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Top story
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Sales boost for Brother as it eyes small businesses
Brother, the supplier of office technology and sewing machines, is planning for growth despite “negativity in the marketplace”, says its sales and marketing director. The company, which is headquartered in Audenshaw, Tameside, has experienced a solid start to its financial year, with sales up 7 per cent for the six months to 30 September. It expects full-year turnover to be £110m although profit will be hit as it looks to increase its market share. Phil Jones told Insider this morning that the business has invested a large chunk of money in analysing its customer data and will now place increased focus on selling to the small business sector. “There’s a lot of negativity in the marketplace at the moment and there will be hard times ahead, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no business out there,” he said. “Some sectors have been affected worse than others, so it’s important to focus your time and effort on the sectors which are less affected. We’ve done that and enjoyed some better results.” Brother has also launched a classified advertisement for 80 Greater Manchester businesses on the side of the MEN Arena that will highlight the need for small companies to continue marketing their products and services.
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Deals
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Garic joins Bibby fold
Bury-based plant and equipment hire business Garic has been acquired by Liverpool-based Bibby Line Group in a deal that will allow the business, which employs 95 people, to continue its impressive growth rate. Existing shareholders, including founders Lorne and Gary Entwistle, will remain with the company, which has seen turnover double to £12m over the last four years. Managing director Lorne Entwistle said: “Garic has secured the backing of a major private company which shares our vision, passion and enthusiasm extending our range of innovative products. Bibby is fully supportive of the current structure of Garic and we look forward to working closely with them over the coming years.”
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Business
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Service apartment expansion plan
Manchester-based luxury serviced apartments company Blue Rainbow Apartments has announced plans to expand across the UK, with planned locations including Liverpool, Aberdeen, Bristol, Birmingham and London. Established in 2005, Blue Rainbow is a privately owned business and its 82-apartment Blue Rainbow ApartHotel, close to Deansgate station, is a five-star accredited serviced apartment hotel. The company is expecting to increase turnover by £9m to become a £12m business in the next four years.
Register for Insider's Green Crunch breakfast
While the threat of recession offers some businesses an excuse to let green policies and plans slip, adopting better environmental practices can often make a major difference to your bottom line. Insider is organising a breakfast event on sustainability and the recession on 28 November at 7.30am, at The Ramada Jarvis Piccadilly. An expert panel will discuss their experiences of environmental policy and the impact this can have on saving the planet and saving money: Chris Shearlock, environmental manager at The Co-operative Group; Tony Dean, regional director at The Environment Agency; and David Hall, senior sector development manager for energy (North West) at Envirolink. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. For further information on the event, please contact our events team on 0161 907 9707 or email helen.rangeley@newsco.com.
New manager at Rowlands
Manchester-based law firm Rowlands has appointed Andrew Parkinson to the role of business development manager in the personal injury department. His previous role was as managing director of legal cost-cutting firm Discount Legal Services.
Hughes calls for skills push
Minister for the North West Beverley Hughes is leading a drive to unlock the talents of the workforce in the region. Speaking at Sportcity in Manchester, at a debate organised by Business in the Community, she said it is vital the North West has a highly skilled workforce to prevent jobs being lost abroad. “People are the North West’s number one resource and, against the backdrop of a fast-changing world, we are facing unprecedented competition from the rising aspirations and skill levels of the major global economies," she said. "The challenge we face is that within the next decade large numbers of unskilled jobs will be replaced by high-skilled ones. We must ensure that the North West workforce is not left behind.”
Steep rise in self-employment enquiries
Altrincham-based Franchise Development Services Northern has seen a sharp rise in the number of people registering an interest in running their own business during October, with 381 per cent increase in the number of enquiries from people exploring franchising. Managing director Tony Urwin said he believes the spike is down to a basic human need to provide security in such uncertain times. “There are a lot of people who are nervously watching what’s going on with the economy and some are trying to take control by exploring their options – one of which is to take destiny into their own hands and be their own boss,” he said.
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Property
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Eatonfield sees profits fall
Flintshire-based property developer Eatonfield Group has posted a pre-tax profit of £4.04m for the 12 months to 30 June, down 24 per cent on the previous year. Revenues for the year were down 46 per cent at £10.06m. Chief executive Rob Lloyd said that, although it has been a difficult year, a number of cost-cutting exercises have ensured the group remains profitable. “We have cut costs in the last 12 months, which has included making redundancies. However, we have retained our core skill base, enabling us to progress swiftly as the market improves,” he said. In a statement to the stock exchange, the company also announced that Howard Jones has resigned as group finance director, while chairman Sir Leslie Young is to retire in the near future.
New team at CBRE
Property consultancy CB Richard Ellis has launched a North West loan and corporate recovery advice team, set up in response to the increased distress in the sector brought on by declining values and weakening occupier sentiment. The team will operate from the company’s Manchester and Liverpool offices and will be led by joint directors Chris Weights and Shaun Skidmore. Weights said: “Banks are increasingly scrutinising their debt books to identify the level of exposure on individual and company loans. It is not a panic situation, but they are looking to restructure or reposition themselves to limit any potential losses.”
Housing market confidence remains low
Confidence in the North West housing market continued to fall last month as lenders kept a tighter grip on finance, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The average number of transactions per agency in the region was 12 in October, down from 13 in September. However, the balance of surveyors reporting house price falls improved slightly, while buyer enquiries rose to the highest net balance for 16 months. “Many vendors have finally started to accept current market conditions and are dropping their asking prices to achieve a sale,” said RICS’ Ian Perry. “Sales should increase in the coming months as more and more sellers understand that greater realism is the only way to make that long-desired move.”
BDP packs its bags
The Manchester office of architecture firm BDP has continued to diversify its activities globally after securing a contract to deliver the masterplan and phased delivery of the new Cyprus University of Technology. The university, which opened last year, is to be expanded on three sites, two on the edge of the city of Limassol and one in the city’s historic centre. The first phase of the new €350m university includes the refurbishment of four government buildings, expected to serve more than 7,000 students by 2015.
Good Evans
Work is nearing completion on the new Evans Business Centre in Bolton, a £1.3m construction and refurbishment development that has the capacity to provide space for more than 60 small and growing businesses. Evans Easyspace, which purchased the building in late 2007, said 25 per cent of its 49 offices have already been taken, with a further 12 workshops and a café premises available to let.
Henshaws acquires Macclesfield site
Skip hire business Henshaws Waste Management has acquired a 5.15 acre site on Moss Lane in Macclesfield from Oran Group for £1.33m. The site includes 11,647 sq ft of industrial and office accommodation and has redevelopment potential. Alex Smylie, senior surveyor at DTZ, which secured the sale, said: “The strength of demand demonstrates that there remains an appetite from developers and occupiers for the correct product.”
Gelert takes on The Bear
Outdoor equipment and clothing retailer Gelert has taken a 103,073 sq ft distribution facility in Widnes, known as The Bear, in one of the region’s most significant industrial deals of the year. The letting will see the North Wales-based business take the unit on the Ditchfield Road site on a 15-year lease. Letting agent CBRE, acting on behalf of Threadneedle Property Investments, said the site was selected due to its excellent transport links and the opportunity for a 150,000 sq ft expansion.
Another brick in the wall
Manchester-based J Freeley has completed the demolition of a 100 ft high chimney at Leigh Infirmary in Lancashire by dismantling the structure brick by brick. The chimney could not be brought down by conventional means because of its proximity to an oxygen tank and a gas cylinder store, meaning each brick had to be removed by hand by engineers working on skylift platforms. The site will now be redeveloped by owner Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.
Planning for depository in Blackpool
Planning consent has been granted for a former storage depository building that is up for sale in Blackpool town centre. The site, on the market with Robert Pinkus & Co, has consent for the erection of 14 apartments. At around 16,258 sq ft on a site of 0.25 acres, the former Shaw’s Depository building on Whitegate Drive is in a prominent position on one of the main routes into the town centre.
Penrith project on hold
A £77m development in Penrith has been put on hold after National Australia Bank withdrew funding for the project. Developer Lowther Manelli, which is looking for new funding arrangements, says the bank cited concerns over the commercial and residential sectors as reasons for its decision to pull out of the mixed-use Penrith New Squares scheme. Retailer Sainsbury’s, which is set to create a 55,000 sq ft supermarket in the scheme, and Lowther Manelli remain committed to restarting the project in the New Year and are working closely with Eden District Council.
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