Rotherham The Unofficial Website An unofficial website about the Town and Borough of Rotherham

Business in Rotherham

There is plenty of business, trade and industry in Rotherham in the 21st Century, but precious little of the heavy industries for which the town was, for want of a better description, famous. This is not a comprehensive look at the business community in Rotherham just a few bits and pieces that some of you might find interesting. Whether you are based in Rotherham or thinking of moving your business into the borough these are some of the Business Organisations & Links that can help you make progress in Rotherham.

I've added some comments about Present Day Rotherham. In 2009 new business start-up initiatives are on offer and you can find details there. There is a Jobs in Rotherham page for any of you looking for work which has a set of links and addresses for you to contact.

Whilst many of the old heavy industries are gone, and a lot else besides, there are still some firms that have been around a long time in Rotherham. You can visit then at Some of the Old Survivors. There is also a short look at some of the New Businesses that have decided to give it a go in Rotherham.

There are also a page about Shopping in Rotherham which looks at some of the shops in various parts of the Borough. I've trimmed down my pages about the Future of Rotherham, which, you, my visitors obviously found very boring as they were little visited, but you can still find some information here.

There are very fancy long term plans for Rotherham which might, just might get the old place kickstarted again. Although some of these redevelopments have been substantially completed in 2009 there is very little sign of it happening yet. In 2009 some clever people at the council have eventually realised that the town centre is in real trouble. Hand in glove with the new shop initiatives this there has been a relaxation in the Council's hard line anti-parking stance. Car parking concessions have been made to try and help with the recovery of the town so I've added a page Parking in Rotherham with details of the scheme. Congratulations to whoever has got their fingers out and attracted a whole new set of traders to the Tuesday market on Effingham Street; it is very busy. Pity they can't do it for the outside market on other days.

Rotherham 2010

I called into the town centre on Saturday 23 January 2010, the first time I'd been in since before Christmas. Now whether this is just the "art" in the shop windows or the fact that a few more shops have opened up I don't know but the atmosphere was a lot brighter. The market hall has a number of new traders and the Nail Bar has certainly made a splendid effort.

A number of shops have opened in the revamped Imperial Buildings and an Arts Hub has been created in the centre with various Art and Crafts stalls.

Following the General Election in May 2010, the new coalition government have committed themselves and the country to large cuts in public expenditure. Both Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and Yorkshire Forward who have received grants to pay for or negotiated loans for a deal of the new development are to loose much-needed funding. Many projects are "being kicked into the long grass" and those under threat are likely to include the redevelopment of High Street including the remains of the Medieval Three Cranes and the now-demolished All Saints Buildings site. The funding required for the projected Rotherham United Community Stadium is also doubtful. Rotherham was promised £6million by the previous government for meeting various targets but it seems that the signature on the cheque was not obtained before Labour was outed.

NEWS Grounds for optimism over Rotherham economy Monday July 26 2010

Message from RiDO the regeneration arm of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough council:-

"One of Yorkshire & Humber's top areas for investment, jobless claimant numbers falling faster than the rest of the UK , and business inquiries rising - Rotherham 's economy is prompting cautious optimism.

"Amid the tough times as the country comes out of recession - and we as a council are not immune - there are some grounds for optimism,” said the Metropolitan Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Planning and Transportation, Cllr Gerald Smith.

Regional development agency Yorkshire Forward's 2009-10 figures on inward investment show that South Yorkshire is by far the most popular location. It attracted 43 per cent of the total business investments, ahead of West Yorkshire (which includes Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield ), on 33 per cent, the Humber (23 per cent) and North Yorkshire (9 per cent).

And Rotherham is a significant player, both in the scale of investment and the importance of the companies. Apart from UK companies choosing to operate from the borough, it has some 100 overseas companies from around the globe.

Investments range from £25m for Rolls-Royce, to build its Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the Yorkshire Forward-UK Coal Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP), to Swedish-owned Sandvik Medical's £7.5m on developing its European Centre of Excellence in the Rotherham section of Beighton. Rolls-Royce is also set to create a civil nuclear manufacturing plant in South Yorkshire.

In a round-up of other investment, Rotherham business news website Rothbiz reports on how Dutch-owned Pegler chose Manvers for a £7m warehouse and Elite Tooling was acquired by Tivoly, France's largest cutting-tools manufacturer and the third largest in Europe.

Other recently announced investments include Boccard UK, a French company in the nuclear energy and construction sectors making Rotherham the base for its northern division and hi-tech French company TEKS, choosing the AMP for its UK HQ.

To the inward investment results can be added existing Rotherham companies' successes in winning business worldwide. Together, these may help account for fewer people claiming Jobseekers' Allowance in the borough.

June saw a drop of 538 from May, to 7,498, or 4.8 per cent. That is the lowest since January 2009 and the fifth fall in the first six months of the year. Rotherham 's rate is above the regional 4.4 and national 3.8, but the rate of decline is sharper than both.

Meantime, latest figures from the council's regeneration arm, Rotherham Investment & Development Office, show an increase in business inquiries and demand for space. June's inquiries rose to 53, 16 more than in May, 19 more than the same month in recession-hit 2009 and even seven up on 2008.

RiDO's business development manager, Tim O'Connell, said: "We're seeing progress and investment everywhere from business parks to town centre, where retailers are seeing the opportunities. We're also helping people set up their own companies, including in our purpose-built business centres."

Region-wide, a record 147 overseas investors chose Yorkshire & Humber in the last 12 months, creating or safeguarding more than 3,000 jobs and attracting £165m-plus of private-sector investment.

Yorkshire Forward's assistant director of business, Theresa Lindsay, said: "Yorkshire and Humber has continued to attract national and international major investments from world-class industry names, with the highest rates of investment into the region in the last decade."

For further information, contact:- Clark Herron, Communications Manager, Environment & Development Services, Rotherham Investment & Development Office, Phoenix Business Centre, All Saints' Church Yard, Rotherham S65 1AA, UK. Office 44 (0)1709 254444; direct, 254570; 07795-368617, Email clark.herronatrido.org.uk (remember to replace at with @). Website www.investinrotherham.co.uk for more information.

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