After decades of operating side by side, Gatwick Diamond Business and the Gatwick Diamond Initiative have formally come together as one single organisation under the Gatwick Diamond Business name.
The change is more than structural. GDI’s investment promotion role is now embedded within gdb as Invest in the Gatwick Diamond — a defined brand and delivery arm focused on attracting and supporting inward investment. Its dedicated platform provides practical guidance for businesses considering relocation or expansion, acting as a central gateway for investment enquiries across Sussex, Surrey and Kent.
For more than 70 years, both organisations have independently supported and promoted businesses across the region. But the economic climate has shifted. Increasingly complex infrastructure decisions, evolving skills demands and national policy changes have created the need for a more streamlined, representative and authoritative body.
The merger responds to that reality. It creates a single, independent organisation designed to serve the region’s 45,000 businesses with greater clarity, coordination and influence. A unified structure means stronger advocacy, clearer messaging and a more coherent offer to investors, partners and policymakers.
In this next section, we speak to Invest in the Gatwick Diamond’s Executive Director Brett North and Gatwick Diamond Business Managing Director Sally Brown about why the merger matters, what it changes for members, and how the new gdb is positioning the region for the future.
We’re here to discuss a historic moment, where two leading South East business organisations have come together in the interests of the Gatwick Diamond business community. So, why now?
Sally Brown: It’s been talked about in various tables over quite a few years. I think the time wasn’t perhaps right. Dare I mention Covid? That definitely got in the way of conversations. But I think actually the timing is exactly right now.
There are so many moving parts outside our individual organisations that have manifested with no control of ours, including the airport expansion, the government’s decision on the Northern runway project, and the government-instigated conversation around devolution and local government reorganisation.
I think all of those things have just, it’s like the stars have aligned and we were in the middle of doing our strategic review and it just, the timing was right, it was perfect.
Brett North: Yes, I agree. I think the gdb has been around for, and I might get this wrong, 72 years. And Gatwick Diamond Business has been around for about 20 or 22 years. And I think there was a time when it was a useful thing to have two organisations that were focused on the region. It gave us two voices at the table. I think that’s quite useful.
I think now, increasingly over the last four or five years, it has become clear there’s more we could do together than we could do separately. And I think that case has become stronger.
And as Sally said, we’re seeing changes, we’re seeing mayoral authorities, we’re seeing wider geographic areas coming together. And I think what really hammered it home for us was going to places like UKREiiF and watching other parts of the country work together.
And ironically, we always used to call ourselves sister organisations and refer to each other, working together. It just seemed like a natural step, so why don’t we see what we can do together? Because what we can offer for those looking to come into the region and those in the region is so much better as a group than it is as two separate entities.
Sally Brown: I think the conversation we were having pre-COVID was very much about why we don’t bring the two organisations together because we were sharing a CEO at the time. But I still think that everything seems to have aligned better now. In some ways, it’s fortuitous that it didn’t happen at that time. I think we’re in a better environment now.
Brett North: Oh, undoubtedly. I think timing is probably one of the key things in most of the things you do in life, and particularly in business. And I think you’re right, the timing is now. I think we’re in a position where we can offer businesses, at a time of change, something that is both what they remember and what they understand, but also, together, we can bring something extra to that party.
And by being together, I think it just means that we are so much more able to coordinate what we’re doing and have a stronger voice. And I think a number of things that we’ve done just before or since our merger have really gone to point heavily towards that.
What should your business members be excited about in the merger, in particular?
Sally Brown: I think it will vary by business. It depends on their political stance, the sector they’re in, and their size. But I think just pulling out a few pointers from the merger, the benefits that are going to come, we’ll have a stronger voice on their behalf. So if there’s any influencing to be done around the changes that are happening in our region, they’ll be able to, through our connections, have a stronger voice.
What differences and benefits will external investors see from the merger?
Brett North: I think we’re in a position, actually, to offer something that’s pretty unique, certainly across the UK. What you’re seeing is the opportunity for any investment service to really succeed, particularly a foreign or outside company coming into the region. We’re not only able to bring together opportunity, funding, and, in many cases, property in one place, but we’re also able to offer a business community they can come straight into.
This is a business community of nearly 450 members, from very large to very small, from micro companies to one-person operations to multinationals in the region. And that is almost unique anywhere.
And I think that’s really important, particularly because the key thing you’re trying to do when you’re bringing either a new business in, or you’re looking to invest in a region, is say, what’s around me? What’s the support around me? How am I connected to the rest of the world?
With this region, we have 220 airport destinations, 150 train destinations, including those in Europe, plus the ferries. And then you’ve also got a business community that is about supporting and networking and working with each other.
I think that’s a really, if you pardon the pun, a really good runway to bring yourself into the region on. And as I said, I think it’s an almost unique opportunity in the UK. Maybe other places in the world are looking at it, but certainly in the UK.
It would be good to see this merger as the start of a new chapter, where the whole region comes together and forges an ambitious, simple and unifying direction. Is that fair?
Brett North: Very fair, because you’re in a position where if you’re going to put money and effort into bringing new business in or you’re looking to invest in an existing operation, usually we’re looking at people who are going to say, I want to invest in an operation and looking to grow it or develop it.
One of the things you’re going to look at is what is around me? What’s happening? Is this a stable environment for me to invest in? Is this an environment where I can feel confident growing with like-minded businesses around me? Is there growth? Is there strength?
So I think, on the investing side in the Gatwick Diamond, I see that as a really strong message. But that only really works if you’ve got a strong membership organisation as part of that, because that’s where you can start to see those first connections and that first ability to grow, develop and understand the region.
Sally Brown: And that’s where I think the strength in the synergy of our two organisations coming together is so good, because having the airport in the heart centre of our region has been a catalyst for businesses in quite a dense situation, rather than some other areas of the UK that I’ve worked in where it’s quite disparate. There’s an almost learned community culture.
And I think everybody – local authorities, big businesses, small businesses – they all play really well together, and it’s tangible. And it’s something I’m really proud of, the fact that we all engage so well and that we’re not trying to compete against each other, we’re trying to work together.
And we’re trying to align ourselves with other organisations and businesses with similar mindsets, where we’re not duplicating the work they do, but we’re getting the best by coming together. And it’s such a lovely culture. It’s nice to have your own internal culture, but to feel it across your region is quite a privilege.
Brett North: Absolutely right. When you look at the Gatwick Diamond region, you just look at it. You’ve had Gatwick Airport, as you mentioned, front and centre in the middle of it. Investing in the Gatwick Diamond without the airport support and partnership over a number of years wouldn’t have been as successful an operation as it is; it is very arguable how successful that would have been. So that’s an area where you see cooperation.
We recently formed the all-party parliamentary group, which is a business group driving a voice and bringing together politicians and businesses together again, coming together as a community, working jointly. The things we do so well when you bring businesses together in your walls: businesses working and sharing what they do.
You talk about our work as Gatwick Diamond and Investing in a Gatwick Diamond on the airport economics side, businesses coming together with local authorities, and education. It’s a real strength of what we can do together to give voice, make better, grow, and develop, because we all know that unless we can do that, all businesses at all levels are not worth paying a price.
It’s always been about wherever I come back to, I come back to gdb because it’s always been that cooperation fix.