Angeles. The company has also developed long-standing relationships with a number of top interior designers who share its values.

Fairgrieve Compression Moulding is one of the North East’s longest established manufacturing businesses with a history of more than 110 years. Over the past three years, it has increased annual profits by more than 60% and remains one of a few compression moulding specialists in the North of England. The company adopts a ‘continuous improvement’ approach where the last success is only as important as the next challenge ahead. It is planning to invest in its Washington headquarters and expand work into new sectors.

B A Joinery is a bespoke joinery manufacturer in Billingham which provides a full end-to-end service for commercial office fit out for a number of high profile clients. The company has adopted lean manufacturing principles to minimise waste and optimise efficiency. It also prides itself on a commitment to sustainability that sees it source all of its timber from certified sustainable forests, while it also aims to foster a culture of excellence and innovation through regular training for its employees.

After working there on a student placement, David MacGregor joined Osbit as a permanent employee in 2021. Since then, he has led a number of major projects and undertakes STEM activities to encourage schoolchildren to consider careers in engineering. He played a key role in Osbit’s largest and most complex project to date and recently led the sale, design and build of a first-of-kind £2m engineering system. Bosses have spoken of his “rapid progress, commitment to innovation and excellence, and his high potential to support future business success”.

Callum Hodgson started Accelerate Media in 2018 and has been credited with transforming the brand and helping it compete with major players in its sector. As managing director, he recently launched Accelerate Academy, which helps businesses to upskill their current staff in marketing and has helped almost 100 businesses with their marketing. He is also heavily involved in giving back to his community and has worked with a number of charities including the Bradley Lowery Foundation, Red Sky Foundation and Smile Wide Together.

Phoebe Taylor launched her beauty business in her mother’s house, aged just 16, but quickly outgrew those premises and now rents space within a salon. She combines running her own business with a college course and has also launched her own range of products, including eyelash shampoo. Phoebe qualified as an eyelash technician just last year and has already built up a long client list. Her vision for the future is to own multiple salons across England and to offer training to new recruits.

Citizens Advice Gateshead is an independent charity with a goal to help create ‘a fair society for all, with lives well lived’. The organisation has increased its turnover by nearly 25% over the last two years, as well as increasing its caseload four-fold since pre-Covid times. It is now planning to expand its weekend and late-night opening and is increasing the research and policy work it does around social value.

Power Tool World is a family-owned business which has grown significantly since 2018 to become one of the UK’s largest e-commerce retailers of professional power tools. The company’s turnover has gone from £15m in 2018 to £41.7m last year. That growth has come through innovation and excellence in digital strategy, and the company is aiming to achieve £100m turnover in the next few years.

Teesside artist Lucy Pittaway turned her passion for art into a full-time business 12 years ago and now employs more than 50 people across a business with seven galleries and an online operation. The business encompasses gallery workers, production, logistics, framing, sales, marketing, creative services, and more, with a turnover of £3.9m. The business plans to open two more galleries in the next year and is expecting further growth through increased sales from its manufacturing, print, and distribution hub.

Professor Woodward is pro vice-chancellor at Northumbria University. He has led strategic transformation at Northumbria to help it become a research-intensive, business-focussed institution that was named UK University of the Year in 2022. In 2014 he began developing research excellence in the space sector and by 2022 his team had developed world leading expertise. He also built a relationship with international firm Lockheed Martin that led to the creation of a £15m centre at Northumbria centred on innovation in the space sector.

Mr Balmer joined AR Power in 2021 and changed operations to build in-house capabilities through training and the creation of a positive working environment. That has helped the company build a team that is capable of working nationally on multiple projects at any one time. AR Power has seen a huge increase in both turnover and headcount, with plans for even greater growth.

Mr Kitchin has led IT company razorblue to 363% growth over the past five years, transforming it from its beginnings as a modest IT support provider to a critical business infrastructure partner. He was named a One to Watch in the LDC 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme, but attributes razorblue’s success to its team and a commitment to its staff. Future plans include taking the company’s headcount past 200 and to expand its product portfolio.

Noggin HQ was started when founders Eva Atkinson and Laura Mill were both rejected for a mobile phone contract in their twenties because of issues with credit checks. Setting out with a mission to make access to credit equitable, they have secured £710,000 in seed funding to launch a new price comparison platform aimed at those who are “credit invisible”. After initially founding the company in London, they quickly moved Noggin back to their home city with the aim of creating jobs in the North East.

Green Platypus is dedicated to delivering essential business services with a strong emphasis on sustainability and social impact. Services include business gas and power contracts, broadband, and managed IT services. The company will be donating 10% of its gross profits to charity over the next 12 months, and from its foundation has integrated community engagement into its core values. In its short history it has had to overcome financial challenges resulting from the failure of larger firms but has stabilised and rebounded to target significant contracts.

MJF Resin Flooring Academy began in 2023 as a sister business to a resin flooring firm that offers training to young people entering the sector. It identified a gap in the market for new recruits - the industry was growing but there were not enough young people joining. Work has included a partnership with the prisons service to offer a rehabilitation scheme for offenders seeking new opportunities upon release. It is starting its work in the North East but hopes to extend it to other regions in the coming years.

Luminous XR develops virtual reality learning solutions to enhance safety and efficiency for companies in a range of sectors. The company has been singled out as one of the fastest growing tech companies in the North and is set to move soon to larger premises in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. The company works on an ethos of “embracing innovation and the power of technology and how it can have a real impact on the safety of employees”.

Hydraulic & Offshore Supplies are a specialist supplier to the global offshore, engineering and renewable sectors. The company, which has been based in Sunderland for 30 years, recently diversified into the renewables sector and is on target to grow its revenue by 50% in the current year. The company has increased its workshop and sales capacity with the recruitment of two new apprentices and has also rebranded with a new website and social media strategy.

Big Bite revolutionises how businesses create, collaborate and publish digital content, working with some household names across a range of sectors. The company champions a people-first approach to employment and has won recognition as a top place to work. It aims to push the boundaries of what major global brands and publishers can achieve via WordPress and is expanding its client portfolio across specific target areas.

Aspire is a fast-growing provider of IT services, working with organisations across the public sector and with SMEs and not-for-profit organisations, as well as larger businesses. The company became certified carbon neutral at the start of this year through a number of initiatives to lower its energy usage and encourage greener travel for its employees. It also provides services to help companies dispose of IT equipment.

Pacifica is a 'Business for Good' and one of the country’s largest appliance repair companies with the philosophy of improving the lives of customers while also having a positive impact on the drive to reduce reliance on the earth’s resources. The company aims to extend the life of domestic appliances and reduce the number going to landfill. Through its ESG strategy, it has become carbon neutral and aims to be a carbon zero business by 2035.

B A Joinery is a bespoke joinery manufacturer, operating from a 40,000 sq ft factory in Billingham. The company aims to make a positive impact on the environment and society and only uses timber from FSC-certified forests. It has implemented lean manufacturing techniques to minimise waste and aims to prioritise the well-being of its employees through comprehensive training programs, fair wages and a safe working environment.

Wootzano is a robotics company specialising in developing technology for the food packaging sector. With the implementation of its ‘Avarai’ robot into packing lines for fresh produce, it is solving a wide range of issues that the industry is facing at the moment. The company has secured contracts worth more than £200m from Canada, Malaysia and the US, with hopes of reaching more countries in the year ahead, in part by innovating to increase the range of customers it can serve.

Power Roll is pushing the limits of solar technology from a base on the site of a former colliery. The company makes solar panels using lightweight, flexible materials in a bid to make the energy source more affordable, and is dedicated to the commercialisation and global roll-out of the next generation of solar modules. It is set to build a first-of-its-kind solar film production facility in the UK, followed by international scale-up production through commercial partnerships.

razorblue provides managed IT, cybersecurity, connectivity and software solutions to more than 500 businesses across a range of sectors, recording significant growth over the past five years. The company has invested heavily in data centres and other technology, creating jobs at an expanded Teesside office. The acquisition of Stirling-based Sarn Technologies has spurred the firm to expand further into Scotland and it is planning more acquisitions in the coming year.