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Wilmslow-based loans company Freedom Finance has axed 19 jobs in response to changing market conditions. Managing director Richard Beaumont told Insider the move was partly down to the withdrawal of personal loans in May from unsecured lender CitiFinancial, and the need to drive efficiencies through the business in the current climate. "We ended a 30-day period of consultation on Tuesday," he said. "We are just being as efficient as we can to come through the changes in the market and I don't think that decreasing headcount will come as a shock to anyone. We still have the broadest range of lenders available to us." 
Patrick snaps up AMS in Winsford coup Wound care products maker Advanced Medical Solutions has taken a 138,500 sq ft pre-let at Patrick Properties' Premier Park in its home town of Winsford. The AIM-listed business has signed a 15-year lease on the premises, which will include 21,000 sq ft of office space and will be heated by using renewable energy. Andrew Dickman, managing director of Patrick, which is owned by Brian Kennedy, said: "We are delighted, particularly as there are very few pre-let deals being done at the moment, and certainly nothing of this magnitude."
Scholars to head for Boddies? Joint venture partners Ask Developments and Realty Estates are in talks with Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT) over a possible location of new educational facilities at the Boddingtons brewery site. MANCAT will merge with City College Manchester to become The Manchester College from 1 August 2008. College principal Peter Tavernor said: "We have started to review the property holdings of City College and MANCAT. We are also in talks with Ask and Realty Estates, although these are at an early stage."
Carroll completes tyre buyout Businessman Mike Carroll has completed a management buyout of the commercial tyre division of Rhyl Tyre & Battery in a £320,000 deal funded by The Royal Bank of Scotland. The business will now trade as Tyremaster and will operate from sites at Deeside Industrial Estate and Gaerwen on Anglesey. The new company has 12 employees.
Scrap! Scrap! Scrap! Burnley-based scrap metal merchant Wallace Reader & Son has been acquired in a management buyout. The Calder Street business, which has been run by the same family for five generations, has been acquired by Antony and Julian Reader. The brothers, who are now directors, bought the shareholding from father David Reader and cousin David Mason, who have retired from the business.
Foiled again API Group, the Poynton-based maker of foil packaging, has today confirmed the sale of its former factory site in Shanghai, China for £7.3m. The sale, by API's joint venture company Shanghai Shen Yong Stamping Foil Co to Da Ning International Community Development and Construction, follows the relocation of manufacturing operations to a new purpose-built facility on the outskirts of Shanghai.
There's rarely a dull moment in sports retail. Mike Ashley, the recluse-turned-publicity junkie behind Sports Direct, this week shrugged off falling sales by pooh-poohing a rumoured bid for JJB Sports, the Wigan retailer headed by his former protégé Chris Ronnie. He told the FT: "Chris is in the wrong job - he could have become something in the squash world but didn't." Ronnie replied: "I challenge him to a game of squash if the FT pays for the funerals," somehow resisting the urge to use Michael Caine's "You're a big man but you're in bad shape" line.
Deal of the week When good business remains on track while others falter you know you are on to a good thing. Private equity house Penta Capital acquired a 60 per cent stake in Manchester-based growth outfit IDSS Holdings this week with debt from Yorkshire Bank. The deal allows Aberdeen Asset Managers, which backed a management buyout in early 2007, to realise most of its shares but retain a small stake. IDSS operates Middleton-based security business ID Technology Group and climate control company GK Industrial. In the year to July 2008 IDSS grew 42 per cent with revenues of £26.5m. During the year the group bought ID Intact and GK Scotia, and further acquisitions are planned for the coming year.
War of the transport words quote of the week To Manchester's Great John Street hotel for Jones Lang LaSalle's cocktail party, where regional chairman Bob Dyson gave guest speaker Sir Howard Bernstein a glowing introduction: "He's a civic entrepreneur who has led the renaissance of this city region and is now driving the development of a world-class transport system." To which Bernstein responded: "I thought he was introducing Andrew Simpson for a moment." Boom boom.
Big build-up of the week "Many of you were no doubt enthralled by the outstanding tennis of Nadal and Federer yesterday afternoon and evening, and I have to say we have no intention of letting the excitement levels drop this morning." Oldham council boss Andrew Kilburn gives Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh a lot to live up to at Oldham's Regeneration through Education event on a bleary-eyed Monday morning.
Canapé won't pay Competition was tough this week, but quality food matched by quality surroundings wins out, so the new Yang Sing Oriental hotel beats off the challenge of the Jones Lang LaSalle rooftop bash and Selfridges' Thursday night shindig, where Mr Asahi, a robot barman serving, errr, Asahi beer was complemented by sushi. He's there all day today and the Trafford Centre tomorrow - wonder if robots will be exempt from congestion charging?
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