Industry News

Beamish Museum has welcomed train operator Lumo as the museum’s first Business Champion, a scheme aimed at businesses who want to go the extra mile to support the North East’s most visited attraction.

The County Durham open air museum has recently launched the Business Champions membership, giving businesses access to a fantastic range of benefits while making a strong statement about their commitment to the region, its people and its history.

Business Champions is about Beamish collaborating with businesses in creative new ways, which create mutual benefits all round.

Owned by FirstGroup, Lumo operates passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh, with their head office in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Liz Peart, Partnerships Officer at Beamish Museum said: “We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Lumo as our first Business Champion and really appreciate their support for our amazing museum. We look forward to a happy and fruitful partnership going forward.

Beamish’s Business Champions is a great way to show your support for the North East and its proud heritage, at the same time as getting fantastic benefits back for your business. We’re growing the network and would love to hear from businesses interested in joining us.” 

Lumo was keen to support Beamish Museum as a practical way of celebrating and supporting the rich industrial heritage of the North East, including being where the railways were born, with the world’s first railway locomotive built in a factory formed on the site of Lumo’s offices 200 years ago. The company also wanted to play their part in the build up to the 2025 celebrations to mark when the first passengers were carried by train, again in the North East.

Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director of Lumo said: “Lumo is proudly based here in the North East and we’re passionate about supporting the communities we serve and celebrating our proud industrial heritage.

“Getting involved with Beamish is particularly fitting this year as the region celebrates the bi-centenary of the founding of the Stephenson locomotive works. Rail was imagined here in the North East and Lumo is now re-imagining rail with a brand new state of the art sustainable rail service delivered by local people and helping grow connectivity and tourism.”

Lumo has linked up with Beamish to run a free shuttle bus on Saturday, 24^th June to connect Newcastle Station to the museum as part of the Stephenson bi-centenary celebrations. The fully electric bus, fitted with Lumo’s sustainability credentials, will depart from bus stop C outside Newcastle Central Station at 9.30am, 10.30am, 11.30am and 12.30pm, returning from Beamish at 2.30pm, 3.30pm, 4.30pm and 5.30pm. There is no need to book to travel on the free service.

As a registered charity, Beamish Museum is continually seeking funding to enable it to develop the stories that it tells to its 800,000 visitors each year. The museum would not be where it is today without the much-valued support of local businesses. The museum’s existing Business Friends scheme has grown from six to 70 partners over the past few years.

For a fee of £5,000 plus VAT per annum our Business Champions will receive:

•       Six Corporate Passes, which equates to 30 people into the museum every day we’re open throughout the year, during normal opening hours.

• Invitations for up to five guests to enjoy our exclusive stakeholder events such as our Christmas partner evenings and exhibit openings.

•       15 per cent off our ever popular corporate hire offer, using the museum as a distinctive, memorable venue for team away days and meetings.

•       10 per cent discount for visitors on all food and retail purchases while visiting the museum via an exclusive Beamish Business Champions discount voucher.

•       A poster of your business logo in Beamish-style in a high profile position on the museum site.

As well as the Business Champions scheme, the museum has a Business Friends of Beamish membership scheme as well as bespoke partnership opportunities for smaller businesses. To find out more about Business Champions, please contact Liz Peart, Partnerships Officer, or tel. 0191 370 4329