Insider Media Limited

More than 1,000 jobs were brought to Derby in 2011 by Marketing Derby with the prospect of the figure doubling this year, the agency told Insider. Managing director John Forkin will announce the figure to 240 businesses at the company's annual general meeting tomorrow (20 January 2012),

"2011 was a tough year and the city needed to act quickly to counter the impact of the redundancies at Bombardier and Egg," Forkin said.

"Those events brought an unprecedented national profile for Derby which we used to our advantage. We ran media campaigns, held 'embassy' events and have subsequently hosted numerous investor visits. These have slowly been turning into deals and then jobs."

The largest jobs announcement came from outsourced contact centre business HEROtsc in December as it opened a centre for media giant Sky, employing 700 staff.

Forkin added: "This was a real game changer involving 120,000 sq ft on Pride Park and within months of hearing that Citibank had sold Egg we had replaced every job lost.

"On this one, team Derby, in particular the city council, really pulled out the stops working closely with the likes of Citi and Barclaycard to ensure HEROtsc felt the deal was right."

Tracsis and Gardner Aerospace strengthened Derby's status as a hi-tech city, and Marketing Derby claimed to be in final negotiations with other companies planning to move to the city in 2012.

"Twelve per cent of our employment is in hi-tech functions, twice that of Cambridge and four times the national average. These deals, plus the growth of companies like Rolls-Royce, whose employment grew by 800 last year, will help Derby strengthen its position," the marketing head said.

On the wider inward investment picture, Forkin is realistic in his reflections.

"Frankly, we start with the knowledge that Derby is rarely on the investor long-list of usual suspect cities. We know we have to fight for attention and we are pretty creative in how we do this.

"However, once we get investors up to the city they are always amazed by both the fundamentals of our hi-tech economy and they recognise the changes under way in the city centre where the impact of £1bn of investment over the past four years is now obvious to all."

The Marketing Derby AGM will also hear city council chief executive Adam Wilkinson detail £240m of capital spending planned for 2012/13, as well as Peter Richardson, chairman of Derbyshire 2012, who will detail how Derby businesses will benefit from the Olympic Games this summer.