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Top story
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Contracts boost confidence at CPS
Clyde Process Solutions is starting its new financial year upbeat about new contracts. The company has said in a pre-close trading update that its order book as at 31 January 2009 stood at £24.5m, slightly down on £27.9m in 2008. While this still includes £3.5m of postponed contracts, the company is confident they will be accounted for in 2010 when demand for steel in Europe is expected to return to sustainable levels. In the past three weeks the group has won more than £11m of contracts in North America and South Africa, and the success of its pneumatic conveying business has encouraged the company to focus on a strategy for the sugar industry in the year ahead.
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Deals
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Funds allow IFA to invest
Independent Forgings and Alloys (IFA) has received a £2.25m funding package from Barclays Commercial Bank in South Yorkshire to enable the company to invest in new machinery. IFA, the Sheffield-based specialist open-die forging, ring and precision bar product manufacturer, used the funding to purchase a ring roller, which allows the company to provide a fast-track supply of unmachined and machined semi-finished components for a range of markets.
Private equity deals slow in 2008
The level of mid-market private equity deals involving Yorkshire businesses fell sharply last year compared with 2007, according to the UK Regional Mid-Market Barometer report, published by private equity firm LDC. Nine deals in the £5m to £150m range were completed in 2008 in Yorkshire and Humber, compared with 20 in 2007. Aggregate value also fell from £677m in 2007 to just £83.3m last year. But LDC says activity has already started to increase as a growing number of successful local companies seek capital for expansion.
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Business
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PDM gets go ahead for food waste plant
Prosper De Mulder (PDM) has been awarded planning permission to build an anaerobic digestion plant at its facility on Ings Road in Doncaster. The £12m plant, which is hoped to be operational by the end of the year, will create 35 jobs. It will process up to 45,000 tonnes of food waste from PDM's customers including Sainsbury’s and contract caterer BaxterStorey. The methane from the degrading food waste will be used to generate energy to power PDM's site and produce fertiliser for local farms.
Symmetry reduces losses
Symmetry Medical, the orthopaedic device manufacturer, has seen smaller losses from its Sheffield operations and reported strong profit growth across the group. The company increased revenue from $290.9m to $423.4m in its full-year results to 3 January 2009, and made a pre-tax profit of $24m compared to a loss of $100,000 in 2007. Brian Moore, president and chief executive officer, said: “We are encouraged by the continuing improvement at our Sheffield facility.”
Retail initiative to help Sheffield shops
Sheffield City Council is setting up Shop Sheffield, a retail website to complement existing sites supporting the city’s leisure offer, Event Sheffield and Eat Sheffield, in association with Sheffield Chamber and Creative Sheffield. Councillor Sylvia Anginotti, cabinet member for employment and enterprise, said: “Shop Sheffield is one of a number of initiatives to help local businesses, while providing information to residents and visitors. As well as promoting the city centre as a competitive retail destination, the site will have a citywide section with information about shopping across the city.”
South Yorkshire gets £1m to tackle congestion
Yorkshire will receive £2.2m through the Government's Urban Congestion Performance Fund after exceeding targets for tackling congestion. West Yorkshire has been awarded almost £1.2m and South Yorkshire more than £1m to help tackle urban congestion in the region. Yorkshire has received £5m of the £60m fund set to help England's ten largest urban areas identify and tackle the causes of congestion on the major routes in their areas. Target areas in Yorkshire include Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.
Apprenticeships more important than ever
Yorkshire and Humber has a shortage of apprenticeship places despite 76 per cent of businesses claiming apprentices are more important than ever during the downturn. Two thirds of companies claim apprentices have made their business more competitive while 82 per cent rely on them to provide the skills for the future. Margaret Coleman, regional director for the LSC, said National Apprenticeship Week would create awareness of the breadth of industries apprenticeships cover.
Insider Business Tourism Awards shortlist revealed
The shortlist for the Insider Business Tourism Awards – Destination Yorkshire 2009 has been decided – click here for details. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds on Thursday 19 March 2009. This black-tie dinner offers participating organisations and companies the opportunity to raise their profile and build relationships in this influential sector, and underline its importance in the region. We expect demand for this event to be high, so early booking of tables is advised. Reservations will be held for ten days only, pending payment, and will be booked on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact Helen Power on 0161 907 9745 to book your table.
Insider to partner Big Chip digital awards
Insider is set to partner the Big Chip Awards 2009, the biggest digital awards outside London. Now in their 11th year, the awards are organised by Manchester Digital, the independent trade association, and Insider is acting as media partner with trade publication New Media Age. The awards include Game of the North, a special northern award open to companies from Yorkshire, which is for developers of stand-alone electronic games working on any platform from the North East, North West, and Yorkshire and Humberside. The winning entry at last year’s ceremony was PiEye Games in Lincoln for its web-based game DarkSide, which the judges praised for its style and cost effectiveness. This year Big Chip has secured the services of Ian Livingstone, one the UK’s founding fathers of interactive games and fiction, as a judge for the category. Livingstone co-founded Games Workshop and launched Dungeons & Dragons in Europe and the Games Workshop retail chain. For full details visit the Big Chip website.
Last chance to nominate
Insider is compiling its final round of 42 under 42 entrepreneurs for our popular annual feature and black-tie awards dinner in May. If we haven’t considered you yet, this is your last chance to nominate yourself or someone you admire. Email rupert.cornford@newsco.com with a summary of achievements.
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Insider in print
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Subscribe to Yorkshire Business Insider magazine
The latest issue of Yorkshire Business Insider, the best-read magazine for industry, commerce and professional services, will be unleashed within weeks. The March issue features a focus on regional regeneration and a commercial property review, as well as your usual monthly fixes of priceless information, peerless investigation, valuable views and unmatched analysis. New customers can subscribe online for one year at an exclusive discounted rate (22 per cent off the cover price – submit promotional code M3) and also receive complimentary copies of our annual Yorkshire Dealmakers Guide, Yorkshire Commercial Property Guide and UK Business Insider (combined RRP £240). To receive your personal copy order online and submit promotional code M3. This offer is available until 27 February 2009.
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Property
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TCN signs two deals at Waterfront
TCN UK has completed two deals at the 285-acre Waterfront mixed-use development at Manvers in Rotherham. The Anglo-Dutch developer of the £135m site has signed up Taylor Wimpey to build 202 homes overlooking the 50-acre sailing lake. This takes the number of residential units on the development to 689. The second deal is with budget food retailer Aldi, which will develop a 14,000 sq ft store and 8,000 sq ft of kiosk retail units.
Heritage police station sold as office space
Sheffield's first police station has been sold in a £700,000 deal in which the historic building will be turned into prime office space in the city's legal district. The Grade II- listed Castle Green police station, which was sold by agents Knight Frank, will provide three storeys of cellular office space, plus storage at lower ground-floor level. DLA Piper acted on behalf of South Yorkshire Police Authority in the sale.
Duocall expands in Rotherham
Telecommunications provider Duocall Communications has relocated from Eastwood Trading Estate in Rotherham to Magna 34 Business Park in Rotherham as part of the company’s expansion strategy. Since it started in 2007 Duocall has doubled its number of employees and grown turnover from £200,000 to £500,000.
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