The Sheffield City Region's Creative and Digital Industries (CDI) is a highly regarded and established centre of excellence and has some phenomenal companies competing and leading their respective sectors with the best from London, Leeds and Manchester. The best of our CDI sector compete at the leading edge of supplying marketing and creative content and the development of e-commerce, software and technology solutions to help clients in all sectors from telecoms, manufacturing and games development.
Many of our clients operating in the Sheffield city-region CDI sector support the manufacturing sector and their impetus through design, software development or PR and branding is crucial to ensure the "makers" stay ahead of their competition.
CDI businesses within this region also compete within their own right for contracts across the globe and bring in a substantial proportion of South Yorkshire and North East Derbyshire's GDP.
According to WelcometoSheffield there are approximately 50,000 people from the region who work in CDI, the trade of which accounts for over £1bn of turnover in Sheffield alone.
Perry Offer, Global CFO at Dialogue Communications, says:
"All things considered, there is growth potential in the CDI arena particularly in the social space but it's proving the returns on investment which are elusive. One of Dialogue's biggest challenges in being based here in South Yorkshire, is getting to London when you HAVE to...and the best thing about being here is not being in London."
Maybe it's a nice problem to have? Many successful businesses were set-up by entrepreneurs wishing to exploit the region's fantastic cultural and "outdoor" offering. I'm still amazed at how many businesses are owned or managed by a team that has at least one serious climber, walker or cyclist - the Peak being on our doorstep is a fabulous asset and together with our universities will continue to draw undergraduates and new ventures.
Since the 90s the sector has been steadily building its substantial reputation and I was involved in advising the CIQ Agency back then which has helped run the flagship development known as the Workstation.
Right now with talk of the recession being over we have clients who are concentrating their efforts on growth markets abroad and it's paying dividends.
However, despite this very positive representation the crisis in confidence in the UK is affecting CDI businesses as much as it is any other sector. Unlocking routes to finance is not easy for new and existing businesses plus tighter controls on the recovery of cash has been the key to survival. Smaller businesses in the CDI sector in particular are usually squeezed and we are dealing with an increase in debt recovery instructions but also in relation to public sector disputes in tendering criteria.
The CDI sector is well served by a strong professional network of lawyers, accountants, insurers and patent agents who have expertise in supporting and helping CDI businesses to develop the appropriate business structures and legal terms needed in order to protect and exploit intellectual property in contract negotiations.
For further information please contact John Baddeley at [email protected] or call 0114 266 6660.
