#57: The Global Medtech Story Hiding In Sussex

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[00:00:58] This podcast is brought to you by Always Possible. Always possible.co.uk. You're listening to Sussex And The City with Richard Freeman. Hello, welcome to Sussex and the City podcast. We've had quite a spike in listeners over the

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[00:01:48] identity, sustainability, what it is to live, work, play, design, build in 21st century England. But yes, none of this is taken for granted. Your patronage is extremely welcome. Thank you very much. And this podcast today, like all of our others, is about people. It's about ideas. It's about how we're all together shaping the brilliant but often underhyped little strip of the southeast

[00:02:15] that we call home in Sussex. And the question I'm asking in this episode is, does Sussex really understand the scale of some of the businesses, technologies and expertise that is already operating here? We have a narrative. It's a small business economy. Small is beautiful, right? It's SMEs, freelancers, micro businesses. That is the dominant story, but it's not the only

[00:02:38] story. So my guest is Tim Rose. He is the UK managing director of Electa, one of the county's largest employers and one of its most remarkable global success stories. In fact, it is the world's largest independent manufacturer of very high end oncology equipment for hospitals in every part of the globe. From its campus at Manoroyal and the northern bit of Crawley, Electa designs and

[00:03:05] manufacturers highly sophisticated radiotherapy equipment that is used to treat cancer patients all around the world. These machines have been built in Crawley since the 1960s. The site is just about to manufacture its 6,500th machine and its technology has treated more than 350 million patients globally. And yet beyond the worlds of medical tech and advanced manufacturing, Electa's kind of hidden.

[00:03:33] If you ask the average Joe in the street in Sussex, what's one of the biggest employers and can you name the world's largest independent manufacturer of radiotherapy equipment right here in Sussex? I'm not sure they can. So this is a bit of a conversation about why we don't always recognize or shout loudly or celebrate some of the really genuine, groundbreaking, global innovation

[00:03:58] businesses that we have. So Tim and I explore whether devolution can connect the different parts of the Sussex economy more intelligently, from Gatwick and Manoroyal to Worthing, Shoreham, Brighton, Newhaven and the east of the county. Could better transport, housing and strategic planning turn individual places into genuine growth corridors? Or does the idea of a single Sussex economy risk smoothing over some of

[00:04:22] these very different local needs? And given the new announcement from the government that mayors and strategic mayoral authorities will now be in charge of skills funding from 16 to 18 and adults, we talk about skills pipeline, partnerships between businesses like Electa and universities and colleges, apprenticeships, work experience, neurodiverse talent and the challenge of making world-leading STEM careers visible to young people who might only live a few miles away from a factory but have never

[00:04:51] heard of it. And then we talk about Tim's argument for a clearer one Sussex message, not pretending the county is uniform and standard but presenting a more coherent case for investment infrastructure and opportunity. So if you're up for a chat that covers cancer tech, manufacturing skills, transport and the bigger question, the usual question but from a different perspective, can Sussex become more than the some of its parts? I think you'll enjoy this conversation with Tim Rose.

[00:05:33] Really delighted to have a little bit of time with Tim Rose who is the, now let me get your new job title right, the UK general manager of Electa, big success story in medical manufacturing world, Global Reach, one of the biggest employers in Sussex. Tim, how are you? Tim Rose, I'm good. Thanks, Richard. And driving 100 miles an hour work-wise, so it's exciting times,

[00:05:59] it's exciting times, I think for Sussex as well. Changes, you know, across Gatwick Airport. I've just been out this week judging for the Gatwick Diamond Business Awards on the environmental management category, and I visited companies, small and large startup companies, right through to some of our viti culture companies at Denbigh's and some of the other vineyards. So it's glorious to go out and see the

[00:06:26] unbelievable, fantastic companies that we've got across our Gatwick Diamond area, right from Gatwick, South Surrey, right down to the coast. It's exciting times. It is. And I think we are generally, I mean, you guys are a bit of an exception, but generally a small business economy. So when it does come to vineyards or tech companies or retailers and so on, feeling part of a kind of mixed economy community and being recognised for work that's

[00:06:56] often against the odds, I think is really important. And I say this as a past winner of a company of the year at the Gatwick Diamond Awards. So I'm obviously biased, but it did huge wonders for my team. So what you'll find is large companies like us, Talis are the same. I know Virgin are the same as we want to use local supply chain for sustainable reasons, but actually financially it makes sense as well. It's great to see, you know, some of the smaller companies emerging and getting bigger and

[00:07:25] growing. And we can see that in the Gatwick Diamond Awards, but I went to a startup company this week and they haven't even got premises yet. We met in a hotel that they're working in partnership with on one of their projects. And I was blown away. I said to them, it's given me goosebumps at how good I think this project is. And they're developing in Sussex and they're developing in the Manor Royal

[00:07:50] area. And their product was so good. I can see it being a global product for three years. So, you know, we are absolutely seeing business coming into Sussex because they want to be here, because they can see they can grow and they can see that the larger companies want to use them in their supply chain and help them grow. So let's set the scene first then. Many people will know of Electa. Like I said, you've had a

[00:08:16] really important role to play in the global health tech and manufacturing world, but also as an engaged Sussex employer. But there will be people for many reasons that won't have come across you. So give a little background of Electa, you know, what you do, where you're based, your footprint around the world. And Electa is, I think, one of the biggest secrets business-wise in Sussex. We're actually a Swedish company and we're the world's largest independent company that

[00:08:45] builds, designs, manufactures, develops radiotherapy equipment for the treatment of cancer, specializing particularly in Sussex and in Crawley in particular on a product called a Linac accelerator. The reason it's the biggest secret in Sussex is they've been built in Crawley on this site since the sixties. This campus in Manoroy was built purely to build them. And we're fast approaching our six and a half thousandth machine that's come out of this factory

[00:09:15] that's treated in excess of 350 million patients globally. The company here, then Felix Medical, were acquired by Electa 30 years ago in the early nineties. And Electa seeing the importance of the supply chain and the brilliant engineering workforce we've got here has worked and developed in this

[00:09:37] campus. Fractures also in China and also in Wienendal in Holland. So, you know, we're a big player in the oncology and radiotherapy world. And that's primarily, it comes through Crawley. What do these machines do? How complex are they to build? Well, it's a fantastic question. A Linac accelerator and radiotherapy have been around,

[00:10:02] you know, for 30 years now. And my boss that's just left, Dee Matheson, was at the start of that, you know, when she started her career. And so what a Linac accelerator will do, will target the tumor directly through a radiation beam. In layman's terms, what the machine does is it fires electricity, energy, almost up to the speed of light. It then hits a large chunk of tungsten and the physics of that

[00:10:30] turns it into gamma rays. And the machine through a giant magnet shapes that gamma beam down onto the patient and treats the tumor. The machine's developed enormously over the last few years, particularly because we're now using AI in it, now using live MRI imaging. So that allows the oncologist to see the tumor in a live format. The AI is tracking the patient movement and the tumor

[00:10:57] movement. And what that means is that we can increase the size of dosage because there's less risk of the beam going onto healthy tissue. And that's hugely impactful for the patient because it reduces the amount of times they have treatment. And it's impactful for the client in our case, in the UK, the National Health Service, because there can reduce waiting limits. As I say, designed, built, researched and developed for that MRI unity, but it's called a unity machine. It happened in Sussex,

[00:11:27] in Manor Oil, and developed here, pushed out into the industry, you know, right from the heart of Gatwick Diamond in Sussex. And that's something Sussex needs to be proud of. And we don't shout about it. If we're not shouting about it, why aren't we? Why is what Electra doing? And there's a handful of others that are doing really extraordinary work in this field, particularly in medical instruments. You

[00:11:52] know, that seems to be a real area. It's not a big story, is it? The majority of Sussex has no idea. Yet we are in a time when this government says, right, we need to focus on what our strengths are as a country. It's come up with these eight priority sectors for industrial growth. And that includes technological advancements and AI and digital, as you've talked about the use of that. It's absolutely medical and health tech. It's going to be a really big part of it. Why is there that

[00:12:20] misalignment do you think sometimes? Oh, it's a really tough question to answer. You're absolutely right. There's fantastic examples, not just us. I think Collins Aerospace, you know, have been embedded in Sussex in Burgess Hill with a simulator business and in Crawley with their, you know, they're managing airport systems, for example, right across the globe. Talis, an extraordinary engineering company, you know, just three, you know, within 200 meters. And I think if you went out

[00:12:48] and asked someone on the street, can you name three of the biggest employers and engineering organizations in Sussex, they wouldn't name any of us. I think outside of Sussex, I think, you know, and I think it's improving, you know, if we go back to the Gatwick Economic Summit, that's an extraordinary platform now to push out the knowledge in partnership with other fantastic

[00:13:13] business sectors within Sussex. The Gatwick Economic Area is about a space within the Southeast that's slightly less obsessed with boundaries, but looking at where growth, prosperity and identity can happen. And I think that needs to work very carefully and cleverly with the boundaries of places like Sussex and Surrey under new mayors. It's pretty much my single obsession at the moment. Anyone who's been listening to this podcast for the last six months will know as a business leader,

[00:13:42] when you're thinking about the strategy for Elector and you're thinking about the role of a big employer within Sussex, how much is the devolution conversation shifting the dial or likely to change anything that you do? I think where we've been discussing it internally as a leadership team, I'm personally in support of it. I think it's a good idea. I'm very frustrated that, you know, it's been pushed back, the election has been pushed back. I was talking to one of the candidates,

[00:14:11] Katie Bourne, recently at another event and she was actually, I think, equally as frustrated. But our only concern is the different ideas and strategies different mayors might have. So if we take the north of the county in the Gatwick area and the Surrey borders area and compare it to the south coast area of Sussex, you know, they've got very, very different challenging business needs.

[00:14:36] And I think aligning the mayor's thought perhaps is going to be one of the biggest challenges across the region. There's definitely different business needs, but it's how we bring them together and make them work together. It's a thought pattern. And then it's, it's how do we encourage working together on things like housing and travel infrastructure and things like that? Because we rely hugely on our

[00:15:00] people. And we've got about 750 that work on our campus in Crawley and the majority are within a 45 minute commute. So how do we make sure that sustainability is at the forefront of how our staff can get into work? We want to have people in the office because we are very reliant on research and development and working together to drive improvement in what we build and what we do. So

[00:15:25] that's a bit of a change that's coming in 2026, but we've got to also help our staff in making that happen. So the infrastructure of travel to the area is important for us and having the housing affordable housing to attract people to come to us. The infrastructure to be able to get around so that people can, can not think twice about, well, I can't, I just can't get to work in that place where I could offer my skills needs to be one of the first things to address, right?

[00:15:53] Yeah, absolutely. And there is some fantastic schemes about. Well over a decade ago, I was head of facilities at Friends Provident as it was then in Dawking. And we went into partnership with Pfizer and also Kwoni, who are other big companies in the area and helped set up a scheme called Ease It. And the idea was to help people travel to work, to get into town at lunchtime without having to get into their car, looking at car sharing schemes. Ease It now is the whole of the South of England.

[00:16:22] You know, Mel who's set it up has got an MBA and a Queens award, that product. And that's in place in custody. In Manor Oil, every single company is enrolled onto that scheme to help staff. But I don't think we publicize it. And that will be the thing for the combined mayoral authority as it sets up. It's that auditing, isn't it? Of, of, okay, how do all these things join up? If there's a brilliant scheme over there, but then there's an absolute cold spot over here where nobody's got access and

[00:16:50] there's a great thing over here. I mean, you talked about different needs and nuances in different parts of the county. And that, I think that's understood, but does a business like yours feel that there's a benefit from that strategic ability to kind of step back and go, right, we can do things a bit differently and scale up bits and move things around and just think a little bit more, you know, efficiently about how we share best practice?

[00:17:15] David Oh, that's a great question. What we've tended to do is actually pull everything over the last few years into a central campus. So we were a bit more spreader. Colleagues were getting into cars, to go into different campuses that we had or different buildings and sites. So we've worked quite hard to bring everything into one site. The reason we've concentrated on where we are on Manor Island and Crawley is because of those infrastructure set up is there. You know, if we

[00:17:43] looked at Littlehampton or something on the South coast, it's much more challenging for someone to get there on the infrastructure that's in place, which is the real challenge. You've probably got a strategy, a vision, a roadmap, maybe even a post-it note empire on your office wall. But has anyone asked the really awkward questions yet? Like, is it actually working?

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[00:19:02] You know, Worthing's over here, Shoreham's here, Brighton's here, Crawley's up here. They're all different places, kind of bordered by green space or the sea or bounded by its sort of infrastructure. Whereas if you pan out and think about it, you know, if they're in Whitehall thinking about, okay, where's growth going to come from in Sussex? They're not going to be thinking about it as different places. They're going to go, we want a corridor where there's a sort of cluster of things that smoothly work together. And then if you pan out even further and look at it from a global

[00:19:30] perspective, they're going, right, is there a manufacturing hub cluster down in the south coast of England? Where is that? And we want to be able to say, well, it's in Sussex. Absolutely. And it combines a number of different places, but under one umbrella. You need an economic boundary for a unitary authority that really focuses on kind of Gatwick at the north and Shoreham and New Haven ports and Brighton in the south. And you have this

[00:19:58] sort of central Sussex area that is not those bits independently, but really working together as a kind of force that nationally and globally has a real story to offer. And it's really interesting how those kind of ideas are starting to be put on the table. And I'm not saying whether I think they're right or wrong. I think if you lived in Hastings or Chichester, you'd go, hold on a minute. But I do think that that sort of thinking is very new for Sussex. I mean, we've had the Gatwick Diamond,

[00:20:26] we've had the Greater Brighton area, you know, we have looked at cross-boundary ways to drive growth strategically. But the fact that this is now central government, it's national think tanks, it's big sort of economic boards, it's sort of going, oh yeah, Sussex, okay. There's an opportunity to do something a bit differently here. That does feel like a new conversation. David Morgan Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. And it's an exciting conversation.

[00:20:50] Funnily enough, I'm in Westminster next week at a forum celebrating the county. So it's maybe having the King's son as the Duke of Sussex has helped push the word Sussex out. I joke, but I, you know, I was at a forum and I can't remember where it was last year where the CEO of Shoreham Port was there. And I was blown away by, you know, how much business is coming in through Shoreham Port.

[00:21:18] If you think about New Haven, I managed to site in New Haven a few years ago and it was an awful place. I drove there recently and I couldn't believe how, you know, how that's all there has grown. David Morgan Well, and they're about to publish the first economic impact report about the, certainly the New Haven to DAP crossing, you know, so the first time there'll be some substantial numbers put to just what the port does for the East Sussex economy. These kinds of things weren't being commissioned. They weren't really being talked about. They

[00:21:46] weren't really being surfaced without what I think is the focal point of, of, of devolution. David Morgan Yeah, absolutely. And that allows, you know, if I think about, you know, my days of driving across that part of Sussex in my job role, you know, that drive from Lewis onwards into, into that part of East Sussex going down towards New Haven and Eastbourne and onto Hastings was a living nightmare and it still is. So, you know, that's the infrastructure we need

[00:22:12] to think about if we really want to drive growth. David Morgan It does feel it's an ever evolving David Morgan Involving conversation about how, how Sussex really gets behind the sort of scale of the need in this fast changing time, you know, and, and, and, and how much of the sort of education infrastructure and, and, you know, I've many within it will be the first to admit that it, it can be quite behind the

[00:22:39] times in terms of meeting employers need and, and, and that, and that's reflected a lot in things like the local skills improvement plan. But particularly in your sector, you know, advanced manufacturing. So there needs to be an offer to young people, you know, kids that are in school now, wherever they are in Sussex, so that when they leave school or college or university, that they know that there'll be a place for them in your

[00:23:05] organization, if they've been supported to develop the skills, the interest, the knowledge, that kind of stem mindset, that understanding of the Sussex economy and the role of global organizations here, still feels like we've got a way to go. How optimistic are you about? David Morgan Actually, I'm really optimistic, really optimistic. David Morgan Only because I can only talk about Electra and what, and Manor Oil and, and Gap with Diamond and

[00:23:33] what I know is happening around us. So we've got partnerships with Sussex University, Brighton University, Chichester University, and, and Crawley College. You know, I was, I was there, they've got a brand new engineering building that they're opened recently. You're absolutely right. The innovation center is right next door to us. And we've been working in partnership with, with universities and higher and further education for a while now, because it's absolutely critical that they are offering the courses and the

[00:24:03] development products that young people need to get in with us, to get in with Talis, to get with the Gatwick Airport, et cetera. And, and the other engineering and STEM requirements. And a company like us, you know, we, we take a whole combination. So we can take an apprentice for six, from 16 years old, for 18 years old. And we can take a graduate as well, further on down the line. But if the local colleges aren't offering the right courses,

[00:24:31] then we're dead in the water. And I think the development that I've seen in the partnership working and the work that we've been doing with writing to local schools, our STEM work, and lots of other organizations I know are doing it as well, starts putting seeds into young people's barn. I'll give it one example. We had, two years ago now, we had a STEM workshop for young people. We had five schools

[00:24:56] locally from around Sussex that came in for the day, over a hundred students. You know, we treated them as if there were members of staff. They were given instruction to a lecture that we split them up into groups and we gave them an engineering problem that we're dealing with in some of our products. So why don't you go and have a look at it and come back in an hour and present to us what your findings are? We were blown away by it, blown away by what they came up with. The young people there were so brilliant. One

[00:25:26] of those students, you know, is currently at University of London doing radiography as a, as a degree two years down the line. But there's others I know that have gone on higher education because they've been given the opportunity to look and see what engineering companies are doing on their doorstep. So it's vitally important that those sort of work streams happen and they are happening. They're not just happening with Elector, they're happening with other companies I know

[00:25:54] across the organization. So I'm really optimistic. I think Sussex is on that journey, but I think that the more, and it comes back to, you know, the more we shout about the, the organizations that are doing absolutely world leading stuff, making visible these kind of pathways into some of these extraordinary organizations and make that a real, a really normal thing. Not a surprise, not an

[00:26:20] exceptional day out, but something that's just talked about that feels like the, what we should be heading for. I couldn't agree with you more. You know, I mean, we've probably got quite a lot of staff, for example, that are neurodiverse out here because they're absolutely brilliant engineers. So, you know, I went in and we were talking with some of the colleagues that fall into a neurodiverse category. And we went to the local college and talked to students that were neurodiverse at 13, 14 with

[00:26:50] their parents so that they can see that they have got real opportunities out in the industry and become hugely successful. And actually they just need to manage, you know, and then companies like us will supply the background working environment that they need to thrive, quiet areas and help and things like that because we recognize that the brilliance of their, of what they can do for organizations like us. So I think it's shouting about it a little bit more, absolutely.

[00:27:19] Yeah. Some new energy that comes from an elected, you know, figurehead for the region whose remit includes skills, you know, careers will have things like the LSIP and the careers, you know, within their kind of auspices starting to think about, okay, how does it not be just about the relationship between one factory and one college? You know, how do we have a systemized thing that works for Sussex, which will

[00:27:48] be different to how it works in London or how it works in the West Midlands because transport is different. The topography is different. Where education and work happens is different, but we can look at the, in the round and try and solve some of these challenges and create things that are for purpose here. That's what I'm most excited about, particularly on things like connecting, yeah, kind of young people and, and the industries that are, that are growing and should, should have

[00:28:14] a really big welcome to them, you know, when they're ready. Yeah. I think it's also, um, working together in partnership to help smaller organizations that might be slightly more concerned about the, the issues of taking someone, um, on work experience or helping internship, for example, so that, um, um, frequently asked questions and, and signpost, you know, having standard documentation ready to

[00:28:41] take off the shelf to help them out. Um, it's, it's a step forward as well that we can work together in partnership with Tissol. Final question. Um, you said broadly, you think devolution's probably a good thing for Sussex, you know, what one thing do you think could be really transformed? This is all about 10, 20, 30 year long views. It's about, you know, funding settlements. It's about strategic leverage.

[00:29:06] It's about inward investment over time. It's about repositioning the county so that it's more than just the sum of its parts. If there's one thing that's really successful and is worth doing this for, what do you think that might be? I think it's the one Sussex message that we are, um, a county community that really can drive forward, um, uh, business growth. Um, and that's through a whole

[00:29:31] combination of things through a good transport links through fan, extraordinary higher and further education opportunities that links in with business. I think we need, um, we need to think about a centralized conference business center somewhere and, and I've, I've communicated that for, for quite a long time. You know, if I look at, if I want to host a conference and, you know,

[00:29:59] in our world there's, there's med tech conferences. I, we haven't got anywhere big enough to do it. So I'm constantly looking at elsewhere outside of, of, of our region. Um, but I think it's, it's, it's the message that we're one Sussex. One Sussex can be a whole combination, um, of, of reasons to come here, locate here because of the brilliance of our people, the brilliance of the education sector, then the, the transport links. And that's why we're here to transport is hugely important. You know,

[00:30:27] if you talk about where we are, our Lincoln to Gatwick, our, our, the road network down to, up into London and across the South coast and up north is extraordinary. It just needs to be better. Um, you know, with regard to some of the local issues of transport into work. So I think it's the one message it's the mayor's working together as one Sussex and recognizing the excellence of the region, um, from the north to the South. Tim Rose, thank you so much for being my guest

[00:30:55] on the Sussex and the city podcast. Absolute pleasure. Thanks, Richard. Been a joy. Thank you very much to this episode's guest and to you for tuning in. Sussex And The City is an

[00:31:18] independent and non-political project about devolution as it happens, explained in human. It is led by always possible. You can find other episodes, resources, events, and blogs about change in Sussex and Brighton by visiting sussexandthecity.info. That's sussexandthecity.info.

[00:31:42] This episode was written and presented by Richard Freeman for Always Possible. The editor was me, Chris Thorpe Tracy for Lo-Fi Arts. I did the music too. Production management was by Letitia McConnelogue for Always Possible. Talk to you next time.