WELCOME
Barbour now sells more clothing overseas than it does at home. Its growth abroad is feeding back into recruitment and a new sewing academy in South Shields.
The same test applies to several of this week's stories. GeoPura has a new Canadian owner, four NETPark businesses have been named in a national semiconductor cluster and Siemens Energy will build turbine components for the first three Rolls-Royce small modular reactors in Newcastle. The regional return will be measured in the skilled jobs, production and investment that remain here.
THE LEAD
How Barbour took the country jacket into international fashion
In the year to April 2025, Barbour generated £179.1m outside the UK and £171.8m within it. The UK share of turnover has fallen from 55 per cent in 2019 to 49 per cent in 2025.
The shift has been built around products that have changed remarkably little. Barbour still makes its Bedale and Beaufort wax jackets in South Shields, but collaborations and new stores have taken them into fashion markets from Milan and Tokyo to Chengdu and Dubai.
Europe has supplied most of the growth. Sales there rose from £44m in 2019 to £93.1m in 2025, accounting for nearly two thirds of the increase in overseas turnover. North American sales grew by 20 per cent over the same period, while sales across the rest of the world nearly tripled from a smaller base.
That overseas demand is now feeding back into production. Barbour said in August that it was recruiting about 40 trainee machinists in South Shields and had opened an on-site academy to teach sewing skills it could no longer find in sufficient numbers. The trainees would be equivalent to roughly 30 per cent of its average production headcount in 2025.
THE NUMBER
£275m
Ballard Power Systems has paid £275m upfront for GeoPura, a Newcastle-headquartered hydrogen business whose latest filed accounts showed £7.2m of turnover and a £22.5m loss before tax.
CHART OF THE WEEK
Student loan debt
Northumbria University has the North East's largest total Plan 2 balance, £2.78bn across 54,004 former students. The chart compares the average balances of graduates from the region's five universities, ranging from £53,849 at Newcastle to £43,927 at Sunderland. The figures are grouped by university attended, not where graduates now live or work.
THE WEEK
Middlesbrough approves £887m regeneration strategy
Middlesbrough Council has approved a ten-year Place Strategy and Investment Prospectus, bringing housing, digital, cultural and town-centre plans into one document. The headline figures, including £887m of investment and 3,667 new homes, are prospectus targets rather than money already secured. The report proposes that business cases are developed and the prospectus presented to external bodies by 31 March 2027.
NETPark's four semiconductor businesses named in national manufacturing cluster
A government study of the UK semiconductor sector has placed the North East alongside Scotland and South Wales as one of the country's main manufacturing clusters, naming four NETPark businesses as part of it: Pragmatic Semiconductor, Filtronic, aXenic and Kromek. The study reports that Pragmatic Semiconductor's FlexLogic-003 cleanroom in Durham is expected to create 500 further skilled jobs by 2030.
Siemens Energy to make Rolls-Royce SMR turbine parts in Newcastle
Siemens Energy will manufacture turbine components for the first three Rolls-Royce small modular reactors at CA Parsons Works in Newcastle. The order gives the North East a role in the UK's first small modular reactor programme and could lead to later service work in Newcastle. It is expected to support more than 550 jobs, although the government and Rolls-Royce SMR have not said how many would be new positions rather than existing roles sustained at the site.
IN THE CALENDAR
Thursday 17 September: The Bank of England announces its next Monetary Policy Committee decision. The rate outlook bears directly on borrowing costs, development viability and business investment across the region.
Tuesday 22 September: North East Mayoral Strategic Authority Cabinet considers an artificial intelligence growth-zone programme and data-centre strategy, alongside a new regional business-support framework. Together, the decisions will shape the region's artificial intelligence infrastructure and business-support offer.
Wednesday 23 September: The Office for National Statistics releases regional gross domestic product figures for 2024. It is the next comparable view of North East output and growth.
Friday 25 September: The consultation on the Darlington Northern Link Road closes. The choice of route will affect housing, jobs and freight connections between the A66 and the A1(M).
MORE FROM REVIEW NORTH
Government launches Northern 500 alongside proposed £150m scale-up fund - The government has launched Northern 500, a mayor-led network for 500 of the North's most ambitious mid-sized businesses. Separately, the British Business Bank has proposed a £150m northern scale-up fund that would make investments of £5m to £15m. The government has not said that membership of Northern 500 will determine access to the fund.
Land Digital raises £705,000 to expand tolling and parking software - Sunderland transport technology company Land Digital has raised £705,000 to expand its barrier-free tolling and parking software. Northstar Ventures supplied £500,000 through its Venture Sunderland Fund, just over 70 per cent of the round. Land Digital says it has a five-year partnership with Tyne Tunnel 2 Ltd and that its platform is also used at London Southend Airport.
Newcastle Helix tests AI maintenance tools in three buildings - Newcastle Helix is testing predictive-maintenance tools across three buildings as part of the four-year WILSON programme. Its target of cutting maintenance costs by up to 35 per cent applies across four European pilot sites, not to Newcastle specifically.
Until next week,
Stephen