Why is this Gloucestershire IT firm in such demand?
We talk to the team shaping one of the region’s fastest-growing tech-support firms, and ask why the future looks very bright indeed.
Dear reader,
Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Raikes Journal.
Today we lead on an article which sees us attempt to lift the lid on just what is driving growth at an exciting Gloucestershire-headquartered IT firm – why does it continue to attract customers, what’s its story, who is in the driving seat and just how big does it think it can become?
We’re talking about Emerge Digital, a business you may have seen staging events around the county, on the shirts as sponsor of Gloucester Rugby, and popping up on social media after signing former international rugby players onto its team.
And in other news, we focus on a new senior appointment at Gloucestershire College. Dan Smale has joined as the college’s new director to lead digitech programmes. People have shared the story, but no one has asked ‘why?’.
The answer points to the rise-and-rise of further education.
We repeat the news we sent out as a special news bulletin this morning, about major investment at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, tell you about Spirax Sarco’s fortunes, plans by Suntory Beverage and Food GB&I (SBF GB&I) to invest significantly in the county, and two stories describing the ever-present trials and tribulations of trying to build any homes in the county.
Just in case you missed Monday’s story, which is one of our best-read of all time here’s a link: ‘An incredible demonstration of how a business can supercharge a community’.
Have a great weekend.
Best regards,
Editor | 07956 926061 | LinkedIn: Andrew Merrell | andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk
Briefing notes
🏗️🏥 There are plans for a new five-storey critical care building at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Hospital chiefs say the modular building (a building constructed off-site) is needed in Gloucester to help meet the increase in demand expected in the coming years. The Department of Critical Care (DCC) at the Great Western Road hospital currently provides 19 beds and no longer has the capacity to meet existing clinical demand. Modelling suggests the hospital will need capacity to accommodate a yearly predicted growth in demand of three per cent, according to Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. More here.
📈 One of Gloucestershire’s biggest employers that has its headquarters in the county has reported a rise in turnover to more than half a billion pounds. Spirax Sarco, which has its head office in Cheltenham and employs more than 1,150 staff - an increase of more than 20 on last year - said turnover had reached £5,078,000, up 3.8 per cent. It was growth “achieved against a challenging backdrop where industrial production contracted” in its key markets. The firm is a specialist in the use of steam in countless industrial processes and trades globally. It also has 75 staff overseas. Operating profit was down by 15.7 per cent, to £1,517,000, some of which was drive by increased staff costs. Spending on research and development was up, from £314,000 to £668,000.
🎉💷💷 As it seeks to celebrate its 80th birthday since construction began on its Forest of Dean factory, drinks manufacturer Suntory Beverage and Food GB&I (SBF GB&I) has revealed targeted investments it claims will benefit the region by more than £57 million. The producer of Lucozade and Ribena, which is based in Coleford, said investment includes a new £25m manufacturing line due to start production in 2027 and £14.5m on a next-generation blackcurrant processing facility in Ledbury, operational in time for this summer’s harvest. Sustainability projects also remain central to long-term growth, said the business.
🏘️ Questions have been raised over how the A417 and A419 corridor will cope with plans to build 7,600 new homes in the Cotswolds. Cotswold District Council is in the process of creating its new blueprint which will set out where development is expected to take place between now and 2043. Planners have been tasked with finding sites for 18,900 new homes and are looking to create 10 new strategic sites which will take 90 per cent of the housing. More here.
🏗️🏘️ A developer wants to make sure the foul drainage system in a village where residents complain of sewage in their homes and gardens can support its “desperately needed” plans for 100 homes. A&K Gateshead has submitted plans to develop land off the A38 Tewkesbury Road in Twigworth, near Gloucester, to Tewkesbury Borough Council. Residents and local parish councils have objected to the scheme and raised concerns over traffic, flooding and the sewage system not being able to cope amid reports of sewage flooding people’s homes and gardens. More here.
Diary dates…
Today:
Elmore Festival. Four days of chamber music and live jazz featuring internationally acclaimed performers plays out today and Saturday at the 13th-century Church of St John the Baptist in Elmore. More here.
Saturday:
Elmore Festival (see above) wraps up tonight at the 13th-century Church of St John the Baptist in Elmore. More here.
Bottomless Brunch at Central Bar & Kitchen, right in the heart of The Sub Rooms, Stroud. From 2pm. £30. More here.
Sunday:
Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Governor’s Nose: The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. 6.30pm. More here.
The rise and rise of further education…
News broke this week of a senior appointment at Gloucestershire College, but no other publisher spoke to the college or asked why it had created the role of a new director to lead digitech programmes – or why Dan Smale had decided to take up the position. So The Raikes Journal did.
Smale told us “some of the most exciting developments in digital skills are happening right here in further education. We’re close to employers, fast to adapt, and directly plugged into what industry actually needs next. Being one of a handful of Technical Excellence Colleges in the UK specialising in digital and technologies puts us in a real position to lead on the national stage. If the tech sector is going to grow at the pace the country & economy needs, FE provision and facilities are central to that.”
Is there a sense that an increasing number are choosing the FE route to work rather than load up on debt via university?
“Application numbers remain strong, with further education applications up year to date,” the college told us.
When once FE might have been thought of as a place for apprentices to learn the trades or for those who aren’t university bound, as if that was somehow a lesser path, Gloucestershire College is winning funding and forever changing. It continues to expand its construction offering.
But on the digitech side, in 2021 it opened its £3 million Advanced Digital Academy, a year after it revealed it would also be delivering Cyber Security Degree Apprenticeship in partnership with the University of the West of England. It has received recognition from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, for its excellence in cyber security education, and developed close relationships with CyNam, the influential Gloucestershire-based cyber security network.
“Gloucestershire College aims to grow learner volumes across further education, higher education, apprenticeships and commercial training’ plus ‘ensure long-term alignment with employer demand and national skills priorities,” said a spokesman.
That’s why Smale saw the move to Gloucestershire College as a smart one – and why the college went looking for someone to help it lead the charge. More here.
The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People, our sponsors, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
Readers who upgrade to become a paid subscriber become part of this CIC too (from £2.30 a week). It helps make us sustainable, allows you to see past the paywalls, comment on our stories, and know you’re making possible the county’s only editorially-led digital magazine dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire about its businesses, charities, education and training sectors.
Raikes is the only independent website approved to use the BBC’s local Government copy. It recognises Raikes as independent journalism.
Why is this Gloucestershire IT firm in such demand?
We talk to the team shaping one of the region’s fastest-growing tech-support firms, and ask why the future looks very bright indeed.
Nigel Church and Tom Henson make for a fascinating team. Church, who is unapologetically driven to succeed, couldn’t be prouder of the culture and staff behind the growth at Emerge Digital.
And Henson, who partnered with him to become managing director of the managed IT service provider, is a man who has been there done it - who helped grow a similar business before, and see it sold too.
Church’s journey with Emerge Digital began when he stepped away from a hugely successful career in sales working for pioneering tech firms where deals were six figures long to buy a struggling business after a conversation in a pub.
His career until that point had been all about selling the next wave of transformational tech to businesses – from Xerox’s colour printers to 3D printers, to the pioneering computer design software of US firm PTC (Parametric Technology Corporation), to Vanco (which pioneered virtual networks for large, multinational enterprises and FTSE firms), to the IT support and finance solutions of Syscap Ltd and the managed networks and security solutions of Global Cloud Xchange.
Each firm was at the forefront of the next big tech revolution for business. It was all very big business and exciting, but he was ready for a new challenge, wanted to shape something himself, and came across his ‘opportunity’ almost by accident.
“I was working for Vanco (a major Dutch business), but living in Worcester and I used to go to a pub called the Coach & Horses on a Friday after a busy week at work, from time to time, and I got friendly with some of the guys there,” recalls Church.
Those guys were running a business, First Solutions Tech (a managed IT service provider). The business was facing a challenging period, but Church recognised its underlying potential.
It had infrastructure, customers, skilled staff and a brand. All the constituent parts were there, he explained, all the difficult bits that take time to pull together.
“I felt we could build something really good,” he said.
So, he made an offer, taking a controlling share.
It was a big decision. It meant he would be leaving a job where deals were struck in the millions of pounds, a world he knew well and thrived in, to try to shape and grow a business himself.
But he could see potential for First Solutions Tech and couldn’t let go of the idea.
Back then ‘the cloud’ (where your software, data, and computing services run on the internet instead of your own hard drive) was an emerging concept, and Church knew it would fast become the next point of focus for companies.
“I could see what it could do for SMEs,” he said, and felt sure First Solutions Tech could position itself well to help firms take advantage.
That was 2011.
Two years later his business partner wanted to sell up and Church found himself in charge of the firm in its entirety.
One of his first big decisions was to move it lock, stock and barrel to Cheltenham (a UK hot spot for cyber businesses) where he saw significant opportunities for growth.
The next big step was to rebrand to Emerge Digital. That was 2022.
When I asked him if he knew he was entrepreneurial Church bats away the idea, suggesting he is not doing anything ‘new’ enough to earn the title. But perhaps he is.
In a competitive marketplace heavy with firms that claim to be able to manage your IT, deliver you cyber security, integrate your phone systems, take you safely to the cloud and heaven knows what else, together with Henson he has positioned Emerge Digital at the very head of the pack.
And together they’ve overseen significant growth.
At the end of December 2024 Emerge Digital revealed it had increased turnover by 30 per cent and customer base by 26 per cent.
Its latest contracts contributed to 84 per cent growth for its innovation arm, which handles all client projects involving new and cutting-edge technologies such as AI and automation.
It gave the business the confidence to predict a doubling of revenue by mid-2026. Something it’s managed.
On average annual growth has been 15 per cent and for the year ending July 2025 turnover was just under £3.1 million. It sees no reason why that won’t continue.
Henson said: “We’re just in the process of putting together a new three-year plan.
“There is a lot of opportunity out there. I think customers are keen to find tech partners who can help them.
“And when you get to our size it opens up the opportunity to acquire businesses as well.”
Henson wouldn’t allow is to publish the figure he suggested the firm could turnover in just a few years time, but don’t be surprised to see it chasing down double figures.
Staff numbers have grown too – to 23 – with high-profile additions including former Gloucester Rugby and England player Mark Atkinson (pictured top, far left) in August 2024, and earlier this year former British and Irish Lions and Wales’ wing, Alex Cuthbert, who joined as regional business development director for South Wales.
“The expansion into Cardiff represents a strategic intention to grow our business across the South West,” said Church.
“Any move into new markets comes with its risks, but we believe Cardiff and the whole of south Wales offers a fantastic opportunity to continue our growth - though there is still much more work to be done.
“AI clearly represents an area of significant growth for the business, and we see it as a key driver of innovation and value for both our clients and our own operations.”
The business’s rugby connection goes deeper than the signing of two former players too.
Emerge Digital has forged a strong working relationship with Gloucester Rugby and is one of its sponsors, working with the Kingsholm club to develop one of the leading conference and interactive event spaces in the city.
And in March this year it achieved B Corp status, the sought-after certification underlining a commitment to environmental, social, and governance standards.
Culture is a recurring theme of the conversation with both Church and Henson.
Initiatives inside the firm have included the launch of ApexAI, a service focused on employee digital wellbeing for their clients as well as their own, and a profit-sharing scheme with paid leave for charity support.
Church also serves as a board trustee for the Cheltenham Open Door charity.
When I sat down to speak to both men at the Emerge Digital HQ in Eagle Tower I expected to be bamboozled by tech talk, but Henson completely wrongfoots me.
“I joined about seven years ago now. It was because of the culture,” he said.
“There are a lots of IT companies out there. They are often very tech-led. Of course, tech is important to us.
“But it’s all about how we shape it around the people, relationships and partnerships.
“That’s part of the culture of our business. Bringing people like Mark (Atkinson) and Alex (Cuthbert) in helps too. They have spent a career thinking about performance.”
He added: “Over the last five to six years, since Covid, people have seen tech as a way of cutting costs.
“We see tech as being able to make a huge difference to our client’s productivity. Covid has just helped accelerate that.
“Unless you are a big business, however, with a whole department dedicated to technology, it can be hard to get the most from it without support.
“You can end up spending money on things you don’t want, don’t need or can’t understand how to get the best out of.”
And that’s where Emerge Digital has positioned itself. As each new wave of tech for business begins to emerge the Cheltenham firm’s team masters it. It’s what it does with that knowledge that is what makes its approach different, as Henson explains.
“When it comes to AI (artificial intelligence, the latest tech transforming business activity), it’s not about the technology itself, it’s about what your business wants to achieve and then about how AI can help it do that,” he said.
“We always sit down and listen to our customer first and ask them about their business, get to know it and what they want to achieve.
“Then we show them how we can help them get there using what we do.
“Tech, if well used, can help growth without always needing to add to headcount, for example.
“For a lot of our clients it’s about finding that balance. We have the ability to help them achieve that and help them get and show them how it can benefit them in any other way too.”