Champions group beats drum for Wolverhampton

It currently has 20 businesses operating across the area, employing more than 200 people in Wolverhampton alone.

It makes the city a significant part of a diverse global industrial group employing 8,000 people and with a turnover of around $1.5 billion. In the UK alone Caparo is a £400 million business operating from 43 sites.

Caparo founder Lord Paul of Marylebone is Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, and the company chose that university as its partner in the Caparo Innovation Centre, a ground breaking project partnership between industry and academia to help develop new products.

And John Wood, director of group corporate services at the Caparo Group offices in Oldbury, chooses to devote time to his role as a Wolverhampton Business Champion.

"Perhaps its is because I am an outsider that I can see what is great about Wolverhampton," he said. "That perspective lets me see the positive, while so many people who live here seem to focus on the negatives.

"There is certainly an attitude of 'cup half empty' rather than 'cup half full'."

As one of the city's Business Champions, John is an ambassador for Wolverhampton, keen to help bring in other businesses and encourage investment.

He clearly sees Caparo as a firm part of the area's engineering heritage and future, from its traditional foundry and 'metal-bashing' operations to its specialist off-road handbrake business Clydesale Jones, supplying the likes of JCB and forklift truck makers Yale, from the group's Neachells Lane site in Willenhall. Or the revolutionary work at Caparo's advanced composites business on the same site.

But he admits his initial reason for joining the Champions was a negative one.

"We were hugely frustrated about our efforts to move one of our businesses onto our site at Neachells Lane a few years ago," he said. "Eventually we succeeded, but it was despite the council rather than because of them. Their attitude was so negative.

"The former Mayor of Wolverhampton, Phil Bateman, had set this group up and it gave us a way of voicing our frustration.

"But, since then, there has been a sea-change at Wolverhampton Council. They are now hugely positive about business and very supportive.

"And we are very positive about Wolverhampton. People here have very low self-esteem about the city, but it is an ideal location with excellent road and rail links, the workforce have engineering skills that are better than most country's and it is a centre for aerospace. It has a university that is more integrated with industry than virtually any other in the country.

"Jaguar Land Rover could have gone anywhere, but they chose to come to Wolverhampton, with its engineering workforce and all the supply chain companies in the area.

"Wolverhampton needs to have a 'will-do' attitude, to be more positive. We need to create more confidence and promote what is great about this area."

The Wolverhampton Business Champions group is currently gearing up to take a more active and high-profile role in promoting the city and its business prospects, with the aim of attracting further investment.

Alongside Caparo, the group is made up of senior executives from many of the biggest businesses operating in the city, including beer and pubs giant Marston's, construction firm Carillion, Carvers Building Supplies, UTC Aerospace Systems, aviation engineering group Moog, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Wolverhampton.

Meanwhile, Caparo has underlined its own strength in the area after its Caparo Precision Strip business - which has sites at Neachells Lane in Willenhall and in West Bromwich - walked off with the Exporter Award at the recent Insider Made In The Midlands 2014 event.

The business secured the win by demonstrating the significant impact of its exports from within the West Midlands. It added to previous accolades secured by Caparo Precision Strip as a result of its year-on-year sales growth in China is up 30 per cent on last year.

CPS is a specialist manufacturer of precision steel strip products and, from its two manufacturing sites in the West Midlands, supplies many leading industries including automotive, hand tools, machine tools, medical, construction, forestry, food and general manufacturing.