Month: November 2021

Morningside has joined forces with over 50 of the Midlands’ leading manufacturers to discuss the sector’s role in levelling up the UK.

The event, which was the brainchild of our Chairman, Dr Nik Kotecha OBE and the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), was hosted at the Morningside Arena, Leicester. Its objective was to boost manufacturing and to highlight the sector’s key role in creating regional growth, reducing geographical inequality, leading to higher productivity and better wages for all.

The Midlands is the leading location for UK manufacturing, with 25,270 businesses and 555,820 existing jobs in the sector, equalling 12.5% of total employment – a much higher percentage than the national average.

Key themes emerging from the conference included; the UK being too regionally unequal, in large part due to the decline of regional manufacturing. Revolutionising manufacturing will also bring growth, productivity and better jobs to regions like the Midlands, and also the whole country beyond London and the South East.

Dr Kotecha, who is also a Midlands Engine Council Board Member, said: “The Midlands is the UK’s manufacturing heartland, employing 4.7m people and accounting for 22% of UK exports; yet it’s clear that the region’s voice on the national stage is often fragmented and disjointed.

“Collaborations between the public and private sectors, as well as academia are key to addressing this, which is vital to bringing leaders together to share ideas, at a time when levelling up the regions has never been more important.

“Conferences like this are crucial to developing a clear shared vision for the region and securing greater investment and policy support from government. They’re also vital to raising awareness of the strengths and challenges we have as a region, as well as building on our successes to deliver a bright future for businesses and our communities.”

The conference was convened by Midlands Engine, Make UK, East Midlands Chamber and Morningside in partnership with leading UK think tank, The CSJ.

Sir John Peace, Chairman of the Midlands Engine and a keynote speaker at the event, said: “Our region was the original global manufacturing pioneer, and we continue to lead the world. Together, we are identifying and acting on a wealth of opportunities for a new generation of Midlands makers and entrepreneurs, through our increasingly clean, advanced and technology-focused manufacturing.”

Andy Cook, Chief Executive of The Centre for Social Justice, said: “The CSJ is committed to the value and dignity of work for everyone in our society, across the whole country. For too long our economy has been dominated by London and the South East, while inequality between UK regions has been allowed to grow.

“We believe a revolution in manufacturing will bring greater growth and opportunity to the Midlands – and to the whole country. Today we bring together the key voices of Midlands industry as the foundation of a CSJ policy programme seeking to put UK manufacturing at the heart of levelling up.”

Charlotte Horobin Regional Director, Midlands and East, Make UK said” “Midlands manufacturing plays a wonderfully diverse and powerful part in UK industry. Nearly 600,000 people within our region work in our fabulous sector making things from pies to aerospace parts and everything in between. During the pandemic this has meant we can continue to put food and drink on our supermarket shelves, and our businesses have stepped up to provide ventilators for intensive care units and PPE for local hospitals. Manufacturing will continue to play a significant role in the region’s economy and will measurably contribute to our ability to bring about a post-pandemic recovery.”

Chris Hobson Director of Policy and External Affairs, East Midlands Chamber added: “The manufacturing sector is a core part of our region’s business community and is well-placed to support the recovery and rebalancing of our economy. The pursuit of sustainable growth will enable our region to flourish and I welcome the opportunity to advance the voice of the business community in this goal.”

In this Opinion Piece Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Chairman of Morningside Pharmaceuticals, talks about why he chose to set up our company in the Midlands and what the future might hold for the region’s Life Sciences, Med-Tech and Health Sectors.

“Over 30 years ago my company, Morningside Pharmaceuticals, was established in a home garage. The business grew rapidly and we soon required a central location to setup a distribution hub with great transport links, as we developed a sophisticated UK and international supply chain.

The location we chose was Loughborough, in the East Midlands, where there is a thriving Life Sciences Sector. There is an Innovation Enterprise Zone located in the town, which includes Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park (LUSEP) and the Charnwood Campus, which is also the first UK Life Sciences Opportunity Zone.

We also saw great opportunities in being located in the Midlands region as a whole, which today has an economy worth more than £222 billion. And has become a hub for the Health, Med-Tech and Life Sciences Sectors. In the Life Sciences Sector alone there are about 1,100 businesses producing an annual turnover of £9.5bn (2019), and employing almost 33,000 people in a wide range of highly skilled jobs.

The Midlands has many world-leading strengths in these three areas; but there has been a clear need to connect them together. The Midlands Engine partnership, for example, has worked closely with industry, academia, the Health Sector and Public Sector partners to establish Midlands Engine Health; and this collaboration will be crucial as we seek to expand the world-leading capabilities of the region.

Midlands Engine Health brings the talent of East and West Midlands together and it allows us to showcase the fantastic innovations of Midlands’ businesses, our universities and NHS Trusts. By working together, we will have one voice to promote the Health, Med-Tech and Life Sciences Sectors, which is essential if we are to meet the challenges of an aging population.

It also provides a route to central Government, which will lead to extra funding in order to grow all of the Midlands’ key sectors. This includes developing skills, innovation, manufacturing and Research & Development (R&D), which will ensure that the Midlands continues to thrive as a national hub for these important growth, education, health and community support areas.

I see great growth opportunities ahead, supported by the work of Midlands Engine Health, amongst others, which will benefit life sciences businesses based here.

Morningside Pharmaceuticals is a good example of this. We are unique amongst UK businesses in that we were founded as a 100% export-led company and have then grown our business into the UK market. Since our inception, we have exported to more than 120 countries, and see good opportunities for further international growth, particularly in developing and emerging countries, as well as the EU.

Today, Morningside has over 242 Generic and Branded licensed medicines registered in the UK and EU.

To deliver growth, businesses in the Life Sciences Sector are investing in R&D and manufacturing to maximise the opportunities available. Potential opportunities include; advanced manufacturing, adjusting to a data economy, such as investing in artificial intelligence to better manage data, as well as innovating to provide products to an ageing society.

Businesses in the sector are also investing in digital technologies and ‘Big Data’ to better manage electronic healthcare data sets, which traditional software struggles with.

Collaborations are important too, and we want to see more of these between public and private sectors with academia. Our local universities are also very able and willing to work with businesses and the NHS to create new innovative products and services.

Now that we have reached the end of the transition period with the European Union, Midlands Engine Health will actively work to identify and capitalise on these new global opportunities, as well as attracting international investment and accelerate sector-wide growth.

By working more closely together the Midlands’ leading Health, Medical Technology and Life Sciences Sectors can ensure that we maximise the benefits of innovation for our regional economy and society in general.”

We’re delighted to have chosen the 15 lucky LOROS Rocket Round Leicester winners who have scooped tickets to a future basketball game or cricket match.

The 15 winning entries all visited Morningside’s giant rocket, called ‘Hopes, Dreams and Wishes’ during LOROS Hospice’s giant artwork installation, where 40 huge sculptures were scattered around Leicester city centre over the summer months.

Morningside is the proud named partner of the Morningside Arena, the home of UK basketball champions the Leicester Riders, as well as the named sponsor of the Morningside Medical Centre, at Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s Grace Road ground.

All of the winners entered a competition on the Rocket Round Leicester App and answered this not so tricky question ‘Which basketball team calls Leicester’s Morningside Arena their home?’.

The 15 lucky winners were then picked at random by Morningside’s Founder and Chairman, Dr Nik Kotecha OBE.

Morningside was delighted to sponsor a rocket for the Rocket Round Leicester campaign, which has raised £100,000s for the amazing work of the hospice, which provides dignified end of life care to 2,500 people each year.

Our rocket design was also very special for us, as it aligned well with our focus on supporting young people into the world of work, and promoting skills to develop future careers.

It’s estimated that 250,000 people visited the rockets over the summer, which provided a much needed boost to people’s lives as the UK emerged from a year of Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Congratulations to LOROS for running a highly successful and inspiring event.