Alice and Robyn discuss a new director at an iconic French fashion house, growth at a sustainable babycare brand and strong results for a prominent tech company.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A new director at an iconic French fashion house, strong results for an LDC-backed company,
00:06and growth at a sustainable baby care brand.
00:08That's all coming up on today's Insider Business Briefing.
00:11Hi, I'm Robin Houston.
00:18And I'm Alice Bird.
00:19And welcome to today's briefing.
00:21So Alice, what's your top story today?
00:22Well, we've got some really big news from the fashion industry, actually.
00:27So a designer who was born and raised in the Northwest has been appointed as creative
00:31director for the iconic French fashion house Givenchy.
00:34Oh, wow.
00:35Givenchy.
00:36That's probably how you say it.
00:39So Sarah Burton will be responsible for all creative direction at the fashion house's
00:44men's and women's collections.
00:46And she will present her first one next year.
00:50So Burton was actually born in Macclesfield.
00:51She was educated in Manchester, and then she moved to London to study fashion.
00:56And she's had a really successful career.
00:58She's actually a former creative director at Alexander McQueen.
01:01And fun fact, Lee Alexander McQueen is also a former creative director of Givenchy.
01:06Oh, wow.
01:07Full circle.
01:08Yeah.
01:09It really is.
01:10But Burton, a lot of people may know her as the designer of Catherine, the Princess of
01:15Wales' wedding dress in 2011.
01:16I thought I recognised the name.
01:18Yeah.
01:19Yeah.
01:20I remember, like, we were quite young when they got married, but that was a really big
01:22deal.
01:23Yeah, it was such a huge event.
01:24I feel like her name was absolutely everywhere at that point.
01:26It really was.
01:27I remember seeing an article, and it was like, this is who's going to design it.
01:28Yeah.
01:29And she did a really good job.
01:30Definitely.
01:31So Sarah called the appointment a great honour.
01:34She also said that the fashion house is a jewel.
01:36So that's a really nice, nice moment for her.
01:39Exciting.
01:40Well, staying in the Northwest, we are just working on the October issue of the magazine
01:44at the moment, which will be out very soon.
01:46And one story that I think is quite exciting from this issue is about Pura, the sustainable
01:52baby care brand.
01:53So again, Cheshire based, actually.
01:56And they've had incredible growth.
01:57They were formed in 2020 and have already grown to be, like, multi-million turnover.
02:02They are in 1,000 stores across America, so really exciting, fast growth brand.
02:08But they're also really keen to kind of stay true to the sustainability purpose.
02:13So one interesting thing that they're doing is they are doing a recycling scheme across
02:17Wales and Bristol, where they get old nappies and turn them into asphalt, which is then
02:22used to create roads.
02:23That's so cool.
02:24Yeah.
02:25So a really, like, unique way to stop nappies from going to landfill.
02:28And I actually spoke to a guy, and we've done a little video interview where he goes into
02:33more detail about that.
02:34So that's on the Insider website if anyone's interested in hearing more.
02:37Yeah.
02:38I actually might watch that.
02:39You might.
02:40I will watch it.
02:41You should too.
02:42Well, we're staying in the North, but we've moved to the Northeast to Gateshead because
02:49Aspire Technology Solutions, they're backed by LDC, has reported some new financial accounts,
02:54which showed that revenue closed in on 40 million pounds.
03:00So LDC backed the company in 2022.
03:03Since then, they've gone from strength to strength.
03:05Their headcount stands now at, I think it's about 280 people, and they've grown a lot.
03:11In the most recent financial year, which ended in February, EBITDA also grew to 5.6 million
03:17pounds.
03:19They said that the increase was driven primarily by organic growth, but the business has also
03:24made an acquisition.
03:25It snapped up CloudCover IT, which has contributed a little bit to this year's revenue.
03:30But they've said the main impact of that deal will be seen in the next financial year.
03:35That will be reported this time next year.
03:37Exciting.
03:38Chief Executive Chris Fraser said he's very confident for the future.
03:41He said they've got lots of strategic initiatives in the works which are going to drive further
03:45growth.
03:46So it's nice to see that they're doing really well.
03:48Yeah, definitely.
03:49And then a final story from us today over in the West Midlands.
03:53So a team from the West Midlands has said that they will be returning to UK Reef 2025.
03:58So UK Reef is the property infrastructure conference that goes on in Leeds.
04:03It's starting to rival Mippin and things like that, I would say, as a really key moment
04:07in the property calendar.
04:09And it's also delivered a 20.9 million economic boost for Leeds and West Yorkshire last year.
04:17So yeah, massive conference and should be lots of exciting names going along again.
04:22I went to it last year and the year before, and you can kind of see the growth even in
04:26that time.
04:27It was absolutely enormous this year.
04:30So yeah, should be an exciting one to go to.
04:32Exactly.
04:33It's nice for Leeds as well, isn't it?
04:34Because you get a lot of these conferences in London, places in the south, so it's good
04:38to see that.
04:39Yeah, definitely.
04:40Well, it was actually a bit of a toss up this year, so it could have gone to Birmingham,
04:43Liverpool, Manchester, I think it was, but Leeds has kind of clung on to it for now.
04:47But it will be interesting to see in the future if it does travel around a bit and kind of
04:51spread that economic impact around the north.
04:54Well, if you want to read more about that story or any of the stories that we've discussed
04:57today, you can go to insidermedia.com.
04:59While you're there, you can subscribe to our daily newsletters and of course our magazines.
05:04I think that's everything from us.
05:06Yeah, that's everything from us today.