Movers and shakers
Peterborough is home to many successful businesses – some new arrivals, some long-established.
Listed below are some of the city’s largest employers together with companies and public and voluntary sector organisations which have made the headlines with growth and development in recent years.
Anglian Water
Anglian Water Services Ltd is one of the leading providers of water and wastewater services in the UK, serving the needs of around six million industrial, commercial and domestic customers.
It is geographically the largest of the 10 regional water and wastewater companies in England and Wales and supplies water to a region that extends from the Humber to the Thames estuary and from Northamptonshire to the east coast.
Its Peterborough regional office at Thorpe Wood employs 600 staff and covers many environmentally diverse and sensitive sites including thousands of miles of rivers, nationally protected wetlands, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, a large number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other areas of outstanding natural beauty.
Baker Perkins
Baker Perkins Ltd is an engineering and manufacturing company providing industrial scale equipment to the food processing industry worldwide.
It specialises in the development and manufacture of innovative machines for the confectionery, bakery, cereal, snack and biscuit industries. The company also manufactures and assembles special purpose equipment unrelated to the food industry on a subcontract basis.
The company has been in Peterborough for over 100 years and is one of the region's largest engineering employers.
Barclays Personal Investment Management
Barclays Personal Investment Management employs approximately 450 staff at its Lynch Wood headquarters in Peterborough.
BPIM offers a range of multi manager investment funds. The funds are actively managed by a selection of the world's leading investment managers, some of whom would usually be restricted to large institutional investors dealing in billions of pounds.
However, Barclays’ service for personal investors provides a wide spread of investments, offering the potential for attractive performance in line with its clients’ stated investment objectives. The portfolios are suitable for both new and experienced investors and are available for clients investing between £50,000 and £1 million.
British Sugar
British Sugar - part of Associated British Foods, a multinational business which is one of Europe's largest food producers - processes Britain's entire crop of sugar beet to manufacture sugars and syrups for consumers and the food and drink industry.
It is the market leader in the UK's retail and industrial sugar sectors and its Silver Spoon sugar is among the country's largest food brands.
BGL
Formerly the Budget Group of companies, BGL is now one of the largest personal lines intermediaries in the UK with 750,000 customers, 85 high street retail outlets and a major contact centre operation with centres in Peterborough, Coventry, Sunderland and South Africa.
The group began operating in the UK in 1992 when Budget Insurance Company Limited was formed to repeat the success founder Douw Steyn had enjoyed with South African based motor insurance company, Auto & General. With just five executives and no pre-existing customer base, Budget Insurance Company grew within four years to an annualised premium of £54 million.
The group now employs around 2,200 people worldwide including 1,200 at the head office and contact centre in Peterborough.
Churchill Insurance
Churchill Insurance was launched in 1989 as one of the UK’s first direct motor insurers. In 1990, the company started selling home insurance and over the years has extended its service to include car, travel and pet insurance, breakdown cover, van and motorcycle insurance.
The Peterborough office includes a call centre operation and over 900 staff are employed in the city.
In 2003 Churchill was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and now forms part of the RBS Insurance division.
Diligenta
Diligenta, with its head office in Peterborough employing over 1,000 staff, is the UK subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of the world’s leading service companies.
It was established in 2005 to specialise in the provision of business process outsourcing (BPO) services for the UK life insurance and pensions industry. Diligenta currently works with the Pearl Group and provides a full BPO administration service for Pearl Assurance, NPI and London Life.
In 2007 TCS opened an innovation laboratory at the Peterborough site which provides a new research and development facility in the UK for customers to test and experiment with new technologies.
EMAP
EMAP’s specialist media business in Peterborough comprises magazines, a digital business, shows and conferences. It works across consumer and business-to-business markets, spanning automotive, sport, outdoor leisure, transport and hobbies.
Ideal Shopping Direct
Ideal Shopping Direct is a Peterborough-based home shopping network with storage facilities and television studios based in the city.
Its most well known channel is Ideal World which broadcasts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year selling jewellery, DIY equipment, cookwares, fashion, housewares and health and beauty products.
It also operates two other channels and all three are supported by websites which offer consumers further opportunities to purchase products.
Founded in the 1980s, the company (then known as WrightWay Marketing Ltd) moved to Peterborough in 1992.
Indesit
The Indesit Company’s Peterborough division employs over 1,300 people. It is one of 18 production facilities worldwide and specialises in the design and manufacture of refrigeration products. The local division deals with all UK brand management and forms the centre for all commercial operations, finance and the UK service operation HQ for all brands.
Indesit is the second largest white goods manufacturer in Europe. In the UK, Indesit Company is the market leader in domestic appliances, with a portfolio of brands that includes Indesit, Hotpoint, Creda and Cannon.
In 2006, the Indesit Company had a global turnover of over €3 billion.
Northgate HR
Northgate HR (formerly RebusHR) has roots in Peterborough dating back to 1963.
With over 40 years’ experience, Northgate HR is one of the UK’s leading providers of HR, payroll, flexible benefits and pensions solutions to the public and private sector. A range of solutions can be delivered in-house, via an application service provider or outsourced to small and large organisations.
Northgate has 25 major offices across the UK and six offices overseas employing a total of approximately 6,000 staff.
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society was founded by local railway workers in Peterborough in 1860 as the Peterborough Provincial Benefit Building Society.
Today Norwich & Peterborough Building Society is a top 20 building society, with over 50 branches and 1,000 staff. It is recognised as the leading regional building society with a reputation for innovation and environmentally-friendly lending policies, products and practices.
Products and services available at every branch include mortgages, savings accounts, investment bonds, share dealing, personal and business banking accounts, personal loans and insurances. It also offers independent financial advice.
The society's aims are "To be the best independent regional building society in the UK" and to remain mutual and provide a quality service to its customers.
Perkins Engines
Perkins Engines is the world's leading supplier of off-highway multi-cylinder diesel and gas engines. The company, which is a division of the American-owned company Caterpillar Inc, was established by Frank Perkins in Peterborough in 1932. Since then more than 15 million engines have been built and five million are estimated still to be in service.
Ranging from five to over 2,600 bhp, the engines power more than 5,000 different applications from over 1,000 major equipment manufacturers in the construction, power generation, materials handling, agricultural, marine and industrial markets.
Perkins has achieved the international Class A accreditation which recognises best practice and its joint venture with Japanese company ISM, Perkins Shibaura Engines, received the 2005 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the international trade category for its 400 Series engines.
Peter Brotherhood Limited
Peter Brotherhood Limited specialises in providing efficient and environmentally friendly solutions in the conversion and use of energy through steam turbines, gas compressors, wind turbines and combined heat and power technologies. Its expertise covers a wide range of industries and its equipment is operating in over 100 countries around the world.
Established in 1867, Peter Brotherhood now operates from a prestigious purpose-built engineering facility in Peterborough (built in 1994). With a sophisticated CAD capability and a wide range of CNC equipped machine tools, it provides a comprehensive package from initial design through to after sales service.
In 2007 Peter Brotherhood celebrated 100 years in Peterborough following its move from London in 1907.
Produce World Group
Produce World Group is one of the largest conventional and organic fresh produce suppliers in the United Kingdom. It supplies large UK-based supermarket chains and food manufacturers.
Its operating companies include Solanum, the UK’s premier supplier of potatoes; Isleham Fresh Produce, a specialist in growing and marketing root vegetables; RB Organic, a supplier of organic and multi-component root vegetable products; Rustler Produce, a supplier of onions and other alliums; British & Brazilian, a supplier of imported fruit; and Briess Produce, a long established produce importer.
Produce World Group has its head office in Yaxley, Peterborough, and currently employs more than 650 people.
Royal Haskoning
Royal Haskoning is an independent company of consultants, architects, engineers and environmental scientists. Its activities are based on technological and business know-how, focused on the interaction of people and their environment.
Originally founded in 1881 in the Netherlands, the firm employs 3,600 staff with a wide range of knowledge and experience. The UK head office has been in Bretton, Peterborough, since 1972 and now employs around 250 staff.
Royal Haskoning has subsidiaries and partners throughout the world. It has access to all major international markets through its network of branch and project offices in Europe and overseas.
Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook UK & Ireland is one of the UK's largest travel companies, employing around 11,000 staff. The company's principal operations include 616 high street shops selling travel and foreign exchange, 121 separate bureaux de change, seven Thomas Cook travel warehouses, four call centres, Thomas Cook TV and www.thomascook.com, one of the most popular UK travel websites.
In addition, Thomas Cook has more than ten tour operating brands including: Thomas Cook, JMC, Sunset, Thomas Cook Signature, Club 18-30, Culturatrips.com, Neilson, Blue Sky Holidays Direct, Sunworld Ireland and Style Holidays. The company also operates Thomas Cook Airlines, the UK's second largest leisure airline.
Thomas Cook UK & Ireland is owned by German-based Thomas Cook AG, Europe' s second largest leisure group. The company employs around 1,500 people in its head office in Bretton, Peterborough.
In 2007 the company announced a merger with MyTravel with many of the head office operations being consolidated in Peterborough
Travelex
Travelex is a foreign exchange and business payments specialist. The group is also one of the world's leading providers of outsourced travel money to banks, travel agencies and other financial institutions.
The group’s activities are organised into three divisions: Commercial Foreign Exchange (CFX), Retail and Outsourcing.
CFX provides international payment services and foreign exchange risk solutions for commercial and personal customers, with products and services comprising multi-currency spot contracts, forward contracts and options. The retail division is the world’s largest retail foreign exchange specialist, with nearly 700 retail branches. The business principally operates bureaux de change in airports and tourist locations. The outsourcing business provides travel money services for financial institutions and travel agencies by supplying to branches and additionally by fulfilling the individual orders of their customers.
Unique Computer Solutions
Based in Peterborough & Cambridge, Unique Computer Solutions was set up in 1998 by managing director Rakesh Pathak. Over the past ten years it has established an excellent reputation for the supply and support of business hardware and software solutions for clients both locally and nationally.
Unique can provide a complete outsourced IT function or offer a support service to companies’ existing IT staff, from building the whole IT infrastructure for a business, to supporting and maintaining that structure with on-site visits, phone help lines and dial-in access.
Unique Computer Solutions also specialises in installing hardware from laptops to servers, connecting offices, home workers and field staff, and supporting IT solutions with a comprehensive system support package tailored to suit individual business requirements.