North East deals of the week: key acquisitions, contracts and investments

British Airways owners IAG has announced an investment into a Norwegian company which is building a waste tyre recycling plant in the North East.

Wastefront AS – which was launched in Oslo six years ago by former Sunderland University student Christian A. Hvamstad – is creating a complete supply chain for used tyres, through the launch of a £1m plant at Port of Sunderland. Once at full capacity, the Wastefront facility will be ale to process around 80,000 tonnes of tyres per year, turning the used tyres into Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

IAG says the deal marks another step forward in its commitment to sustainable fuels, while also enabling Wastefront to begin construction on its fully circular tyre-to-fuel facility at the port.

Jonathon Counsell, IAG’s group sustainability officer, said: “We’re proud to support innovators like Wastefront, who are finding new forms of feedstocks to produce advanced fuels. However, as global demand for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) grows, it’s crucial to expand production in the UK. The recent Government mandate will help reduce aviation’s overall carbon impact, but airlines need confidence that the planned revenue certainty mechanism will support UK businesses in developing SAF technology without further increasing the cost base for UK airlines.”

Property group Northern Trust Company Ltd has snapped up a Northumberland industrial estate in a multimillion-pound deal.

Northern Trust Company, an investment group focusing on property investment, development and strategic land promotion, currently has a portfolio of around 9m sqft of industrial space, trade counters and office parks, as well as more than 5,000 acres of land throughout the UK, supporting over 25,000 jobs. Now the business has bought the South Nelson Industrial Estate in Cramlington, which has 46,683 sqft of workspace across 33 units, set next to Northern Trust’s existing Nelson Park Industrial Estate.

The £5m acquisition takes Northern Trust’s total ownership in Cramlington to around 300,000 sqft in 100 industrial units occupied by a range of local and regional tenants, while also further strengthening its presence in the North East industrial market.

Barry Nelson, regional property director in the North East, added: “South Nelson Industrial Estate is a well-established industrial estate with excellent connectivity, making it an ideal addition to our portfolio. With the diversity in unit sizes, we can cater to a wide range of businesses looking for flexible space to meet their operational needs. We look forward to managing and developing relationships with the existing occupiers on the estate.”

A 200-year-old Northumberland pub famed for its ‘cursed’ window collection was acquired by a pub giant in a seven-figure deal.

The Dirty Bottles in Alnwick has been operating as a pub for more than 200 years, but just over 10 years ago it faced closure when developers had earmarked it to be turned into flats.

Local entrepreneur Mark Jones stepped in to save the building, believed to have been built in the 1600s, and transformed the pub with a number additions, including the acquisition and incorporation of the former Oscars bar at 34 Narrowgate, and the development of adjoining properties 28 and 30 Narrowgate.

Now property agents at Christie & Co have overseen a deal to sell the pub in the multimillion-pound investment deal to Greene King, one of the UK’s leading pub companies and brewers.

The pub used to be called Ye Old Cross Inn but took on its current name in honour of the “curse of the dirty bottles”, a 200-year-old legend which holds that the innkeeper dropped dead while interfering with the bottles in the window. His widow said that anyone who did the same would meet a similar end, so the “dirty bottles” were sealed between two windows and have remained untouched ever since.

Former owner Mark Jones said: “As an Alnwick lad, I am really proud to have transformed what was a derelict, unloved row of buildings into a sympathetically restored and bustling hospitality venue, taking turnover from zero to circa £3,000,000. As well as giving locals and tourists somewhere of real quality to drink, eat and stay, we have also created and sustained around 40 jobs for local people."

Sunderland business Maxim FM has been acquired by a global rival for an undisclosed sum as part of moves to strength its regional presence. Maxim Facilities Management Limited (Maxim FM) provides commercial contract cleaning and facilities management services to public and private sector clients, and already works with a growing number of blue chip corporate clients.

The firm was founded by managing director Graham Conway in late 2010 and has grown revenues from around £5m to £15m over the last 10 years after hoovering up investment to secure commercial and geographical growth, with its workforce growing to more than 1,100 employees.

Now OCS, an Ipswich based leader in facilities management with worldwide operations, has acquired Maxim FM to strengthen its service offering and expand its regional presence across key public and private sector markets. The deal marks OCS’ sixth strategic transaction in the UK over the last 18 months, and follows recent acquisitions of Scottish facilities management specialists FES FM and FES Support Services, which were announced in December last year.

Graham Conway, managing director of Maxim FM, said: “We are confident this partnership will benefit our colleagues and customers alike, and we are thril