Watch: Insider Business Briefing - 17th July
Alice and Daniel discuss a crowdfunding brewery in Windsor, a North West-based law firm securing private equity investment and plans for a government hub in York.
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00:00A brewery smashing its crowdfunding target, private equity investment for a growing law
00:03firm and the King's Speech. That's all coming up on today's Daily Business Briefing.
00:13My name's Alice Byrd. My name's Daniel Zembathis.
00:16Well Dan, just to start off, I know you are our South East Correspondent, so is there
00:20anything you've seen in the region this morning?
00:21Yeah, there is. Well, I'm sure we all enjoyed a drink on a Sunday and I've got some news
00:25from a brewery in the South East. Windsor at Eaton Brewery, they were founded in 2010.
00:32They brought brewing back to Windsor because the last brewery in the area closed down in
00:35the 1930s. So they started a crowdfunding campaign and they were looking for a target
00:40of 200,000 and within the first 24 hours they smashed that target. They raised 215,000 and
00:47at the time of recording this they've actually raised 240,000 with 30 days remaining. So
00:52they're doing really well. It's obviously a relatively low target compared to other
00:56businesses on Cedars, but I've been in touch with the Deputy Chairman, Bob Morrison. He
01:00told me they did that on purpose. The company was very conscious that money is very tight
01:05for a lot of people and they wanted to get as many shareholders on board as possible.
01:10With the funds, they're planning to build a new pub. They're looking to increase their
01:13brewing capacity and they're looking to start their first brand building campaign as well.
01:18It's an exciting time for the business. 2023 was its best year in terms of sales
01:23and they're on track to top that this year. So it's a good time for that business.
01:26Brilliant. Yeah, that all sounds really positive. Well, moving over to the North West,
01:31Beyond Law Group has secured equity investment from Waterland Private Equity. Now the business
01:37employs about 100 people across its offices in Manchester, Chester and London. Its brands
01:42include Beyond Corporate and Macalester Family Law. It's got quite big growth ambitions and
01:48the investment will enable it to expand both organically and through acquisition.
01:53Also to support that, Steve Smith, who's the former Daisy Group Chief Financial Officer,
01:58has joined the board as a non-executive director. So yeah, lots of big things coming up for that
02:02business, I think. But yes, anything else you've seen? Yeah, I've seen something in York. So
02:07there's plans for an office development up there. That'll provide office space for 2,600
02:12civil servants and those plans are set to secure approval next week. So quite a significant
02:17development there. The applicants are Partners Homes England, Network Rail Ltd and GPA. They
02:22submitted the plans towards the end of last year to the City of York Council. It's a six-storey
02:27building with an internal area of 196,000 square foot. So quite significant there and we'll find
02:33out the fate of that application next week, 22nd of July. Yeah, well really good news for York.
02:39Sticking with the government, the King's Speech is today, marking the formal start of the
02:44parliamentary calendar. So Labour has said that it's going to put the economy, economic growth,
02:49at the heart of its legislative agenda. It's expected to reveal more than 35 bills they will
02:56surround things such as transport, house building and securing clean energy. So we will be listening
03:01and covering the speech. So we'll have a live blog over on insidermedia.com so make sure you
03:07follow along for updates and reaction. You can also find all of the stories we've spoken about
03:12today on our website and you can also subscribe to our newsletters and our magazines.
03:17That's all from us. Thank you. Thank you.