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Cumbrian representatives at a nuclear conference at Tucson

Invest in Cumbria, with its partners, has had an extremely successful operational year following the attraction of several companies from the US to West Cumbria during the year. Under the ownership of Cumbria County Council, the organization has gone from strength to strength since it originally helped to secure the headquarters of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in West Cumbria. Led by its managing director John Grainger, the small, dedicated team has spent the past three years looking at maximizing the investment opportunities arising from this announcement. The creation of a virtual investment team in West Cumbria with its primary partner, Westlakes Renaissance, has enabled coverage of a number of significant events being held annually in America that lead to new contacts and investment possibilities.

The target market for securing new investment in the nuclear sector has focused very much in the US. Taking advantage of the office and specialist support from the North of England Inward Investment Agency, that has strategic locations throughout America in addition to its Chicago headquarters, Invest in Cumbria has worked to attract key entrants to the decommissioning market in the UK. The North of England office is a collaboration between two of the northern development agencies, One North East and Northwest Regional Development Agency. This enables the “super region” to be adequately represented in what is still the UK’s premier country from which inward investment is won.

Key to the marketing success has been the ability to take the message out to the industry. This has meant top-level representation in events at Tucson, ETEBA at Knoxville, Tennessee and the Exchange Monitor Conference at Amelia Island, near Jacksonville, Florida. At some events, representatives from Cumbria were able to make presentations to delegates, a great opportunity to get our relocation offer out to interested investors. This has led to 10 of those companies now having a Cumbrian presence, a fantastic conversion rate compared to traditional returns on inward investment promotion. These companies have experience in the US nuclear clean up as well as other large-scale environmental remediation, and were targeted on the basis that they could bring innovative practices to the UK nuclear sector that would not supplant those already in that area of work.

However, sustainable investment is a whole lot more than the attraction of leading-edge commercial companies anxious to get a large slice of decommissioning contracts currently being carried out at nuclear sites throughout the UK. Paramount to any economic benefit for an area is the competence of the local supply chain and its ability to engage with those further up in the chain, particularly at Tier One and Tier Two levels. The West Cumbria Business Cluster has organized itself very well in terms of positioning its own products and services. Invest in Cumbria has supported the group in ensuring that it has had the ability at these overseas events to promote its own capability to potential partners and press home the message that a strong supply chain exists in Cumbria to service the nuclear sector.

The strategy and protocols adopted by Invest in Cumbria have seen a very close tie-up with the urban regeneration company for West Cumbria and Furness, Westlakes Renaissance. Budgets have been shared in order to lever in appropriate fiscal and human resources to handle the boom in business from America. When all is said and done it is the commercial companies themselves that create the jobs and the opportunity for wealth creation. Recognition of that has led to a complete open-book approach by agencies at international and local level working together for a common purpose, and the mutual trust that this has engendered will go a long way to ensuring that Cumbria continues to be pre-eminent when attracting business from the US.

For further information please contact:
John Grainger, Chief Executive Officer
Invest in Cumbria
Tel: +44 (0) 1768 895350
E-mail: johng@investincumbria.co.uk
Website: www.welcometowestcumbria.co.uk

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