Sectoral Opportunities

Colchester’s economy has been highly robust in recent years. Its SME base providing a diverse business base that has provided a degree of protection from the storms of recession. Colchester is a key driver of the Essex economy and with Colchester’s strengths in law and insurance it has long been a key location for financial services in Essex accounting for 11.7% of enterprises in this sector in Essex with 3061 employees across 855 businesses.

The finance and insurance sector is facing a number of serious challenges. Stricter regulations, rising taxes and technological innovations question the traditional business model. At the same time, the wealth shift towards the emerging markets is offering new opportunities.

Companies are capitalising on growth opportunities and launching new revenue-generating initiatives. To succeed, they need the right people in place but top accounting, finance and business systems professionals are hard to find.

However, the Gold rated University of Essex leads nationally on ‘big data’, data and behavioural analytics and computer science. And when combined with the continuing roll out of Ultrafast Gigabit fibre broadband the potential for innovation.

Meanwhile, customers are changing the way they engage with the sector, with large proportions using technology for transactions. Businesses are struggling to keep pace with technology and understand the associated risks and opportunities. In response, they seek individuals proficient in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, integrated financial reporting systems, cloud-computing platforms, and information security and datamining tools, as well as professionals to help with systems conversion projects.

Colchester’s tech strength is emerging, particularly around games development, digital marketing and data analytics. Gaming technology is fast finding new uses particularly for staff training in the workplace. And with the University’s market beating strength in securing Knowledge Transfer

Partnerships with business, it has never been easier to access this cutting-edge knowledge for commercial use.

Colchester faces a projected population growth of 9.4% (from 191,000 currently to an estimated 209,100) by 2026 and an associated house building target of an additional 920 houses a year. These people will need jobs. There are two potential locations for new office development which could help showcase Colchester’s burgeoning growth on the national stage.

The private sector and Government are seeing the opportunity that Colchester offers and are investing millions to capitalise on a wide scope of favourable factors that make Colchester competitive. It has been said that Colchester hides its light well. Though not ideal it does mean that its cost base is competitive and that is good for business.

This prospectus aims to put Colchester firmly on the financial services radar.

Advanced manufacturing is not a straightforward sector to define as it tends to refer to the “higher end” of the manufacturing sector as a whole. Moving away from volume commodity items that are probably best made in the lower-wage economies and moving towards high-value products using multiple technologies. Specialist products which need consistency and high standards.

This area is often characterised by the intensity of technology used in the manufacturing process or the utilisation of new materials rather than its end products. Furthermore, traditional sector definitions tend to capture “whole company” activity and can omit specific areas of expertise and innovation. Advanced manufacturing might include features such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, the use of advanced materials such as composites, automated processes in production or computer-aided design.

Whatever the precise definition, there is widespread recognition that Advanced Manufacturing is a strength of the UK economy and a crucial area of competitive advantage in the future. According to Government data, the UK is the sixth largest

manufacturer by output and a leading exporter of high technology goods: around a quarter of UK goods exports are defined as high technology.

Compared to Essex, Colchester has a similar percentage share of businesses in the sector but less than half the share of employment of the County. This implies that Colchester’s high value manufacturing is characterised by smaller businesses than those at County level. This is confirmed by BRES data which, due to rounding, shows no large firms (250+ staff) – although there are two – and relatively few medium-sized firms in the City.

Over the past 30 years the value of manufacturing output has remained largely the same but the number of people employed has fallen significantly. This is the picture across Essex and this is set to continue. Set against this picture Colchester has been relatively stable in comparison.