2. Greater Grimsby is emerging as a key player in the renewable energy revolution
with particular strengths in offshore wind.
Greater Grimsby offers:
direct access to the world’s biggest offshore wind farms
the UK’s largest port capable of handling major projects
proven expertise in engineering and construction
leadership in wind power, marine renewables and bioenergy
a ready and able workforce
the lowest operating costs in the UK
So, if you’re looking for the optimum location for:
operations & maintenance functions
wind turbine and blade manufacturers
component suppliers
research & development
Greater Grimsby is the natural choice.
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3. Greater Grimsby
Get it Straight
From the Heart
Greater Grimsby is a straight-talking, no-nonsense place.
We speak our minds and tell it how it is.
When it comes to promoting our area, we give you the facts to make
your own mind up. Big UK-leading facts like, we’ve got:
- the busiest port complex
- the largest concentration of food companies
- the most renewable energy opportunities
- the greenest power station
- the biggest strategic employment sites
- the lowest operating costs
Our towns of Grimsby, Immingham and Cleethorpes, and surrounding
Lincolnshire villages offer very different things. But taken as a package,
they combine to offer cost-effective, well-connected business locations
within a few miles of stunning countryside and great schools.
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4. From the Heart of
the UK to Europe
and the World
Greater Grimsby puts you at the heart of the UK and Europe.
We are centrally located on the east coast of the UK in the county of
Lincolnshire. Our area includes:
- Grimsby – the world-famous port and Europe’s Food Town
- Cleethorpes – the popular seaside holiday resort
- Immingham – a focal point of heavy industry and logistics
- Wolds villages – an area of outstanding natural beauty
Thanks to our maritime and fishing heritage, we are outward looking and
have traditionally had strong international links, especially with
Scandinavia, something that continues today with many commercial
partnerships. Distances from Greater Grimsby
Miles Km
Being 200 miles from London, Edinburgh and Rotterdam, means that we
Sheffield 60 96
are truly central to the UK and Europe.
Leeds 70 112
Our area is an integral part of the Humber region and enjoys close links Manchester 100 160
with the nearby cities of Hull and Lincoln.
Liverpool 130 209
Birmingham 130 209
London 160 257
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5. Closest Major Port to
North Sea Offshore
Wind Opportunities
Faster access to the world’s biggest wind opportunity.
Building on its long-standing expertise in the power sector, Greater
Grimsby is now becoming a major centre for green renewables energy
and is the UK's emerging capital of the offshore wind industry.
In terms of steaming distance, Grimsby is 10-50 miles from existing and
planned turbines off the Lincolnshire coast in the North Sea, where a
further 4,000 turbines are to be built. “Centrica assessed four ports
The area has all the ingredients necessary to host operations and
maintenance (O&M) functions, major manufacturers, component
and Grimsby was chosen
suppliers and R&D for the renewables industry. mainly because of its existing
Two of the largest players in offshore wind, Centrica and Siemens, have
chosen to base their O&M teams in Grimsby. Both companies are
facilities and infrastructure.”
planning significant expansions across the area as more turbines come
on stream. Alan Thompson, Head of Renewables, Centrica
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6. Existing and Planned
(Rounds 1 & 2)
Grimsby
Next Phases
(Round 3)
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7. The UK’s Busiest
Port with Specialist
Handling Facilities
The UK’s largest port complex has all the capability you need.
The Port of Grimsby and Immingham is the UK’s largest port by
tonnage. Its prime deep-water location on the Humber Estuary, gives
companies direct access to mainland Europe and beyond.
The existing and proposed wind farms in the North Sea will require
extensive maintenance and servicing. The optimum port to do this from
UK Port Million Tonnes
is Grimsby and Immingham thanks to our proximity to the farms and an
infrastructure that can handle the necessary logistics. Grimsby and Immingham 66.2
Continued investment by Associated British Ports in Grimsby and London 52.7
Immingham means that there are docks capable of handling major Tees and Hartlepool 49.8
vessels up to 366 metres in length.
Southampton 43.3
As you would expect from the country's largest port complex, there are a
Forth 36.7
host of specialist cranes and handling equipment, including 14x100-
tonne capacity mobile harbour cranes and mobile cranes with a capacity Milford Haven 35.5
in excess of 100 tonnes.
Liverpool 32.3
Felixstowe 25.7
Dover 25.1
Department for Transport, 2007
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8. Air Links to
Energy Hubs and
Offshore Centres
Greater Grimsby gives you access to offshore platforms.
In addition to the country’s largest port, this area has excellent connections
to all parts of the UK by road and rail. Uncongested roads and motorways
connect to all parts of the UK placing 40 million consumers within a 4-hour
drive. This area is the busiest in the UK for rail freight with a choice of
specialist terminals serving destinations across the country.
Humberside Airport, conveniently located just a few miles from our main
towns, is a key national and international gateway connecting over half a
million passengers to 30 destinations every year. With daily flights to
Amsterdam's Schipol Airport and key offshore centres such as Oslo and
Aberdeen, businesses are within easy reach of their customers and
suppliers worldwide.
Our airport is the second largest in the UK for North Sea oil and gas
helicopter operations. Around 30-40,000 passenger journeys are made
each year by platform workers travelling from the heliport to and from 57
rigs in the southern North Sea sector.
40,000
North Sea passenger journeys
each year from Humberside
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9. Specialist Vessels
Serving Offshore
Wind Farms
New investment boosts Greater Grimsby’s capabilities.
Windpower Support, a company set up to enable the global giants of the
sector to tap into local expertise, recently launched Support 1, an 11m craft
capable of carrying 12 passengers and maintenance equipment quickly
between dry land and the windfarms.
The new 4.9-tonne vessel can reach the existing Lynn and Inner Dowsing
windfarms in just over an hour, and is now in service, on hire to Siemens,
“We were agents for Wind
carrying their personnel together with Centrica staff. An additional niche
has been identified for the vessel to serve as an errand runner to free up
Solutions and that was a very
larger crew-carrying vessels that have also been brought in to Grimsby
Fish Docks.
successful project. We could see
Windpower Support's managing director Kurt Christensen is proud to have
there was a need for a small, fast
registered Support 1 in Grimsby – a first such vessel for the town – with two
former trawler skippers at the helm.
support vessel. The potential is
Mr Christensen set the company up almost two years ago, having initially
huge for Grimsby. We can see it
acted as a ships' agent for MV Wind Solutions, the vessel transformed into
a floating hotel and workshop that operated between Grimsby and the
all coming to fruition and it is
Lincolnshire coastal windfarms as they were constructed.
amazing.”
Kurt Christensen, Windpower Support
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10. Rich Heritage of
Energy and Offshore
Engineering
Greater Grimsby has proved itself capable of delivering major projects.
Thousands of companies serve the area's established sectors - ports, food
and process industries. These industries require a wide range of
construction, engineering, logistics and manufacturing expertise which this
area has in abundance.
There are more than 1,400 advanced engineering companies in the wider
Yorkshire and Humber region employing 170,000 employees, with a further
1,400
500 firms involved in environmental technology.
This area understands how to deliver major industrial projects, from oil
refineries and power plants to chemical and pharmaceutical facilities.
advanced engineering
companies in the region
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11. Ready and Willing
Skilled Workers
Growing Talent Pool
You’ll find a proven, hard-working, skilled labour-force here.
Greater Grimsby has a local workforce with:
90,000 people within a 15-minute catchment
350,000 within a 45-minute drive
Recent economic conditions mean that there is a ready-made labour-force,
eager and willing to work. “People have the right attitude.
Grimsby Institute is a key partner in helping the area become a national They know that if they wait, the
hub for offshore wind and other renewables. Centres of Vocational
Excellence in Ports & Logistics; Automotive Technology; and Gas & value of their work will drop. They
Plumbing, support the skills required by renewables companies; and offers
courses in electrical, mechanical and operations engineering, and a know that from the fishing industry
foundation degree in Environmental Technology Management.
and it’s a good mindset. So far it
Nearby Hull University is a centre of excellence for systems, electronic and
mechanical engineering, as well as being home to the Environmental has been the best place in the UK
Technology Centre of Industrial Collaboration a Logistics Institute
Research Centre; there are plans for a Centre of Excellence in Marine to work out of.”
Renewables. The wider region’s nine internationally renowned universities
produce more than 11,000 engineering graduates and postgraduates each
year. Jan Korff Petersen, Siemens Wind Power
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12. Siemens O&M at
Grimsby Docks is a
“benchmark for UK”
Global giant has created a best practice model.
Siemens has established an operations & maintenance (O&M) facility in
Grimsby. Siemens first came to the area with the development of the Lynn
and Inner Dowsing wind farms in 2006. The company engaged with Grimsby
Fish Dock Enterprises from the outset and built a pontoon and a warehouse
with their help.
Local recruitment has gone very well, according to Siemens, with more than
“Grimsby is one of the best
30 jobs created and more to come. Jamie Rowlands, the general manager
for Siemens’ offshore services said:
operating bases we have at
"We had a very good response when we advertised locally. We have had
the moment. It is a
some very good technicians join us. Some guys came from a food
processing background and have adapted very well. We now have a team of
benchmark for what we do
26 with five support staff.
elsewhere in the UK.“
Jamie Rowlands, Siemens
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13. Major Local Players
Behind the Offshore
Wind Revolution
Greater Grimsby is a proven hub for critical offshore suppliers.
Marine safety giant Cosalt Offshore is a significant player in the offshore
wind industry. As Europe's leading provider of critical safety equipment for
the marine, industrial and offshore markets, Cosalt supplies marine safety,
lifting equipment, tooling and height safety products that are directly
applicable to the renewables sector, particularly offshore wind farms.
The Grimsby-based company has been supplying critical safety equipment
Supporting Offshore Projects
for the Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms off the Lincolnshire coast for the from Grimsby since
past few years.
1873
Customers include Centrica Renewable Energy and some of its sub-
contractors, such as Danish company MT Hojgaard, which has put in place
the foundations for the 54 turbines, and Subocean of Aberdeen who are
laying the cables between the turbines.
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14. New Materials and
Carbon Fibres for a
Green Economy
We have specialist manufacturers creating the materials of the future.
The growth in advanced materials and composites is a major opportunity
for the process industries in the Grimsby area. This has particular
significance given our emerging role as a key hub location for renewable
energy, in particular offshore wind energy.
One example of this is Bluestar Fibres, based in Grimsby. They make
carbon-fibre precursor, which is used in carbon fibre products such as
tennis racquets, skis, golf clubs, mobile phones, aircraft brakes, automotive
components, fire retardant clothing and the brakes of Formula One cars. Its
biggest growth potential, however, lies in its application in the fast-growing
wind-turbines sector.
Composite materials and carbon fibre precursor made in Grimsby is used
in the construction of high-performance rotor blades around the world, for
customers including SGL Carbon, the German group that supplies
composite materials to the wind energy sector.
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15. One of the World’s
Greenest Power
Stations
Combined Heat and Power plant shows way to a low carbon future.
ConocoPhillips operates the Immingham Combined Heat and Power plant,
one of the greenest power stations in the world generating 730 megawatts
of electricity. The development of ICHP has made a significant contribution
to reducing CO2 emissions in the United Kingdom and is capable of
savings of up to 3 million tonnes per year when compared to power
produced from conventional coal fired power production, and separate
production of heat. The plant is fuelled by natural gas with liquid fuel as
“The expanded CHP capacity
backup. It produces electricity and creates steam, which is used by the
nearby Humber and Lindsey refineries.
demonstrates our commitment
The expanded plant, together with ConocoPhillips' Humber refinery, is
to lower carbon technologies.
strategically placed to realize the vision of an ultra-low-carbon integrated
energy hub able to supply heat and power to a wide range of local
This major long-term investment
industrial customers. If current studies demonstrate economic feasibility,
the enlarged Immingham CHP could be modified to utilize gasification
by ConocoPhillips is timely in
technology to operate as a 'clean coal' facility with carbon dioxide stored or
used for enhanced oil recovery.
view of the UK government's
ongoing support for combined
heat and power. ”
Bob Hassler, ConocoPhillips
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16. Port, Farms and
Food Industry
Drive BioEnergy
We have some of Europe’s most important green energy investments.
Greater Grimsby is a growing focal point for the bioenergy market.
Proximity to the UK’s largest port complex, Europe’s food town and the
agricultural hinterland of Lincolnshire (known as “the breadbasket of
England”), makes the area extremely attractive for green energy. “The region is ideally situated to
Greenergy owns and operates two biodiesel plants at the port of sell our output into the two world
Immingham, as does Total and Bioethanol. The plants are capable of using
a variety of feedstocks including rapeseed, soy, palm and used cooking scale refineries located here. It also
oils. Vireol is building a bioethanol plant in Grimsby, and Abengoa
Bioenergy is building one at Immingham using wheat as feedstock, this combines the benefits of a deep
due to open in 2010.
sea port, allowing us to move
Helius and RWE Innogy are working together on a major €260 million
biomass facility in the area. Siemens and Drax have also chosen the south product in and out, access to a
bank of the Humber for biomass facilities. Encycle's renewable electricity
power station, to be located near Immingham, will divert up to 210,000 local market and allows us to
tonnes of food waste and non-recyclable packaging away from landfill each
year. source feedstock from the farms
that surround the port.”
Andrew Owens, Chief Executive, Greenergy
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17. Harnessing the
Power of Marine
Renewables
Wave and tidal research opportunities in the Humber Estuary.
With its location on the banks of the UK’s busiest trading estuary,
Greater Grimsby is a natural location for marine renewables that are
being developed to harness wave and tidal power.
The UK Government is funding tidal power technology developer, Pulse
Tidal, to trial its innovative hydrofoil device in the Humber Estuary near
Immingham. The Humber Tidal Power Consortium that is backing the
“We estimate that the tides
project brings together several major renewable energy companies, as
well as Associated British Ports, Corus and Hull University.
around our islands are sufficiently
Neptune Renewable Energy, based in nearby North Ferriby, is planning
powerful and regular that they
a demonstration project in the estuary which could result in up to 20 tidal
turbines being anchored to the river bed.
could supply up to one tenth of
Britain's electricity needs. A large
part of this tidal power resource is
in places such as the Humber.”
Howard Nimmo, Director, Pulse Tidal
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18. Cost-Effective
Offices, Units and
Development Sites
We have the right premises, in the right places, at the right prices.
Greater Grimsby has a wide choice of modern offices, both in-town and on
high quality business parks, industrial units and development land adjacent
to major roads, a deep-water estuary and major docks.
The area’s flagship business park, Europarc, has been designed to attract
manufacturing, distribution and office based businesses with high quality,
cost-effective, purpose-built accommodation, within an attractive lakeside
setting.
Property costs and land values across the area are up to 25% lower than in
competitor locations.
The inward investment team at North East Lincolnshire Council provides a
free service to help find the right property for your business.
25%
lower property costs
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19. Lowest Operating
Costs Equals
Profitable Location
Property and labour costs are among the lowest in the UK.
Greater Grimsby is a cost-effective business location. Compared with
similar locations, this area has the: Average Wage Industrial Rent Medium Office
£/annum) £/m2/annum £/m2/annum
- Lowest average wage costs
Grimsby 20,577 40 85
- Lowest industrial rents
- Lowest office costs Hull 22,122 45 100
In difficult times, the ability to keep your cost-base to a minimum helps to Lincoln 20,873 45 120
keep businesses afloat and protects jobs.
Nottingham 23,499 55 160
Living costs are low here too with housing among the cheapest in the
country, enabling a choice of urban and country lifestyle. Doncaster 21,420 50 155
Sheffield 23,549 55 165
Teesside 20,689 42 170
Newcastle 21,837 47 210
Manchester 25,494 55 310
Sources: Property Market Report, VOA, July 2008
ONS - 2008 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings
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20. Outstanding Beauty
Sun, Sea, Sand
and Happy People
Lifestyles to suit all tastes.
Everywhere claims to have a great quality of life, but few places can
compete with our rich diversity of historic towns, quaint villages, wildlife
sanctuaries, rolling hills and sandy beaches.
Our surrounding countryside is famous for its beauty, with the Lincolnshire
Wolds being designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that is
protected due to its "precious landscape" and "distinctive character".
English country pubs, historic churches and quaint villages are just a few
miles from the towns of Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham.
“The resort is taking care of people
The seaside town of Cleethorpes has been voted as one of the happiest
places to live in the UK. A 2008 survey ranked the town ninth out of 273 UK
who are making the most of the
districts, which is not surprising given the classic mix of sun, sea, and
sand.
weather and the places to visit.
Local shopping and nightlife attract millions of visitors from outside the area
We are making Cleethorpes a
each year and as befits Europe's Food Town, you can enjoy great food
from the world's best fish and chips to award-winning fine dining.
happy place to visit and live in.”
Robert Chalmers, Cleethorpes Resort Manager
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21. Education For All
Choice and Quality
New Investment
Success and excellence from primary to higher education.
Our local schools offer a wide choice for children of all abilities. In the most
recent league tables, three-quarters of local primary schools outperformed
the national average, while half of our schools and colleges outperformed “The reputation the Grimsby
the UK average at A’level.
Institute enjoys with employers,
There are a number of excellent grammar schools in Lincolnshire within
easy reach, that regularly achieve some of the best results in the country. students and Associate
For further and higher education, the Grimsby Institute offers a wide range Universities has been founded on
of courses and has particular strengths in vocational training with several
centres of excellence in fields ranging from automotive technology to digital the quality of our courses and the
media. The Institute is planning a £150 million programme of
development, enhancing links with local schools and creating modern excellent facilities.”
facilities.
Ray Ellis
Grimsby Institute
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22. Practical Support
And Advice For
Your Next Project
How we can help.
Whether you're based in the UK or overseas, North East Lincolnshire
Council has a team of specialists waiting to help you. Our services are
provided free of charge on a completely confidential basis and include:
- helping you plan your expansion or relocation project
- providing research to help you make your decision
- advising on available sites and premises and development options
“The biggest single thing that
- organising personal tours of the area
- providing introductions and liaison with key local advisors
influenced the decision was the
- information about grants and financial assistance that may be available
availability of a skilled labour
For more information on how you can be a part of the Greater Grimsby
success story, contact:
force. We are very impressed and
Grimsby has a great reputation in
David Robinson
North East Lincolnshire Council
that area. This is an ideal location
01472 324605
david@greatergrimsby.net
for us and for our future growth.”
www.greatergrimsby.net
Rob Burnett, Daniels Group
(New Covent Garden Soup)
GreaterGrimsby
LINCOLNSHIRE
