Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 15th July
Laurence and Stephen discuss the first investment from the Northern Powerhouse Fund II, a major property transaction in the East Midlands and the upcoming results of online women's fashion brand Sosander.
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00:00The first deals from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund part two, a
00:04major property transaction in the East Midlands and a look at the stories we
00:09can expect in the week ahead. That's all coming up in today's business briefing.
00:17My name is Lawrence Gleganant. I'm Stephen Powell. So morning Stephen, yes it's
00:23exciting news today because we've got the first deals from the Northern
00:26Powerhouse Investment Fund 2. I think we'll call that NPIF 2 for the purposes
00:32of this morning. And yes, for those who don't know, the fund is set up to
00:37back firms from across the North with their plans to start, to scale up
00:44all their pre-existing growth plans. It builds on the successful Northern
00:49Powerhouse Investment Fund and they've today announced a number of investments
00:54in the North West, in the Yorkshire and also in the North East. And starting in
00:59the North West, we'll leave a Liverpool-based business, Biograd
01:03Education, has secured a six-figure investment for their plans. They are a
01:07specialist and laboratory education provider and they're going to use the
01:11money to invest in their team, to invest in new equipment, to help them drive
01:16growth and sort of bid for new contracts. So watch this space there. And over in
01:23Yorkshire, what's going on? Yes, a really interesting business that's been backed in
01:26Yorkshire, a company called Kirstie's, which manufactures free-form
01:30ready meals. It was established back in 2009 by Kirstie Henshaw, when she
01:36discovered that her son had various food allergies. And then a year later, she
01:41went on to secure investment in Dragon's Den, so she may well be familiar to some
01:44of you. The company has kind of grown and grown since then really. So in 2020, it
01:50opened a new factory in Harrogate, bringing all its manufacturing in-house.
01:54And this new funding is £2 million from MPIF2, and that's going to
01:59support the development of new products, new ranges, and should create jobs as
02:03well. Fantastic. Are you a ready meal fan, Stephen? I am. I like to cook myself
02:09when I can, but I'm not above a ready meal. No, no, same here. And it's great to
02:14see that people with these allergies you mentioned are being catered to in that
02:17market as well. And to complete the MPIF2 deals from this morning, we
02:22also have news that Newcastle-based brand storytelling agency, B7,
02:28has secured investment. They plan to invest in new talent, and they've got
02:33plans to double the size of their team. So again, exciting news. It's fair to say
02:38we've been quite northern-focused so far. Acceptable, really, when you consider the
02:43name of the fund. But down in the East Midlands, news of a really exciting
02:47property transaction. That's where Closed Developments has acquired a
02:51former aerodrome site in Hocknell. They've acquired the site on Harrier
02:56Business Park from Rolls-Royce via their development manager, Muse. And the
03:04aerodrome in question was associated with the development of the Rolls-Royce
03:08Merlin engine, which played a key role in World War Two. But there's planning
03:12permission in place now for up to 500,000 square foot of industrial and
03:18warehouse space, and it's going to be creating jobs too. So it'll be really exciting
03:23to hear news of tenants as and when they start signing them up. And always Monday,
03:29there's a sense of what's going to happen. It's already been a very exciting
03:33month with the election and what have you. But what can we look out for this
03:37week, Stephen? Yes, the one that caught my eye looking at the companies
03:41reporting on the Stock Exchange this week is Hasanda, the Wilmslow-based
03:45women's fashion retailer. A listed business, of course. Yes, yeah. So they're
03:49reporting their full year results tomorrow morning. Earlier in the year,
03:53they announced a record trading period until up to Christmas, thanks to strong
04:00sales of things like party wear, knitwear. And they've also announced plans to
04:05open their first physical retail shops. So it'll be interesting to see how they've
04:08got on for the rest of their financial year, whether that momentum's continued.
04:12So yeah, it should be a really interesting story. Excellent. Hopefully
04:15they'll be selling more stuff for the beach of late. Well, to find out more
04:20about the stories that we've mentioned, go to insidermedia.com. You can also go
04:24there to subscribe to our newsletters, subscribe to our magazines, and find out
04:29about upcoming events. That's all from us. See you next time.