Wootzano
The robotics firm was named Business of the Year at the North East Business Awards after another year of multimillion-pound orders.
The company, which has developed specialised robots for fruit and food picking, moved to a new base at the Cobalt Business Park in North Tyneside, and is targetting growth with a number of international partnerships.
RE:GEN
Being named the North East’s fastest growing company at the Ward Hadaway Fastest 50 event is quite an achievement: doing it two years’ running is pretty much unheard of.
The Sunderland housing company doubled turnover and launched a new solutions division while founder Brinsley Sheridan was included on the LDC list of the UK’s most ambitious business leaders.
Filtronic
The County Durham telecoms company secured a big name investor this year as part of a significant order from Elon Musk’s SpaceX firm.
Filtronic’s forthcoming headquarters at NETpark. (Image: Filtronic)It also announced plans to move to a bigger headquarters at County Durham’s NETPark, and received a King’s Awards for Enterprise in recognition of its excellence in innovation.
ABCA Systems
Also featured on the LDC Most Ambitious Business Leaders list was Philip Miller, who has grown electrical systems business ABCA Systems in Newcastle from a local firm with a dozen staff to a 380-employee national fire and security systems provider.
The company made four acquisitions during the year to boost its capabilities in electrical compliance and expand its footprint across the North.
Power Roll
Power Roll was named Durham, Sunderland and South Tyneside Business of the Year at the North East Business Awards.
It also secured £4.3m in investment which it hopes will help it move its solar power technology to the next stage of commercialisation.
Fulwell 73
The TV and film production company saw its dream of creating the Crown Works studios in Sunderland move forward this year after securing financial support from the Government.
The proposed Crown Works Studios site in Sunderland (Image: PA)It also won two Emmys for an Elton John concert special and announced a merger with the production company set up by American basketball star LeBron James.
Opencast
Ranked third in the last of the region’s fastest growing companies, technology firm Opencast closed in on £50m turnover this year.
It also announced one of its largest contracts to date with a £32m project for the Department for Work and Pensions.
Newcells
Newcastle life sciences firm Newcells Biotech announced two significant funding rounds during 2024 to expand its work.
The investments in February and December aim to help the Newcastle University spin-out build its customer base and develop partnerships with other companies in its field.
Accord
The pharmaceutical company welcomed Chancellor Rachel Reeves to its site in Newcastle after it announced a £50m deal to supply drugs to the NHS.
The move safeguarded the future of the site and created 50 new jobs, allowing to set up a new product lines for cancer, arthritis and other treatments.
Greggs
Greggs doesn’t tend to have many bad years, but a number of significant milestones saw the last 12 months stand out.
Early in 2024 it announced that it had both opened its 2,500th shop and overtaken McDonalds as the leading provider of breakfasts in the UK. It also opened its 1,000th school breakfast club and an eyecatching Greggs champagne bar at Fenwick showed it hadn’t lost its touch for eyecatching stunts.
