SALISBURY and the surrounding region need to recognise its important assets, says Alex Tregellas, chairman of Salisbury Vision.

He said the city needs to play to its strengths and engage with the companies and organisations who are leading the way in their sectors.

He said the key questions for him since taking up post in May were: “What would be the primary source of the area’s economic regeneration over the next 25 years? How we would organise ourselves? And what Salisbury brand will focus us all?”

It was also important to view how the Salisbury Vision team could make a difference and how it could work with the chamber of commerce.

Mr Tregallas has a long association with Salisbury, having moved to the city in his teens. He said that although he now lives in London he still frequently returns. His background is in developing corporate strategy and change management, skills that he believes are vital to the job he has with Vision.

He said: “In the last few months I have made it my task to go out and speak to key businesses and organisations all around Salisbury and the conclusion I have come to is that we have some incredible assets and we could be doing a whole lot more than we are.

“This means though that we have a great opportunity to engage in several ways. One will be with the small to medium enterprises, of which we have a number of members here.

“In particular I have been looking at those companies who use technology and export. We have a number of companies who do that and are incredibly successful around Salisbury. You know many of them I am sure. An example is Naim audio. They are growing at a heck of a rate. They have just launched two new products.

“One of them is going into John Lewis at a cost of £900 for an entry level product for an integrated stereo system. And they have launched what they call their Statement System, which is completely at the other end of the spectrum. A whole package could cost £400,000.”

Mr Tregallas said there were other examples including DH Aerospace in Downton, who have contracts with the major aircraft manufacturers to supply high quality piping, Flowplant in Churchfields who export high pressure pumps to the international oil industry and the Tintometer Group in Solstice Park, who are world leaders in water testing and colour measurement.

Mr Tregellas also talked about the scale and importance of the research centres at Porton including DSTL, where 2,000 people are employed, whose history goes back centuries involving important discoveries such as radar and the jet engine.

He said: “At Porton the Public Health England research facility, which employs 600 people, is a world leading centre for research into infectious diseases. Unfortunately, they are under threat at the moment and my team have been working to to persuade the government they should remain where they are.

“This is an organisation which found a cure for childhood leukaemia. My team recently did a valuation of the drugs that were invented at PHE’s Porton facility and subsequently sold to private companies, based on public domain information, and the value came out in billions of pounds.

“Part of my job will be to bring these companies together so that they know more about each other and, with your help, begin to lever the assets we have here for the benefit of the region.”