Latest news with #NickBeer
New Statesman
12-06-2025
- Business
- New Statesman
How AI could transform Wigan
Image: Nick Beer/Shutterstock Atificial Intelligence is often used as a shorthand for the future of our economy. But to say we want a future shaped by AI says little about what that future looks like. AI is a tool, a way of generating answers to questions from massive quantities of data. An AI-powered future is a future that uses data to achieve things we care about. What those things are is up to us. Beyond Whitehall, there is little serious grappling with what this future should look like for places like Wigan. As the Member of Parliament for Makerfield and the leader of Wigan Council, we have been thinking carefully about how AI can be harnessed to give working people in our area a better future. While it's a work-in-progress, we wanted to share it, because it will matter for leaders across the country in the coming years. The government's approach is centred around AI Growth Zones. These are effectively energy-intensive data centres, which are important for the future of AI in the UK but do not, in themselves, generate good jobs or productivity growth in local areas. Data processing is not like coal mining: there is no relationship between the people who do it and the physical place the processing happens. We must be clear that AI will not herald a return of place-based industrial capitalism. To actually harness AI to generate growth and employment in a local area, we must be much more granular and specific. It starts by looking at the real-world businesses that generate data and could use it better to drive efficiencies and productivity. In Wigan, we have UK-wide strengths in sports, food manufacturing and other process manufacturing that is generally high-volume and low-margin. For instance, Heinz has one of the largest food factories in Europe in Wigan, producing three million tins of beans a day, and the largest wet-wipe factory in Europe is in the Makerfield constituency. Local business Uncle Joe's Mint Balls has grown from selling sweets at a Wigan market stall in 1898 to being exported across the world today. It is a particular favourite in Japan. These factories work on fine margins, producing hundreds of thousands of cheap outputs. On a daily basis, they generate millions of datapoints. Unlocking that data, using it to make improvements in the process of packaging, or bringing products to market faster and more cheaply, can be transformative to the productivity and profitability of these companies, and in turn, the wages and work of local people. Or take sport. Wigan Warriors, which is owned by the New Statesman's owner, Mike Danson, has been one of the best rugby league teams in the world for most of the game's history, and this season, Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors women's teams have been almost undefeated. Each game generates hundreds of datapoints about each player, team tactics, fan attendance and spending, and a host of other pieces of information that clubs can use to professionalise and secure their finances. Wigan can lead the way in this kind of analysis. AI is a tool. How you decide to use that tool, and how an area develops distinctive expertise in improving and deploying AI, will depend on that area's existing strengths. For us in Wigan, it's not about building cutting-edge large language models or generative AI, it is about potential for global businesses building and doing things in the physical world to use data and AI to drive up productivity and boost our economy. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Local authorities can make a real difference here. They must collect, store and process data much more effectively to understand how best to serve their populations and inform better decisions. To make preventative healthcare a reality, target financial assistance or educational programmes, or get people back to work, Wigan is working to improve how it gathers and processes data. A more data-driven council can be a more community-led council, more tailored to the needs of specific, hyper-local places and people. This approach has seen success in London, where the London Office for Technology and Innovation has pooled data from a variety of boroughs to give better data sets, to intervene on issues from community health to tackling widespread mould problems. This summer, we will launch Scale Space North – an AI and digital innovation hub working with Wigan Council's digital partner, Agilisys. Wigan's Civic Centre has been repurposed to act as a catalyst for local start-ups and new business propositions. Such partnerships and digital innovation are vital for the public sector to radically transform to meet community needs and to create skills and jobs for the future. Wigan powered Britain's industrial revolution. Mining, for example, was hard, physical work, but it gave people jobs, skills and, importantly, purpose. Wigan helped Britain win wars, become the world's wealthiest nation and to protect our country from threats. Despite its promise, the internet revolution has provided little for northern towns like Wigan. Our public realm has been battered, while too many people, from kids to pensioners, have retreated into the addictive haze of social media and fragmented digital worlds. People are angry, and they are right to be. Levelling up did not provide what our towns really need: a huge boost of productivity, capital investment and real attention to the potentials and the problems of specific places, from the ground up. The job of people like us is to ensure the AI and data revolution actually benefits working people. Often, this won't always be shiny or glamorous, it will be about understanding the distinctive strengths of an area, and how they can be built on to generate, store and analyse data better, then integrate data-driven tools across businesses and public organisations. AI is neither a silver bullet nor a destructive disaster. It is a tool that should be part of the future we choose to build. It is we, the people, who give meaning to family, work and communities. The shape of our AI-powered future is up to us. Related
Zawya
10-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Transguard Group announces historic year-end results of AED 3.2bln
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Transguard Group, the UAE's leading business solution's provider, today announced record financial results for the year ended 31st March 2025. Total revenues were AED 3.2 billion, compared to AED 2.7 billion last year; Transguard's profit before tax increased by 30.4% to AED 265 million. 'These impressive results represent the dedication and commitment of our 67,000 employees,' said Rabie Atieh, Chief Executive Officer, Transguard Group. 'We set out with a very specific strategy: to intentionally disrupt our market sectors with positive innovation. Our clients are thriving now more than ever because we're facilitating their growth with a renewed sense of collaboration, which is underscored by the diversity of our service offering. This, in turn, enables us to be their reliable partner in each and every circumstance.' Nick Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Transguard Group, echoed these sentiments: 'These results could not have been delivered without every one of our employees pulling together and driving home our renewed strategy backed up by our rock-solid fundamentals with the aim of delivering sustainable value accretion for all our stakeholders,' he stated. Over the last financial year, Transguard Group has made significant shifts in its company culture, embarked on exciting strategic partnerships and aligned itself even more closely with various governmental bodies. As a result, the business solutions provider has played a key role in various initiatives brought forth by the country's leadership. 'As we look ahead, our journey is far from over. Building on the momentum of the past year, we will actively explore new avenues that will see Transguard diversifying into next-generation managed services solutions that are not only agile and tech-enabled, but also aligned with the nation's broader ambitions for sustainable, secure and future-ready growth. These strategic moves are designed to deliver even greater value to our shareholders, clients and partners, while reinforcing our commitment to supporting the UAE's vision of a resilient, innovation-driven economy,' Rabie concluded. To learn more about how each division of Transguard Group has grown, download the FY24/25 annual report: About Transguard Group Offering flexible solutions for all of the UAE's staffing needs since 2001, Transguard Group is the region's most trusted expert in security, facilities management, cash services and white-collar staffing, and more. With an annual turnover of AED 3.2 billion in FY24/25, Transguard's expertise is in supplying the right people for its clients, precisely when and where they're needed. To learn more, visit For media queries Lena ter Laare Director – Marketing, Communications & CSR Mobile: +971 50 899 7953
Trade Arabia
09-06-2025
- Business
- Trade Arabia
Transguard posts record revenue of $871m
Transguard Group, the UAE's leading business solution's provider, has announced a record financial results for the year ended March 31. Total revenues were AED3.2 billion ($871.26 million), compared to AED2.7 billion last year and the company's profit before tax increased by 30.4% to AED265 million ($72.15 million). 'These impressive results represent the dedication and commitment of our 67,000 colleagues,' said Rabie Atieh, Chief Executive Officer, Transguard Group. 'We set out with a very specific strategy: to intentionally disrupt our market sectors with positive innovation. Our clients are thriving now more than ever because we're facilitating their growth with a renewed sense of collaboration, which is underscored by the diversity of our service offering. This, in turn, enables us to be their reliable partner in each and every circumstance.' Nick Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Transguard Group, echoed these sentiments: 'These results could not have been delivered without every one of our employees pulling together and driving home our renewed strategy backed up by our rock-solid fundamentals with the aim of delivering sustainable value accretion for all our stakeholders,' he stated. Over the last financial year, Transguard Group has made significant shifts in its company culture, embarked on exciting strategic partnerships and aligned itself even more closely with various governmental bodies. As a result, the business solutions provider has played a key role in various initiatives brought forth by the country's leadership. 'As we look ahead, our journey is far from over. Building on the momentum of the past year, we will actively explore new avenues that will see Transguard diversifying into next-generation managed services solutions that are not only agile and tech-enabled, but also aligned with the nation's broader ambitions for sustainable, secure and future-ready growth. These strategic moves are designed to deliver even greater value to our shareholders, clients and partners, while reinforcing our commitment to supporting the UAE's vision of a resilient, innovation-driven economy,' Rabie concluded. - TradeArabia News Service
