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Business case study

The Finishing Line

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Business context

The Finishing Line, dynamic supply chain specialists who have been in operation for over 35 years, has a mission to provide rapid end-to-end fulfilment, storage, and logistic solutions.

After identifying that its unique skill base could be transferred into other markets, they connected with the University of Essex to develop a Management Knowledge Transfer Partnership (mKPT).

Through the mKTP, The Finishing Line teamed up with leading academics from Essex Business School to primarily grow the business’ presence within the eCommerce Fulfilment landscape whilst also encouraging growth in several areas such as innovation, people and automation.

Research solution

VF has partnered with Senior Specialist Technician Dr Phillip Davey and Professor Tracy Lawson from the University of Essex’s School of Life Sciences - an expert in plant physiology and Infrared gas exchange - for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by Innovate UK.

As vertical farming is still an emerging industry, there is limited information on it compared to traditional open-field and greenhouse cultivation. While VF has an in-house research team that includes plant scientists, their experimental resources in plant physiology are primarily focused on commercial applications rather than fundamental research.

This collaborative project allows VF to test their hardware and technology developments accessing Essex's Sciences Labs and academic expertise. A KTP Associate has been hired to drive the project, with guidance from the business and academics. They will be analysing data to support the research and development team, implementing results into trials on a range of species for the vertical farm.


Joshua Arrowsmith and Andy Mead from The Finishing Line

Joshua Arrowsmith and Andy Mead from The Finishing Line

The Finishing Line's offices

The Finishing Line's offices

The Finishing Line's new premises

The Finishing Line's new premises

Business value

 

The KTP has the potential to significantly advance lighting technologies within vertical farming.

 

Within the lifetime of the project itself, Vertical Future has already reaped the rewards of working with the University, achieving tangible outcomes from their collaborative research with Professor Lawson’s groundbreaking STEPS laboratory. These results have been effectively translated into materials for sales and demonstrations. The next step will be packaging these lighting recipes in a commercially viable way, using their proprietary “DIANA” software package.

 

Currently, there is a very limited in-depth number of systematic studies optimising LED lighting systems for economically relevant crops in vertical farms, so this project offers an innovative contribution to improving operational sustainability and economic feasibility, not only for Vertical Future but for the entire industry.

“For 35 years The Finishing Line has been focusing on one particular core market - magazine finishing, but now we’ve evolved into supply chain experts. Once we recognised that our skills could be transferred into other markets and other sectors, the University of Essex proved to be the ideal partner to enable us to achieve that. I would have no hesitation to recommend a KTP to other businesses. It’s been absolutely fabulous for us and Josh winning the award at the same time as coordinating our move to new headquarters is a brilliant acknowledgment of what we have accomplished."
Andy Mead managing director at the finishing line
Dr Shabneez Bhankaraully, Joshua Arrowsmith and Professor Niraj Kumar at the Innovate UK KTP Awards 2023 )
Dr Shabneez Bhankaraully, Joshua Arrowsmith and Professor Niraj Kumar at the Innovate UK KTP Awards 2023
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