10th December 2010 - Teenage Cancer Trust Christmas Carol Service - 16th December 2010

Teenage Cancer Trust invites Forum members and friends to their Christmas Carol Service taking place St Nicholas' Cathedral on Thursday 16th December.

Tickets are on sale priced at £7.50 each and are available to purchase at Guitar Guitar, 27 Grainger Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5JE or alternatively call Jen Buck on 07507 197 225. The evening will begin at 7.00pm.

All proceeds from the evening will go towards the Teenage Cancer Trust Unit at the Great North Children's Hospital (RVI).

2nd December 2010 - First time buyer opts for hardware expertise to strengthen offer

A Gateshead based firm of IT experts has expanded its business by purchasing an IT Support company with hardware expertise.

Transcendit, which has offices in Team Valley, has bought Durham’s Nectar Electronics in a move to provide fully integrated IT services to the region’s business community, while expanding operations into the south of the region.

The company, which celebrated its tenth birthday in September by raising £2,500 for Newcastle Hospitals’ Children’s Heart Unit Fund, will now be able to provide tailor made software and hardware solutions from under the same roof.

Adam Kuznesof, Transcendit Director, explained: “Buying Nectar Electronics broadens our offer and makes us more competitive. It enables us to provide clients with the complete bespoke package. This means that our clients receive joined up personal service at a lower price than the big household names provide.

“Hardware engineering is a dying art, many engineers end up working for the global corporations and the majority of companies just call up Dell or Hewlett Packard, because they’re not aware of the alternative. By purchasing Nectar we have added four exceptional people to our 13-stong staff to give the north east business community a real alternative choice.”

Tom Tinsley, Transcendit Director, said: “We’ve never done anything like this before, we’re normally quite conservative and we’ve been growing organically. However, Nectar Electronics was such an attractive proposition – a successful business with good turnover and profit. There’s also a synergy between the services we provide to a similar client base, so it made perfect sense.”

Transcendit worked closely with Crutes legal firm and accountants Ryecroft Glenton to ensure the deal went smoothly.

Tom added: “Crutes and Ryecroft Glenton did a great job of setting us on the right road towards making this a reality. As we’ve never purchased a company before, we needed all the advice we could get and the peace of mind that buys. First and foremost, you need to know that what you’re buying is everything that it seems to be. Crutes made sure that the business had been run properly. They were really approachable and good value for money.”

Anne Spetch, Partner at Crutes, added: “It’s clear that the personal approach is very important to the way that TranscendIT do business and it’s an approach that we hold dear. Crutes provides a responsive bespoke service which is all about the client, backed up by a strong track record in corporate and commercial law.

“Purchasing a company can be costly. At Crutes, we don’t want to add to that expense so we offer our clients big hitting lawyers without the big price tag.”

Tim Mallon, Partner at Ryecroft Glenton, said: "We were delighted to assist in the financial aspects of the transaction. The TranscendIT team identified an opportunity to expand their business and pursued their first acquisition with great enthusiasm. We were able to guide them through the due diligence process and advise on structuring and other financial matters. It is good to see a business looking to grow their business in these difficult times."

Adam added: “We’re very excited with our new purchase and we’re looking forward to bringing new people on board and meeting new clients.”

The purchase of Nectar Electronics sees TranscendIT grow to 17 members of staff. When the company launched ten years ago it employed five people.

26th November 2010 - Local boy's a cut above the rest

Thursday night was an evening of celebratory achievement as Entrepreneurs’ Forum member Darren Williams, founder of hair and beauty business Hair X-Tensions, took home the title of North East Young Business Executive of the Year at the annual awards run by the Journal and the Evening Gazette.

The award caps an extraordinary year for the Sunderland based firm, which Darren established in 2005 with his partner Angela Place. The Young Business Executive of the Year award is their tenth award in thirteen months, recent accolades include the British Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Award, the Entrepreneur of the Year title for Sunderland Portfolio Awards and the If we can, you can Face of Entrepreneurship 2011, run by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

Serial entrepreneurs Darren and Angela set Hair X Tensions up to produce 100 per cent quality hair for a global market, traded through the website www.buyhair.co.uk. The firm is currently in negotiations with a high profile celebrity to bring out a range of hair extensions to retail through supermarkets and high street giants.

The evening itself consisted of extreme high jinks for Darren, who moved mountains to ensure he made it to the stage on time to accept his trophy. Despite being struck with car trouble and weather warnings, Darren’s determination to accept his award shone through. He made a heroic effort to get there in time, trekking most of the journey to the awards venue, the Gosforth Park hotel, and arrived minutes before being announced as the Young Business Executive of the Year, heavily exhausted but bursting with pride .

Speaking about his latest win, modest Darren said he was “extremely honoured and grateful to be recognised for all of their hard work. Not even the treacherous weather conditions were going to stop me standing up there with the best in business; I abandoned the car, slipped on my walking boots and started out on the route to Newcastle, just making it in time”.

Also taking away awards during the evening, were an illustrious list of business big hitters;

• Teesside and North East Business Executive of the Year - Stewart Smith, Ramsdens Financial, Middlesbrough
• Tyneside and Northumberland Business Executive of the Year - Andrew Esson, managing director, ContiTech Beattie
• Durham and Wearside Business Executive of the Year - Tony Cleary, managing director, Lanchester Wine Cellars
• Lifetime Achievement - Dr Herbert Loebl
• Non-Executive Director of the Year - sponsored by a consortium of local businesses: Stewart Vaughan