The Tees Valley is home to countless innovative companies. Business editor Helen Logan reports on Teesside's wide-ranging industry. A Process that means chocolate melts in your mouth and not in your hand. A piece of equipment that is being hailed as the biggest breakthrough in agriculture for 50 years. These amazing innovations are happening right here on Teesside. The speciality of Johnson Matthey Catalysts, at Billingham, is catalysts which are materials used to speed up chemical reactions. Sounds very technical and not remotely relevant to you and me. But in fact their implications have an impact on many aspects of our everyday lives. For example, they help confectionery producers to change the melting characteristics of chocolate, help to provide the correct consistency for hair mousse and ensure the ink sticks to sweet and crisp packets. Catalysts enable the manufacture of chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, flavours, fragrances and crop protection products. The Green Tyre Company, in Middlesbrough, makes a piece of equipment which can boost crop growth in areas where water is scarce. It manufactures a roller, which creates indentations in soil which can hold up to one litre of rain or irrigated water each. The Aqueel has been described by Dr Mark Nearing, a senior research scientist with the US Department of Agriculture as holding "the potential of being the biggest leap forward in agriculture in the last 50 years". Described as a rainwater harvesting roller, it has already attracted the attention of farmers, scientists and government officials in several countries. The Aqueel led to the company winning the Best New Product/Service category in the North East Business Awards, which are run by the Evening Gazette and its sister paper The Journal in Newcastle. Green Tyre - up to now - is best known as the world's first puncture-proof bicycle tyre manufacturer. Over the years its tyres business has expanded into wheelchair and industrial uses. It's the stuff dreams are made of - paper-thin roll-up computer and television screens. But this fiction - as featured in the 2002 Tom Cruise film Minority Report - could become reality with the help of Teesside expertise. The pioneering research organisation which is focusing on these developments has just signed an important agreement with a major international player. The Centre for Process Innovation at Wilton has secured DuPont Teijin Films as the first tenant for its Flexible Electronics Facility. The agreement will also create two highly skilled research and development specialists posts. CPI recently secured a £2m investment to help fiction become fact when it comes to computer and television screens. The funding came from regional development agency One NorthEast to develop the Flexible Electronics Facility. Nigel Perry, chief executive of CPI, said: "This is a new, exciting area for development and the funding will allow CPI to help bridge the gap between research and development and commercialisation." Even the humble butty has been transformed thanks to the ingenuity of a Middlesbrough company. Mark Arnold, procurement and development manager with Brambles Foods, has landed a trio of awards at the annual Sammies - the British Sandwich Industry Awards. As well taking the honours for two creations, he clinched the overall British Sandwich Designer of the Year Award - a title he also won last year. Mark was named Hot and Spicy Sandwich Designer of the Year for his 'Jack in the Wrap' containing guaca-mole, sour cream, hot and spicy tomato relish, cherry bell peppers, Monterey Jack cheese and vine ripened tomatoes. He also was awarded the LesKol Sandwich Designer of the Year crown for his 'Italian Job' sandwich which had ingredients including LesKol cheese. The woman declared the best in Britain when it comes to commercial success and acumen is a Teessider. Call centre boss Chey Garland was recently named the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year. The mum-of-two launched a debt collection business with £600 in 1980 after leaving school with no qualifications before moving into the call centre sector in the 1990s. The 48-year-old has built Garlands into one of the UK's biggest call centre firms, which now employs about 2,800 at sites in Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Stockton. The Stockton site has the potential to create a further 950 jobs. Chey, born in Ormesby, joins a prestigious line-up of past Veuve Clicquot winners which include Anita Roddick, of The Body Shop. | 
ERW
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