Business Briefing 12th July
Alice and Stephen discuss a report into the administration of a historic fancy dress retailer, the latest data on English tourism and news from Insider's events.
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00:00A historic fancy dress retailer brought into English tourism a news from Insiders event
00:05featuring today's business briefing.
00:13I'm Stephen Farrell.
00:14And I'm Alice Bird.
00:15First things first today, you may remember earlier this year we reported on the administration
00:20and sale of Smithies, a historic fancy dress retailer that can trace its history back more
00:26than 100 years.
00:28That company had been impacted by the various economic challenges over the last few years,
00:32so starting with the pandemic and then had more recent issues with its supply chain,
00:37which caused problems with its stock.
00:39Fortunately, the company was sold out of administration to a business called Ad Populum, and that
00:44has saved more than 140 jobs.
00:47That was that was good news.
00:49The administrators have now issued their report to creditors.
00:52And that's given us a bit more information on what exactly led up to the administration
00:57and what happened with the sale.
01:00They've also given their estimate on the outcome that creditors can expect to receive.
01:06So people like HMRC, what they're likely to get back out of the deal.
01:09So yeah, quite a bit more information now on that administration of the deal.
01:14So yeah, yeah.
01:15Yeah, they had quite a few sites, didn't they?
01:18Yeah.
01:19So yeah, Leeds, Liverpool, Oxford, Newcastle.
01:23So yeah, a well known name.
01:26Still away from that, the deadline for entries for our 30th annual North West Dealmakers
01:31Award has been extended.
01:33Now the awards are taking place in October.
01:35So if you would like to enter and haven't done so yet, you now have until the 25th of
01:39July.
01:40But I do believe, sticking with inside events, we had a good one last night.
01:45We did.
01:46Yes.
01:47So last night was our South Yorkshire property dinner.
01:48That's looked at some of the big deals, the big developments and the property professionals
01:54in South Yorkshire.
01:55That was at Sheffield City Hall yesterday.
01:57We also named our property personality of the year there.
02:00So if you want to know who that was or who any of the award winners were, you can find
02:04that on our website.
02:05We'll also have an image gallery from the event later on today as well.
02:09Brilliant.
02:10Well, some other news that we've got today is some data has revealed that visits to attractions
02:15across England rose last year, but they still remained below pre-pandemic levels.
02:21The data comes from Visit England and it found that visits in the year were up 11%, however,
02:26numbers were down 28% on 2019.
02:30In terms of growth, areas that kind of drove it were the return of overseas visitors as
02:37well as an increase in school trips.
02:39And in terms of specific places, London fared well, which is, I suppose, no surprise.
02:45The most popular paid for attraction was the Tower of London and that was followed by Kew
02:49Gardens and Chester Zoo, which is a nice one for the region.
02:52Have you ever been to Chester Zoo?
02:54I have, yes.
02:55It was a really good day out.
02:56I really enjoyed it.
02:57Lots of animals to look at.
02:58As can be expected.
02:59You get what you pay for, I suppose.
03:04The three attractions London really dominated, though, so the most popular three were the
03:08British Museum and the National History Museum and Tate Modern.
03:13Well, I guess that takes us on to the big event of the weekend, of course, England's
03:18appearance in the Euro 2024 final.
03:20Is it coming home, Alice?
03:22I hope so.
03:23I'm optimistic, cautiously optimistic.
03:24I don't want to get my hopes up, but it would be lovely.
03:28Yes, it was a really, really exciting game on Wednesday.
03:31So yeah, let's keep our fingers crossed.
03:34To link it back to the world of business, our colleague Jennifer has done an in-depth
03:38piece on the economic impact of the Euros final.
03:42So that's taken a look at tourism and its impact on retail and hospitality.
03:47If you want to know a bit more about the economic impact, visit insidermedia.com.
03:52You can find out the details of that story and any of the ones we've discussed.
03:55You can also sign up to our newsletters and find out about our events.
03:59Thank you for watching.
04:00I'll see you again soon.
04:01Thank you.