In today's business briefing, Robyn and Stephen discuss the acquisition of a luxury travel firm, a new build to rent development in Manchester and the Yorkshire Dealmakers Awards.
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00:00The acquisition of a luxury travel firm, a new build to rent development in
00:04Manchester, and the Yorkshire Dealmakers Awards. That's all coming up on today's
00:08business briefing.
00:14Hello, I'm Robin Hewson. I'm Stephen Favell. And welcome to today's briefing.
00:18So Stephen, what's the top story for you today? So yeah, big news in Yorkshire.
00:22It's the annual Dealmakers Awards shortlist. We've got that announcement
00:26today. Big day on the corporate finance
00:29calendar, as you're aware, from the North West.
00:31So we're celebrating the deals, the firms and the individuals
00:34that have been key in the sector over the last 12 months. And it's been quite a big
00:3812 months. We've heard from the deal-making community that
00:41in spite of things like the cost-of-living crisis, the various sorts
00:44of economic uncertainty, there's been a lot of activity in the region. So
00:48we've now had the various suggestions from the
00:51community and they've been whittled down by our expert judging panel.
00:55So you can find all the shortlists now on our newly redesigned website
00:58before we reveal the final winners on the 21st of November at the Royal
01:03Armouries in Leeds. Fantastic. And we are both from Sheffield,
01:06so we'll be rooting for the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Dealmakers. Yes, if
01:10we'll add a little bit of that, a bit of bias, then we'll be there.
01:13And the Leeds ones, that's okay. So a story from Manchester today
01:17is about a new build-to-rent development. So this is a sector that's really
01:20popping off in Manchester at the moment. There's all sorts going on.
01:24We've actually just done a feature on it in the latest issue, which you'll be
01:27able to read when that comes out later this month.
01:29But the latest scheme to be proposed is a 23-story development
01:34from ZephyrX, who I think are a bit of a new player
01:37in town. And it's going to include 237 one- and two-bedroom apartments,
01:42as well as ground floor commercial units, so probably cafes, things like that
01:46as well, which will be nice. So construction could start later this
01:49year once planning consent has been achieved.
01:51And it's going to be in the Great Ducie Street, Green Quarter, Red Bank area, where
01:55there's quite a lot of development. Yeah, well, we'll keep an eye out for
01:59that from our office window. Yeah, absolutely. We'll probably see it out there.
02:02So what else have you seen today? Yeah, so another one of the big stories
02:05today. We've got the latest financial results for Baker & Baker, which
02:08is a bakery products company, believe it or not. So they've had a really strong
02:12year. Revenue's grown by about 12 percent, and
02:15they've said that, again, it's a better than expected
02:17performance, again, given things like the cost of living crisis,
02:20cost inflation, things like that. The company itself
02:23employs about 1,400 people across the UK. It's got sites in
02:26Brombo in the northwest, Ashington, Daventry and Bradford,
02:30so a really major buyer in a lot of areas in the UK.
02:34During the year, it's completed a number of structural changes
02:38to help boost productivity. It's also changed its product mix
02:41and invested in the expansion of its Wirral site, so it's
02:45done a lot of investing to support that growth.
02:48It's also launched a new ESG strategy and has set a target of being net zero by
02:532040. Oh, exciting times then. And another story
02:57in the northwest today is about luxury travel, which is always
03:01exciting. So travel scene has snapped up a
03:04majority stake in luxury travel firm eShores.
03:06So eShores are a Manchester-based tour operator who specialise in creating
03:11tailor-made, long-haul packages. Is that something you'd consider?
03:15It would. I've just come back from holiday, not long-haul. I was only up in
03:18Scotland, but certainly something I'd be interested in.
03:19Oh, lovely. I believe you've got holidays planned as well?
03:22Yeah, I'm in Corfu in a couple of days, so yeah, nearly there, ready to be on a
03:26Greek island. But this acquisition for travel scene
03:30brings about £12 million of turnover and it's the third investment
03:33they've made in 12 months, so yeah, super acquisitive at the moment.
03:36And travel scene group is headed by industry expert Jen Atkinson
03:40and backed by Eritre Capital Partners. So I think that's all we've got time for
03:45today. If you want to hear any more about any
03:47of these stories, then you can head to our website insidermedia.com
03:50and we'll be back tomorrow for more of the top stories from across the UK.
03:54Goodbye.