A well-earned early Christmas present for Leeds-based Brandon Medical with a £50,000 prize for its surgical lighting and interactive technology.

Brandon’s Symposia technology helps surgeons globally to share endoscopic footage and audio visual information via the web and Brandon was named Winner of Winners by the British Chambers of Commerce.

It also scooped the Chambers’ Award for Innovation Through Technology.

Just finished working through a report from PWC on The Future of UK Manufacturing. Hard going but some really interesting analysis and observations in there. As the report’s sub-heading puts it, reports of the death of manufacturing in the UK are greatly exaggerated but the sector faces major challenges if it is to retain critical mass in the long term.

It also bursts the bubble of some popular misconceptions. The…

Congratulations to Sam Moss and Michael Brothwell, enterprising founders of the burgeoning Leeds Brewery, on collecting their Young Achievers Award.

Their unwavering commitment to quality and customer service, allied to a keen awareness of market opportunities may not be a million miles from those of young Josh Tetley.

His brand did pretty well – let’s drink to his successors achieving similar longevity!

The torrid impact of recession on the UK automotive industry was the theme taken up by Birkby’s Plastics chief exec Ian Parker at the MAS Manufacturing Convention.

Following the temporary closures of UK car plants, he described how the business went from shipping 140,000 components a day to just over 60,000 and how the assets, valued at over £4million when he was brought in to lead the management…

Soeren Vonsild, head of engineering at Leeds dairy products manufacturer Arla, reckons that the structures and processes within large corporate organisations are fundamentally opposed to innovation and entrepreneurship. Speaking at yesterday’s MAS Manufacturing Convention at Rudding Park, he described entrepreneurs as quick to spot an opportunity opportunity and quick to commit; people for whom there’s a direct relation between getting things done and reward.

But in the corporate…

Smart idea emerging from a conference organised by the Engineering Employers Federation – “The Bank of Making Things.”

Conference conclusion was that the UK banking system needs urgent overhaul (where have we heard that before?) if it is to support the growth of high value, innovative businesses. Arguing there was no time like the present, the EEF said that now there was an ideal opportunity for change with…

Full marks to Leeds manufacturer Vickers Laboratories in its aim to create a UK first and give Britain a pre-eminent position in the drive to develop a gold standard for the precise measurement of chemicals.

Vickers is developing the technology to manufacture primary standards for acid, alkaline and conductivity measurements, which will be used by laboratories as a benchmark for the tests they are required to carry out.

Vickers…

Much has been made of the success of the Government’s car “scrappage” scheme, but this week’s ITV1 programme posed some interesting questions on the claims.

While UK car salesmen and delivery drivers are understandably rubbing their hands, it appears overseas manufacturers are the main beneficiaries. Volkswagen manufacturing plants in Germany are working seven days a week to churn out extra volume to meet the increased British demand and imports from…

Business Link Yorkshire, Leeds manufacturing and a number of other partners combined to present a stimulating “Looking To The Future” event hosted by Electronics Yorkshire.

Two outstanding and thought-provoking speakers enabled representatives of regional companies to learn how innovation can be used to gain a competitive edge.

Barry Dodd, CEO of GSM Group and Council Member Yorkshire Innovation, used real life examples, rather than text book theory, to…