Apatura has appointed Tony Wright as Chief Financial Officer and Benny Benford as Chief Technology Officer, expanding the leadership team at the UK energy and digital infrastructure developer.

Wright brings more than 30 years of executive experience across infrastructure, energy and engineering. Benford will oversee technology as Apatura expands its energy and data centre portfolio.

Apatura, which has offices in Edinburgh and York, has secured more than 5GW of grid connections across the UK, most of it in Scotland. Its digital infrastructure portfolio includes nine data centre sites across Scotland’s Central Belt with Gate 2-compliant grid connections totalling 2.4GW.

Six of those sites are designed for large-scale data centre development. Once completed, the projects are expected to support about £12 billion of development expenditure and a further £30 billion of compute investment.

Finance role

In his new role, Wright will work with the board and executive team on the financial structure supporting Apatura’s growth plans across energy and digital infrastructure.

His previous roles include senior leadership positions at ASCO Group, Lamprell, Leighton International and Global Process Systems. His background also includes working with investors, banks and executive teams on funding, governance, joint ventures and transformation programmes across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Technology brief

Benford will lead the development and implementation of Apatura’s AI strategy. His remit includes identifying where AI and data analytics can improve decision-making and operations across the business.

Before joining Apatura, he founded Datent, a consultancy focused on AI and data transformation. He also served as Chief Data Officer at Jaguar Land Rover, where he established the carmaker’s first Data Office and led work on governance and analytics.

The appointments come as data centre developers and energy infrastructure groups seek senior executives with experience in finance, grid access and data-led operations. In Scotland, developers have increasingly tied data centre plans to the availability of power connections as demand for computing infrastructure rises.

Chief Executive Officer Giles Hanglin said the appointments reflect the company’s next phase of growth.

“As we enter the next era of growth and opportunity, it is essential that we continue to strengthen the leadership capability needed to support our ambitions across energy and digital infrastructure. Tony brings exceptional experience in financial leadership, governance and strategic growth. Throughout his career, he has advised boards, secured investment, supported major infrastructure projects and helped organisations navigate periods of significant growth and transformation. His experience will be invaluable as we continue to expand our portfolio and create long-term value. Meanwhile, Benny will help us unlock the opportunities presented by AI, data and digital innovation. His expertise will play an important role in strengthening decision-making, enhancing performance and ensuring we remain well-positioned for the future. Together, these appointments strengthen the foundations for our next phase of growth and reinforce our commitment to building a business that combines financial discipline, innovation and long-term value creation,” Hanglin said.

Intruder has launched a free plan for its exposure management suite aimed at mid-market security teams.

The plan provides permanent access to vulnerability management, cloud security posture checks and attack surface monitoring at no charge. It includes weekly scans for up to five external targets, weekly checks across one cloud environment, weekly scans for two container images, continuous monitoring on ports 80 and 443, unlimited remediation scans, a cyber hygiene score, one automated investigation credit each month and support for up to three users.

The London-based cyber security company said the offer is designed for businesses with small attack surfaces or practitioners responsible for a limited part of a larger environment. Users can connect a target, integrate a cloud environment and identify exposures on the same day, it added.

The move targets a part of the market that often falls between products built for large enterprises and those designed for smaller companies. Research cited by Intruder found that 46% of mid-market security teams believe enterprise platforms assume more staff, budget or complexity than they can support, while 29% said tools built for smaller businesses no longer meet their needs.

Market gap

As a result, many teams rely on manual processes or a patchwork of separate tools. Lengthy procurement cycles and six-figure price tags can also slow adoption of security software among smaller and growing businesses, according to Intruder.

Founded in 2015, the company sells software intended to help organisations identify weaknesses across internet-facing systems, cloud environments and container images. It says it now serves more than 3,000 companies worldwide.

Competition in cyber security has intensified as vendors try to reach customers beyond large corporates. Many suppliers have focused either on complex enterprise platforms or entry-level products, leaving medium-sized organisations to assemble their own mix of tools.

Intruder is positioning the free plan as a way for security, IT and DevOps teams to test its software over time rather than through a short trial. Customers can use the service indefinitely and move to a paid tier only if they want broader coverage, it said.

Chris Wallis, chief executive officer and founder of Intruder, outlined the rationale for the launch.

“Security and IT teams at small and medium-sized businesses face the same risks as their enterprise counterparts, but they’ve been priced out of the tools that would actually help them avoid breaches,” Wallis said.

“We built Intruder to enable security for the 99%, and our free plan is the logical extension of that commitment. Intruder benefits from using open-source software as part of our offering. Offering a free plan allows us to give back to the security community, which shouldn’t need a six-figure security budget and 10-person team to stay secure.”

Feature set

The free tier centres on regular checks rather than unrestricted use. External vulnerability scans are limited to five targets, cloud posture checks to one environment across AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, and container image scans to two images. Monitoring is limited to web ports 80 and 443, while access is capped at three users.

Even with those limits, the package reflects a broader shift in cyber security buying as vendors try to reduce friction in procurement and evaluation. For smaller organisations, proving operational value early can matter as much as the software itself, especially when security teams must justify spending against other technology priorities.

Intruder said the free offer is intended to help practitioners improve risk visibility and reduce remediation times before extending coverage. The plan is now available on a permanent basis.

JOSEPH GABRIEL LAGONSIN

News Editor

GXO has extended its transport contract with Co-op by five years, continuing a supply chain relationship that now spans more than 20 years.

The agreement covers transport operations at Avonmouth, Andover and Lea Green, where GXO supports deliveries to more than 1,000 Co-op stores in the UK. Co-op operates 2,300 food stores nationwide, making logistics central to its convenience retail model.

For GXO, the renewal secures a longstanding customer in UK food retail. For Co-op, it maintains an established transport arrangement across multiple sites as the retailer continues to supply a large store estate and a broader wholesale network.

The companies did not disclose financial terms. Under the latest agreement, GXO will continue to manage deliveries from the three operations.

Store network

The extension highlights the importance of outsourced logistics in food retail, where operators are under pressure to keep stores supplied while managing cost, reliability and network resilience. Convenience chains in particular depend on frequent replenishment because their stores are smaller and hold less stock than larger supermarket formats.

Co-op’s food business sits alongside funeralcare, insurance and legal services, but its retail footprint remains one of the largest convenience networks in the country. The group also supplies around 8,000 additional outlets through its wholesale business, increasing the scale of its wider distribution demands.

GXO said it would continue working with Co-op on efficiency, service and resilience across the transport network. The logistics group also pointed to its experience in fast-moving consumer goods operations, where timing, routing and store availability are closely linked to sales and waste levels.

Chris Hyde commented on the renewal in a statement.

“This renewal reflects the brilliant service and operational leadership that our teams deliver every day for one of our longest-standing partners,” said Chris Hyde, Managing Director, Food and Beverage, GXO UK&I.

“Our scale and depth of expertise across the UK&I means that we can bring continuous improvements to Co-op’s supply chain. We’re proud of what we’ve built together, and of the positive impact our colleagues continue to make in the communities around the network,” Hyde said.

Community focus

Beyond the transport contract, both companies highlighted social projects linked to the partnership. GXO said colleagues across the Co-op transport network contributed more than 1,500 hours of volunteering and engagement over the past year.

Teams also raised money for charities including Barnardo’s and the British Heart Foundation through staff-led initiatives. Work with three Co-op academies has included mentoring, employability workshops and site engagement.

Another part of that activity has involved the apprenticeship levy, which the companies said has been used to support skills, training and community initiatives connected to Co-op opportunities. The partnership is being framed not only around transport operations, but also around workforce development and local engagement.

That broader emphasis reflects a pattern across large retail supply chains, where logistics providers increasingly present labour retention, training and community links as part of contract relationships. In sectors with high staffing needs and operational intensity, those factors can influence continuity as much as fleet management or warehouse processes.

Stuart Rendall set out Co-op’s view of the renewed agreement.

“Extending and deepening our partnership with GXO is an exciting development, ensuring we can continue our shared history of collaboration and innovation into the future. As a convenience retailer, we are focused on running a world-class, resilient supply and logistics operation to provide our customers with the products they want to buy from our 2,300 stores across the UK. We have successfully worked with GXO over many years to this end, and we are looking forward to the next chapter in our partnership,” said Stuart Rendall, Head of Logistics Operations, Co-op.

GXO employs more than 150,000 people across more than 1,000 facilities globally, according to company figures, while Co-op says it has 53,000 colleagues and annual revenue of more than GBP £11 billion. The renewal keeps one of GXO’s long-running UK retail logistics contracts in place across a network serving more than 1,000 stores.