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Top story
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Liverpool ties the knot with Schipol
Liverpool John Lennon Airport has secured a deal with Dutch airline KLM to schedule three flights a day to Amsterdam’s Schipol airport. Schipol is one of Europe’s largest hub airports and the deal means Liverpool passengers can link with more than 650 global destinations covered by KLM and its Sky Team partners. Neil Pakey, deputy chief executive of Peel Airports, told Insider, this morning: “Liverpool’s grown on point-to-point flights and low-cost carriers, but this moves us up a level. People in Asia and the US can now book flights to Liverpool with ease.” Lorraine Rogers, chief executive of The Mersey Partnership, said: “This has been a team effort and is a major milestone as we look to convert the triumphs of 2008 into sustainable tourism.”
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Deals
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Whittaker builds UK Coal stake
Goodweather Holdings, part of the Peel group, has built its stake in UK Coal to 44,058,000 ordinary shares of 1 pence, representing 28.017 per cent of the voting rights in the business, fuelling yet more talk of a takeover in the City. The UK’s largest coal producer operates four deep mines in central and northern England, employing 2,400 people, and sells to electricity generators to produce 5 per cent of the UK’s electricity. Peel is also involved in wind farms and is exploring tidal energy in the Mersey estuary. 
Healthcare group expands
While merger and acquisition activity in general has fallen, the market for deals in the healthcare sector is remaining relatively buoyant across the globe. A strong business model has allowed Ashberry Healthcare, a Warrington-based care home operator, to expand with the £3.85m acquisition of a nursing home in Surrey, after securing funding from The Royal Bank of Scotland. The company has also completed a £1.5m extension at its Heathercroft Care Home in Woolston, which provides an additional 24 beds at the dementia care facility. The purchase of Moorhouse Nursing Home in Hindhead increases the number of homes under Ashberry’s control to eight, giving it a capacity of more than 350 beds across its properties in England and Wales.
In Focus – open for business
Almost banker questioned by journalists over the past year has claimed
that their institution is “open for business”. But, as it turned out,
not every bank was in such a strong position after all. In the latest
of our series of online deals columns, In Focus, Insider editor
Michael Taylor explains how one Manchester-headquartered bank that went
against the flow is now sitting in a very comfortable position indeed.
Visit the new section of our website to find out more.
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Business
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Accountancy firm grows
Liverpool chartered accountancy firm HW has revealed a 14 per cent increase in turnover in the past 12 months, together with an increase in staff numbers at its expanded headquarters in Victoria Street. The firm moved from Dale Street more than three years ago to accommodate growth and since then turnover has risen by 48 per cent. Partner Frank Murphy said HW is still looking to expand either organically or by acquisition.
Kukri lands Lancashire kit deal
Preston-based sportswear manufacturer Kukri has landed a four-year contract with Lancashire County Cricket Club as the club’s official kit supplier. It will also operate the Lancashire Cricket Store franchise. Kukri claims to be the UK’s biggest bespoke sports kit supplier, providing kit for rugby union clubs Worcester and Ulster, the Irish rugby league world cup team, the Celebrity Soccer Sixes tournament and international hockey, netball and lacrosse squads. Rugby league club Wigan Warriors has also confirmed today that it has signed a new three-year deal with kit supplier KooGa Rugby.
North West winners in start-up awards
Chester-based Home Instead Senior Care, which provides care and assistance to older people, was Barclays Startups Business of the Year at last week’s Startups Awards, as well as scooping the title of team of the year. The company has 25 franchised offices across the UK. Other award winners included Sedbergh Soap Company of Cumbria in the micro business category, Frodsham Laser Clinic for the adversity award and serial award winner iTeddy from Lancashire for product of the year.
New business masters courses at Hope
In response to changing business climates and increasing demands from employers, Liverpool Hope University’s Business and Computer Sciences Deanery has launched three new Masters Degree programmes in business and management, marketing science, and human resource management and development. The courses, which will start in September 2009, are designed to equip students with the necessary skills to succeed in the ever competitive business environment.
Funding boost for environment team
Enworks, the North West environmental business support service, has received approval for a £2.55m investment from the Northwest European Regional Development Fund Programme, matched with £6.1m funding from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, to continue its work with the region’s businesses until 2010. The not-for-profit organisation helps businesses reduce their energy use, make cost savings and reduce their impact on the environment. With the additional investment, Enworks says it will be able to help a further 1,500 businesses, achieve another £31m in cost savings for regional companies and save 125,000 tonnes of carbon.
Insolvency increase ‘catastrophic’ says R3
North West insolvency practitioners expect the number of business insolvencies to go from 13,091 in 2007 to 15,380 this year and at least 17,600 in 2009, a 34 per cent increase over two years, according to a survey conducted by insolvency trade body R3. Regional chairman Matt Dunham said: “The predicted increase in business insolvencies from 2007 to 2009 is catastrophic - we will start to approach the numbers we saw in 1992. For the last few years businesses that perhaps were not performing well have been kept alive artificially by the easy availability of credit, which has now dried up.”
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Property
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Venmore fights to survive
Liverpool property group The Venmore Partnership is in talks with Wirral estate agency Bradshaw Farnham & Lea, according to reports. Venmore, which bought Dears Brack in 2006 and also includes Venmore Thomas & Jones, Ball & Percival, Phillips & Sons and Ideal Lettings, is still seeing success in lettings and auctions but has been hit hard by the housing downturn. No one from Venmore or Bradshaw Farnham & Lea was this morning available for comment.
Demand down, incentives up, says RICS
Demand for commercial property in the third quarter of 2008 fell at the fastest pace in a decade, according to a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors survey released today. But North West surveyors claim that demand and confidence in retail, the hardest hit sector UK-wide, had improved. Regional spokesman Nick Davies said: “There has been marginal improvement in retail. But the market is still suffering and we don’t expect a full recovery before 2010. This will hit the North West's industrial and distribution sector particularly hard.” The value of inducements in both retail and office sectors rose at the fastest pace in the survey’s history as landlords tried to counter falling demand with incentives.
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Events
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Dates for your diary this week
ACC Liverpool and The Mersey Partnership are playing host to the WaterfrontExpo 2008 this week as delegates from across the globe will see the Mersey Waterfront take top billing alongside major international waterfront cities including San Francisco and Shanghai. Getting into the US election spirit, Halton Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise is holding an event tomorrow called the Profit in America Convention, at The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn, at which delegates will get the chance to show their own preference for the presidential in a mock election.
Cumbria’s Olympic chance
Cumbria Vision and the Northwest Business Network are to hold a free event in December to inform Cumbrian businesses of the opportunities arising from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The seminar will be held at Rheged, Penrith, on 9 December. London 2012 expects to have about 7,000 direct contracts which, together with its suppliers, will form supply chains of about 75,000 opportunities in areas such as construction, engineering, merchandising and retail.
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Contact Us
Insider
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17-21 Chorlton Street
Manchester
M1 3HY
Telephone: +44 (0)161 907 9711
Email:
nw@insiderdaily.co.uk
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