Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 19th August
Laurence and Simon talk about the shortlists for the North West Dealmakers Awards, an eye-catching acquisition and a 50-year career.
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00:00A deal for a Premier League engineering firm, a boss retiring after 50 years and
00:05news on the Northwest Dealmakers Awards shortlist. All that and more in today's
00:11daily video briefing.
00:18Hi, I'm Simon Keegan. And I'm Lawrence Kulkarni. So Lawrence, at long last we've
00:24got the Northwest Dealmakers Awards shortlist going out today. Fantastic. So
00:30it's actually the 30th anniversary of Dealmakers, so maybe even more hotly
00:37anticipated than normal. If that's possible. Well, it's always a big one isn't it? And I
00:43think there's going to be one or two surprising entries on the, you know, on
00:46the shortlist. So I'm sure I'll hear about that, particularly from anyone that
00:51might not be on the shortlist. Of course, you do always get plenty of feedback,
00:54both positive and negative, for where are we this year. Yeah, but it shows that
00:59people are interested. Absolutely, yeah. And so this year as well, by the
01:04way, the Dealmakers Awards, which is on October the 17th at Manchester Central,
01:09we've got our after-party as well. So I know a lot of people who come to Dealmakers,
01:15they come to the awards, and then they go to various bars in Manchester. Well,
01:21they don't need to this year, they can stay because we've got an after-party, so
01:24that's great. Well, what a boon that is, because if you are at an event and then
01:28you're trying to shepherd about 15 people somewhere, very difficult, much
01:31easier to just go to the place you're already at. Absolutely, yeah, yeah. And in
01:37terms of the judging as well, I will just say I think we've had an even more
01:42robust judging process this year than we normally do. So I had over 30 top
01:48Dealmakers come in and give me their feedback, you know, who they think's had
01:52the best year, any real standout deals that ought to be ought to be there, and
01:57then we got all of those findings, we compiled a long list, and that went to
02:02our main judging panel. I had nine judges and we spent a full day going through
02:07over 300 entries, and finally we've got to this shortlist. Well, I suppose all
02:13that hard work is reflected in the event sold out, so, you know, people want to be
02:19there, they want to find out. Absolutely, and it sold out before the shortlist was
02:22released. You know, I remember at one time people would see if they were on the
02:26shortlist, then they booked the tickets, but this year it's sold out ahead of the
02:30shortlist going out, so that's amazing. Great to see. Now, talking of
02:35deals, I think you you wanted to talk about a deal today as well, didn't you?
02:38That's right, yes, it was a deal, you mentioned in the intro about a Premier
02:42League deal. It's actually a civil engineering firm in Stoke, it's called
02:46UberQ Group, and they've worked on Premier League stadiums, they've
02:51worked on the landmark Tottenham Stadium in central London. I know you're
02:56not a massive football fan, but take it from me, this is a state-of-the-art
03:00sort of arena, and they've also worked on the stadiums at Southampton, and
03:05they've been acquired by British Engineering Services in a deal advised
03:10on by our friends at KBS. So, KBS will be delighted to see that story this
03:15morning, but also I imagine they'll be interested to see how they're getting on
03:18in the dealmakers as well. Yeah, well, KBS in Bolton, I think in terms of deal
03:24volume, are probably one of, or the most active advisor in our region.
03:31Yeah, absolutely, and also they're a sign of great quality deals when you get
03:35them across the country as well, so yeah, really good to see them going great
03:38guns on that interesting deal. Away from deals, and down in the
03:43south-east, another interesting story, we covered the news of the
03:48retirement last week, but Dr. John O'Neill of Unipart is retiring after 50
03:56years with the company, and the new story is who's going to be taking
04:01over as chairman. So, I mean, they are some big boots to fill. I mean, what's the
04:05the longest stint that you're aware of someone in one business? Oh, I don't know,
04:0950 years, it's tough to beat, isn't it? It really is, I mean, I thought I've been going
04:14great guns here at Insider after 15 years. 15? Yeah, exactly, and how long have you
04:21worked here? Well, I've done eight years, just coming up to eight years, which I
04:25think makes me the second longest-serving Northwest editor. Well,
04:29fantastic, but as you know, in eight years, or in my case, 15 years, so much has
04:33changed from when you started. So, who knows what Dr. O'Neill, the changes he'll
04:37have seen in his successful career, and he's getting succeeded by another
04:42doctor, Dr. Brian Jackson, who's presumably got a great legacy to build
04:48on down there in Oxford. So, yes, we'll see how they get on after that. Yeah, well,
04:52we've just got the September issue of Insider off to the printers, and
04:58actually, we've got a 50th in that as well, which is the 50th anniversary of
05:02Together. Oh, yes, the Cheadle-based, yeah. Absolutely, set up by Henry Moser in
05:081974, so we've got an interview there. We've also got the rich list in the
05:13magazine, which is one of the most anticipated features of the year. Much
05:18like the Dealmaker shortlist, people are desperate to get their hands on the magazine.
05:21Definitely, so what we've done this year for the rich list is, we've put the top
05:2650 in the magazine, but then we've done five kind of top tens, like breakout
05:33lists, and I actually think this is where you get some of the interesting ones,
05:38because kind of, in some respects, the top 50 can often be some of the same
05:43people, but then you get the new entries, you get the tech entrepreneurs, you get
05:49maybe the entrepreneurs under 42, so we're doing these little breakouts. We've
05:53already released the top ten in tech, and I think the next one we're going to
05:58release tomorrow? Yes, that's going to be the under 42s tomorrow, and then three
06:03more after that for people to look forward to, and as you say, always
06:06fascinating stories put together by Robert Watts of the Sunday Times rich
06:10list, and you may think of Robert as a sort of data man, but in fact, you know, he
06:15really does find out interesting stories about how people have got so
06:19successful, and what they're doing with their money in terms of charitable
06:24works and so on, so he tells a great story. I like to see the self-made
06:27millionaires, you know the ones who started off on like a market stall
06:31somewhere, and now they're, yeah, that's always good to see. Absolutely, definitely, and very
06:36inspirational for our sort of younger readership as well, so great to see.
06:39Definitely, definitely. Well, I just want to plug my next event, if that's okay
06:45Lawrence. Of course. So I'm doing an event called the Sales Summit in Manchester on
06:50September the 12th, so if anybody, I mean, whatever business you're in, essentially
06:55you're selling something to somebody, aren't you? Whether it's a service, or
07:00whether it's a product, and this event is going to help you identify great
07:05customers using, whether it's data analytics, or market intelligence, this
07:10sort of thing, but also build a great team and more. So if you take a look at
07:15that event on the website, it's called the Sales Summit. I think I've got eight
07:19speakers lined up for that already, they really are top-notch speakers, so
07:23everybody check out the Sales Summit. As with most of our events, our breakfast
07:29event, it's free to attend, so you can attend in person or you can watch it
07:33online. Well, after that pitch, who can resist? It certainly does sound
07:36fascinating, but to find out more about the stories we've been discussing, go to
07:40insidermedia.com. There you can subscribe to our newsletters, you can subscribe to
07:46our magazines, and find out about upcoming events like Simon's Sales Summit.
07:49Anyhow, that's everything from us, see you next time. See you next time.
07:59you