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Invest in Cumbria, together with its partners, has had another successful operational year following the attraction of more companies from the US to West Cumbria during the year. Under the ownership of Cumbria County Council, the organisation has attracted several well-known nuclear and environmental technology companies since it secured the headquarters of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in West Cumbria.

Led by Chief Executive Officer John Grainger, the small dedicated team has spent the past four 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, West Lakes Renaissance, has enabled coverage of a number of significant events being held annually in the US 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 – which has strategic locations throughout the US, 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 of two of the northern Regional Development Agencies, North West Regional Development Agency and One North East. This enables the “super region” to be adequately represented in what is still the UK’s premier country from which inward investment is won. The North American team is bolstered by support from UKTI, the Investment and Trade arm of British government.

Key to the marketing success has been the ability to take the message out to the industry. This has meant top-level representation in the major sector events held during the year at events at Phoenix, Arizona, ETEBA at Knoxville, Tennessee and the Exchange Monitor Conference at Amelia Island, near Jacksonville, Florida. At all of these events, representatives from Cumbria have been able to make presentations to delegates and, through the attendance at booths, have been able to market the region as a great opportunity for potential relocation to intending investors.

This has led to more than 12 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 programs 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 is a vibrant grouping that has organized itself very well in terms of positioning its own particular products and services to complement some of the innovative practices that have recently been imported. Invest in Cumbria, along with West Lakes Renaissance, has supported the group in ensuring that it has had the ability at these overseas events to promote its own capability to potential collaborating partners and press home the message that a strong and diverse supply chain exists in Cumbria to service the nuclear sector.

Clearly, the strategy to date has worked well, but the approach that Invest in Cumbria has taken also demonstrates innovative thinking. Its stakeholders rightly view the rationale and existence of economic regeneration bodies as organizations that must claim outputs to justify their continued existence. The strategy and protocols adopted by Invest in Cumbria have seen a close tie-up with the urban regeneration company for West Cumbria and Furness, West lakes Renaissance. Under the new branding of “Britain’s Energy Coast” there is even closer co-operation, and all of the sales and marketing lead in the US is taken by our colleagues at North of England Inward Investment Agency. Budgets have been shared in order to lever in appropriate fiscal and human resources to handle the boom in business from the US.

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 an open-book approach by agencies at international and local level working together for a common purpose. 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. The announcement of potential new-build sites for the next generation of nuclear power made in early 2008 can only mean increased interest from US utility companies active in that part of the market.

For further information, please contact:

Ian Stewart
VP North of England Inward Investment Agency
3455 Peachtree Road NE, 5th Floor
Atlanta, GA 30326
Tel: +1 404 995 7083
E-mail: ian.stewart@northengland.com
Website: www.northengland.com

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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