|
-
|
|
Top story
|
Manchester - specialise now, say experts
The team behind the Manchester Independent Economic Review has highlighted the need for the city region to specialise in key sectors such as media, finance and bioscience. Speaking at a Cityco event this morning, Baron Frankal, director of strategy and research at Manchester Enterprises, said: "To be a successful city there is a real need to specialise. We should be globally competitive and branded as a winner." But findings from Alan Harding of the Institute of Political and Economic Governance at the University of Manchester - who has been working on one of seven reports making up the review - show that the key sectors of financial and professional services and media have only grown by 4 per cent since 2000. Although MediaCity is expected to boost the creative industries, the forecasts for growth in financial and professional services, along with retail and construction, are likely to be downgraded for the period to 2017. Harding said that overall the picture was positive but conceded that there were "some worries".
|
|
|
Deals
|
Bathroom retailer undergoes MBO
The management team at Burnley-based bathroom retailer James Hargreaves (Plumbers Merchants) has completed the buyout of 20 minority shareholders to bring full ownership of the company in-house. The £20m-turnover business has 23 branches across Lancashire and Yorkshire and said the management buyout was necessary to make it more competitive in a changing market. Managing director Gordon Rothwell said: "In future only the fittest will survive. The fittest we can be is having a situation where we have as many staff as possible as stakeholders in the business."
This sporting life
Stockport-based schoolwear and sports goods supplier F R Monkhouse has received a seven-figure funding package from Bank of Scotland Corporate that will enable it to implement a new business and stock system and develop its e-commerce operations. The company, which was founded in 1938 and has over 23 shops in the North West, recently acquired Stockport sport equipment maker Peak Sports.
|
|
Business
|
Vindon shows vitality
Vindon Healthcare, the AIM-listed pharmaceutical storage business, has increased profits before tax by 48.7 per cent, to £828,000, in the first half of 2008. Sales were up 21 per cent year-on-year to £2.6m, with the group's fledgling Irish operation breaking into profit and £96,000 of sales being recorded in the US. Chairman Liam Ferguson told Insider: "We're now moving operations over to our new facility on Kingsway in Rochdale, which is a step change. The aim has always been to make the big drug companies see that we can provide services for them and this investment can only help that. In time I'd like to see us storing five or six times what we do now."
Gibbins goes Barefoot in Macc
Less than a year after selling Flowcrete, entrepreneur Dawn Gibbins has launched her new venture, Barefoot, in Bosley near Macclesfield. Gibbins has invested £1m to fund the hew headquarters of Barefoot, which will supply upmarket flooring for the consumer sector. Initially Barefoot Floors will be offered within the Cheshire area only, with a UK-wide rollout under a franchisee package launched in the New Year.
Nobel Peace Prize winner to head university institute
The University of Manchester has appointed one of the world's leading thinkers on energy, sustainable development and climate change as director general of its Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI). Professor Mohan Munasinghe, who is vice chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a co- recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, will be lead author on key research reports produced by the institute and supervise all research projects.
Cumbria start-ups in funding boost
Cumbria County Council has injected £100,000 into a new job creation programme which is aiming to create 100 new jobs in the county within the next seven months. The fund will be managed by the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce and Industry and will target start up companies likely to achieve profits over £12,000 in their first year of trading. The cost of the project will be met from part of the £350,000 paid to the county council by Capita when it fell short of its target to create 1,000 jobs by 2009.
Let's talk
One in five UK accountants say that their clients have been refused credit or had funding restrictions imposed in the light of the credit crunch, according to a survey by invoice and asset-based lender Venture Finance. It says that a quarter of accountants believe their clients to be more nervous about investing in their businesses. However, research published today by Close Invoice Finance suggested that 49 per cent of small businesses claimed not to have seen their bank manager for a year.
|
|
Property
|
Crucial Plan sell sole asset
Shareholders in Manchester-based Crucial Plan have approved the sale of The Borrowdale Gates Hotel in the Lake District, the group's only asset, for a cash consideration of £1.7m. Following an extraordinary general meeting, Crucial Plan said it expects to complete the sale in the next ten working days and will use the proceeds to repay bank borrowings of £1.3m and certain other creditors. The buyers of the 29-room property near Grange-in-Borrowdale are Colin and Joy Yvonne Harrison.
If you build it, they will come
Lancaster City Council's planning committee has approved the plans by Morecambe FC to build a new 8,000-capacity stadium on council-owned land on Westgate. The consent also includes an outdoor multi-sports area, a new access road, 264 car parking spaces and eight coach parking spaces. Outline permission was given for a 40-bedroom hotel, seven food and drink outlets, a club shop and a further 76 car parking spaces.
HMG goes shopping on King Street
Investor Hollins Murray Group has acquired two prime retail units on Manchester's pedestrianised King Street from Norwich Union. The property is let to two retail tenants on the ground floor, but also includes up to 4,500 sq ft of vacant office space that requires refurbishment. The deal represents a net initial yield of 6.5 per cent. Nick Casson, HMG director, said: "We were able to buy this property at a very attractive price because we had the cash resources to complete quickly."
The joy of Six
Six Town Housing, an Arms Length Management Organisation responsible for Bury's council housing, has signed up for 20,000 sq ft of offices at Townside Fields, the mixed-use scheme developed by AskBury, a joint venture between Ask Developments and Bury Council. It joins Bury Primary Care Trust and the council itself as tenants in the project's first phase.
|
|
|
Contact Us
Insider
8th Floor, Boulton House
17-21 Chorlton Street
Manchester
M1 3HY
Telephone: +44 (0)161 907 9711
Email: nw@insiderdaily.co.uk |
 |
Subscribe
To subscribe to the eBulletin,
click here.
|
|
- |
