Bruntingthorpe Newsletter October 2016

BRUNTINGTHORPE PROVING GROUND

NEWSLETTER

October 2016

Welcome to the seventh Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground Newsletter, a quarterly newsletter intended as a means of keeping local residents abreast of useful information, particularly information that local residents might find of interest regarding the operation of the proving ground. The intention is to provide regular updates on information that might be of general interest with regards to items such as the operation of the site, or for example, items such as forthcoming events. We do apologise for missing the last Newsletter, but we do hope you enjoy the read this time around!

CBI Report The Confederation of British Industries (CBI) issues an annual report featuring companies in both Leicestershire and the East Midlands. The report lists the fastest growing companies and the latest report was based upon 2015 company results. C.Walton Ltd (who own and run Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground) were one of only 55 companies who retained a position in list from last year and we were delighted to find that were on the list at the 20th fastest growing company in the whole of the East Midlands and 4th fastest growing in Leicestershire. We were particularly delighted with this result, given the numerous fantastic companies that we have here in Leicestershire.

NEW R&D AND DESIGN CENTRE

The new R&D and Design Centre for the world famous Royal Enfield motorcycle company is progressing well. The building is actually beginning to look like a building and it won’t be long before it is water tight. The construction of the second building to support the new engine testing programmes has also just started

The new Royal Enfield building is taking shape

Recent Events

As it’s been 6 months since the last Newsletters, there have been a number of events that we can report back on. The ones reported below represent a small selection of some of the events we’ve helped to host:

Road Traffic Accidents – Each year Bruntingthorpe hosts an event for the Institution of Traffic Accident Investigators. This event simulates a number of road traffic accidents in controlled conditions using both static cars and remote controlled vehicles! The event attracts both police and civil accident investigators as well as

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter October 2016

representatives from the insurance industry and is the only event of its type in the UK.

The ‘accident scene’

Asian Wedding – Hangar ’42 is an ideal venue for large gatherings such as Asian weddings. We’ve now assisted with our largest wedding to date, with 1,300 guests attending the event to celebrate the wedding and to take part in the dinner. It was quite a sight to have so many people gathered together for a wedding.

Our proximity to Leicester makes the facility an attractive proposition for Asian weddings and we are hoping that this event will be one of many such celebrations that we hope to host.

Anniversary Dinners – We recently hosted two separate anniversary dinners in Hangar ’42. The first, for Fleckney-based Coba Plastics, was to celebrate their 50 years anniversary and they had approaching 500 people attending. The second, for Leicester based Pick Everard, had closer to 650 people attending. For both of these events we helped with the organisation and production of the event to help put on fantastic events for both customers.

Pick Everard’s event in full flow

Planning meeting – the Harborough District Council had a requirement for a venue that could accommodate up to 400 people. They needed to host a planning meeting to discuss the application for the Magna Park extension and were anticipating a large public gathering. As a result, they needed a larger venue and we were more than happy to step in to assist. Hangar ‘42 proved the perfect venue to host such a large event.

Local Residents participate in the meeting

New Commercial Vehicle Bodyshop

We reported back in December 2015 that we had just completed the construction of a new truck paint shop and we are delighted to report that this facility is exceedingly busy now that it is fully up and running. In the main, this facility is being used to refurbish

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter October 2016

construction vehicles that have come to the end of their leases and the owners then commission C Walton Ltd to refurbish the vehicles so that they can either be re-leased to other clients or indeed, sold to private buyers.

Construction Vehicles lined up for the Body Shop

Whittle Building

The new Whittle Building has opened its doors to customers for the first time for track control, events and test support. Regular readings of this Newsletter will recall that we have purchased the ex-Peugeot dealership building from Lutterworth and we have re-built it on our own site. Whilst there are still a few finishing points to be made to the building, it has already been used for all manner of applications including events for a number of the leading vehicle manufacturers. We’ve even recently had four times world F1 champion Sebastian Vettel using the facility with Shell/Ferrari to film a promotional video!

The Whittle Building in use for a car manufacturer

Local Residents Open Evenings

There were two local resident evenings held on the 8th and 15th June. The first was specifically laid on for the Gilmorton Women’s Institute and the second was a general residents access evening. Both evenings were very well received. Unfortunately we were too busy to put on another in September as planned so we will be offering more evenings in early summer 2017. Please check the Swift Flash for notifications for future events.

Tourism Event

Bruntingthorpe is on the Market Harborough tourism steering committee which works to encourage both public and business tourism in the area. It is the hope to increase tourism so that we can attract more business into the general area around Market Harborough. We will be hosting the next exploreHarborough Tourism networking event on 27th October 2016 and anyone in the industry are invited to come along and meet and network with fellow industry colleagues and learn of the plans that are developing to increase tourism across the area. If you want to attend then please pre-register by following the link: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/explore-harborough-tourism-event-tickets-28249560195?utm_term=eventurl_text

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter October 2016

Leicester Mercury Business Awards

C Walton Ltd, who own and operate the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, were nominated and short-listed for one of the prestigious Leicester Mercury Business Awards in the category of Small Business of the Year. The awards dinner took place on Thursday 21st April at the Platinum Suite, Leicester and we’re delighted to report that we won!

The winning team pick up their award.

‘ASDA Day’

The ASDA ‘on your marks’ event was held successfully yet again on Saturday August 6th. As a lot of you will know as frequent visitors, this event is a charity fund raising event that is aimed predominantly for ASDA employees but ASDA kindly extended the invitation to members of the local community to attend if you wished. The event had the usual array of funfairs, car passenger rides and air displays to name but a few of the fun filled activities that were on offer.

Crowds enjoy the demonstrations

The event represented the last time that this event will be run in this form under the ASDA

name. There will be an alternative event that will be run that local residents can still attend, however this event is likely to run by the Bruntingthorpe Events team from 2017 onwards. We will report back with more details in the next Newsletter so watch this space!

Upcoming Events

ExploreHarbrough Tourism Networking Event – Thursday 27th October 2016 1-3pm in the Whittle Building

Movers and Storers Show – Tues 1st to Wed 2nd November 2016 in Hangar ‘42

Seeing is Believing Exhibition – Wed 9th to Thurs 10th November 2016 in Hangar ‘42

Please note that currently there is potentially a large aircraft landing on Friday 28th October, however this is subject to change.

Entrance improvements

Anyone who passes the entrance to the site may have noticed that we’ve made the entrance to the site access road a little wider in order to accommodate any visiting or exiting vehicles a little better. We’ve also worked with the farmer who owns the field opposite the entrance to remove the high hedge and replace it with a low fence. This is intended to improve visibility around what was fast becoming a blind bend and hopefully these improvements will improve safety for anyone driving along this road.

Contact details

We do hope that you’ve enjoyed this short insight into the site’s operation and that some of the items have proven to be of interest. If there is anything that you would like to see us report back on in future Newsletters, then please do get in touch and let us know:

Email: Paul.atkin@bruntingthorpe.com Tel: 0116 279 9329