Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 12th September
Jennifer and Simon discuss a £1.3bn deal, the acquisition of a historic biscuit maker, the North West's Most Exciting Companies and 30th annual Dealmakers awards.
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00:00Deals, deal makers, pasty makers, artificial intelligence and a brand new
00:05event. That's what's coming up on today's Daily Business Briefing.
00:14Hi I'm Simon Keegan. And I'm Jennifer O'Keefe. Well I've got some news about deals and
00:20deal makers coming up but Jen I just wanted to ask you first of all you've
00:24got a big deal story for us off our website today haven't you? I do indeed
00:28yes so a Blackburn based fulfillment company Stasi which has a major
00:34UK presence has recently announced that it's been acquired by the
00:39multinational postal operator called B Post Group and in a deal that's valued
00:44at 1.3 billion pounds. Wow that is a big deal. They have their ones in Blackburn as well as
00:48sites in Manchester, Leicester and Rugby and they also have a international
00:53presence too with centres across Europe and the US and B Post Group then is a
00:58Belgium headquartered company and it has 36,000 employees across its centres
01:05in Europe, North America and Asia and B Post Group bought Stasi and it said as
01:12part of its plans to strengthen its position in the logistics value
01:17chain. Right brilliant well we see a lot of activity in that sector and talking
01:22big deals we've got our Deal Makers Awards coming up on October the 17th and
01:27we've got the Deal Makers preview going in the next issue of the mag which is
01:31the October issue which goes to print next week. Now you can read about all of
01:36the shortlist in there and there's also details of the event itself. It's a 30th
01:42annual event so we've got an after-party as well so don't forget to stick around
01:47for that and I can also reveal that we've got another Deal Makers event
01:51coming up. This time it's not awards and drinks it's a daytime event more of a
01:58sober affair and it's a Deal Makers lunch it's a conference and
02:03we're going to do a series of these and the first one is looking at private
02:07equity and in particular how we can strengthen the Northwest private equity
02:12community and perhaps do the deals that are currently maybe going to London or
02:18going even further afield. So really excited about that and I'll be revealing
02:23some of the speakers very soon. Now also in the magazine we've got the most
02:29exciting companies we've already featured the list but this is a round
02:34table following that where I invited some of the most exciting companies to
02:38join me and there was some brilliant stories some amazing entrepreneurial
02:44stories. One of them was a company called My Manu and they make earbuds which
02:51translate in real time so you could be talking to someone Russian and they
02:56can be speaking one of about 150 languages and it just translates it for
03:02you in real time. It's like something of Star Trek isn't it? Amazing. Another one
03:06with Appacut so this was a company that started in lockdown. I don't know about
03:13you but I had a few makeshift haircuts in lockdown. I know it looks like I've
03:16got one now. And Appacut what they do is it's kind of like the Uber of hairdressers
03:23so you kind of go on the app and they've got a network of barbers. Really good
03:27really good business idea. And the final one I'll just mention is called Verve
03:32which was founded by My Protein's founder Oliver Cookson who's been on the
03:39cover of Insider before and Verve is a nutrient drink so it's the equivalent of
03:45taking about 42 different supplements it's one of these in a powder you mix it.
03:50So Verve if you're watching send us some samples and we'll test them. Now talking
03:56of food and drink I think you've got another culinary story for us haven't you?
04:00I do yes down in the South West actually and so the UK's or the world's
04:07rather fourth largest producer of Cornish pasties has announced it's
04:12purchased a historic biscuit maker. So Prima Bakeries Group acquired the
04:20biscuit maker Furness of Cornwall which has roots dating back to 1886.
04:25Right. It wouldn't be what you would think is it going from Cornish pasties to
04:30biscuits. No. I suppose it's all bakery but. Absolutely still in the same family.
04:34So and the acquisition actually comes at a great time for Prima Bakeries Group and
04:39so this year the group announced that it was moving to an employee
04:44ownership trust. Right. And that transaction actually was named as
04:50Insider's Deal of the Month back in February and so and the company has also
04:55recently announced that sales have grown by two million pounds year-on-year and
05:01Group turnover is expected to reach 15 million pounds by the end of this year.
05:05Great times. Absolutely and the group is also planning to open a 20,000 square
05:13foot production facility in St. Columb later this year which it said
05:19will allow to double production for its pasties. Fantastic. Well I was just down
05:24in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago and I do love a Cornish pasty. Are you a fan?
05:28I've never had one. You've never had a Cornish pasty? No. Jen I'm gonna take you for a Cornish pasty.
05:34Thank you so much. You're in for a treat. Now I know that some of our local pasty
05:38producers like Cars Pasties here in the Northwest probably throwing things at
05:43the computer screens now so I will say a good Lancashire pasty like Cars
05:48Pasties excellent as well. You want to try the cheese and jalapeno. Cars if you
05:54are watching this send them our way. Well Jen I think that's all we've got
05:58time for today. All of the stories that we've talked about you can get on
06:02insidermedia.com. You can follow us on LinkedIn. You can follow me on LinkedIn
06:08at Simon Keegan. You follow me on Twitter Simon K Insider. Do whatever you like
06:12and we'll see you again tomorrow.