Manufacturer of controlled storage units Vindon Scientific has acquired Westech Instruments, which has distributed Vindon’s storage products in the US since 2006. The business has been bought for an initial cash consideration of £80,000 and a deferred consideration of £30,000. A further amount of up to £70,000 is payable over the next three years based on the value of the company’s net assets. Vindon chairman Liam Ferguson said the US had been identified as a key market for the group, which “planned to scale up its operations in this territory”. For Insider comment, click here.

Morson Projects, the Manchester-based design engineering subsidiary of Morson Group, has expanded its scope in the power sector following the acquisition of Power Engineering Systems Limited in Newcastle. Morson Projects has made the move to cater for increasing demand for engineering services from the power sector. The existing team of five employees will be retained, with the business focusing on delivering power systems design, engineering installation and commissioning solutions.

Lancaster University spin-out company CableSense has secured a £213,000 research and development grant by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA). The funding follows a £500,000 investment in the business by MTI Partners through the UMIP Premier Fund in October. The company has developed a new approach to managing large-scale, wide-structured cabling systems and will use the cash to get its product to market. It received a £100,000 proof-of-principle investment earlier in 2009 through UMIP’s technology transfer and incubation process.

Online retailer of smart phones and laptops eXpansys has reduced operating losses after an 18-month programme of cost reduction. In the six months to 31 October 2009 the company, which is 70 per cent owned by telecoms entrepreneur Peter Jones, reported operating losses of just £15,000 compared to £1m in 2008. During the period, £1.92m of working capital was raised through a placing with Jones’ Virtual Phone Shop and administration costs have been cut to £3.1m. Chairman Graham Dawber said the company now had a cost base “appropriate to its size” but market uncertainties mean that costs and stock will have to be kept low and opportunities exploited as they arise.

Wound care manufacturer Advanced Medical Solutions (AMS), based in Winsford, has secured a distribution deal with US healthcare services company Cardinal Health. The deal will see Cardinal Health market AMS’s LiquiBand product to the US market. AMS chief executive Don Evans said: “As a major provider of healthcare products to hospitals, out-patient centres, and physicians' surgeries across the US, Cardinal Health is an ideal partner for commercialising our tissue adhesive technology in this key strategic market.”

Sport Media Group, the Manchester publisher of The Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers, said today that trading for the five months to 31 December has been “encouraging”. Although daily circulation was lower than a peak achieved in August, it remained “above budget” and traded profitably for the period. The company also announced that William Robinson has joined as non-executive deputy chairman and Robert Johnson has been appointed executive director.

Nulife Glass, which has developed a technique to recycle televisions, is relocating its head office to Irlam from the West Midlands. The move, which will create 30 jobs and a new industrial plant in the region, has been helped along by inward investment agency MIDAS and Salford City Council. The company has worked out how to extract lead from the glass in televisions, which it claims is a worldwide first. Until now there has been “no long-term solution to recycling televisions as it has been impossible to safely recover the lead content in the glass that makes the Cathode Ray Tube”, Nulife said.

Independent Power Engineering Company (IPEC), which is based in Manchester Science Park, has appointed David North to the position of non-executive chair. A former executive director of electronics business LEM Holding SA, North is joining IPEC to advise on a growth plan for the company and seek out potential investors. IPEC was founded in 1994 to bridge the gap between power engineering research and practical application. Managing director Tony Hepton said the company has won some key contracts and is working on a global scale. He added that North’s role would be to “guide us through this period of expansion”.

More than half of businesses in the North West believe the economy will have recovered by this summer, according to a new study. The Bibby Financial Services Business Factors Index also indicates that 54 per cent of businesses in the region are either trading well or are hopeful for the future. However, 20 per cent of respondents do not believe the economy will recover for a further two years.

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Three bid teams have been invited to progress to the next stage of the tendering process to find a joint venture partner for the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus (SIC). British Land, Igloo Regeneration Consortium and Langtree have been selected by existing public sector partners – the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Halton Borough Council. The creation of the Daresbury SIC joint venture will see around 1 million sq ft of new space developed for science and innovation facilities, which will bring more than 6,000 new jobs to the area over the next 30 years.

Wilmslow-based housebuilder Morris Homes has reported a 43 per cent increase in private reservations for the nine months to 31 December 2009. The company re-opened seven mothballed sites during the period and a further six sites are expected to open before the end of March this year. In the year to March 2009 the company posted an underlying operating profit of £21m on sales of £112m. Chief executive Mike Gaskell said conditions had improved significantly and there was renewed confidence among homebuyers. Morris was recently named as preferred developer by the Homes and Communities Agency to deliver a zero carbon village in Cambridgeshire.

Secured Life has taken serviced office space at the Quay West Business Centre in Trafford, relocating from Worsley. The insurance business cited proximity to the Media City development and BBC offices as a motivation for selecting the Peel Land & Property development, adding that it would aim to grow in the next two years.

One of the main gateways into Carlisle is in line to be transformed with a £2m revamp. Development plans for the Court Square area, outside the city’s railway station, are expected to be approved at a Cumbria County Council cabinet meeting next Tuesday. The European Regional Development Fund has already allocated £1m to the scheme and the remaining funding will be sought from the Northwest Regional Development Agency and Railway Heritage Trust.