Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 4th October
Ben and Dan discuss a major recruitment drive at an energy firm in Cardiff, a deal in the Cotswolds, a significant investment in a Reading-based satellite communications company, and a law firm relocating its team in Leeds.
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00:002,000 jobs created at an energy firm in Cardiff, a £9m investment from BGF, a £33m investment
00:07in Reading and the law firm relocating its team in Leeds, all featured in today's business
00:12briefing.
00:13Morning Ben.
00:14Morning.
00:15So I understand you've had quite a busy morning, a couple of breakers which you're going to
00:23run us through today.
00:24Yes, so we've got a private equity backed Cardiff headquartered energy firm, a city
00:28energy group.
00:29It's to create 2,000 jobs as it scales for growth.
00:34So Cairngorm Capital Partners has announced that City Energy Group, which is its portfolio
00:39company, will be creating the jobs over the next three years and that's to meet demand
00:44for its services.
00:45It will be training hundreds more specialist installers in support of the government's
00:50green agenda and City Energy itself is one of the UK's largest energy efficiency retrofit
00:57providers for homes.
00:59It's quite a well-known name, so a big investment there for them and for Cardiff, lots of jobs
01:06in Wales.
01:07That sounds like a great scheme there.
01:09So I've got a story from my patch in the south-east, Allspace, which is a global communications
01:14provider based in Reading, they've secured a $44m investment, £33m that would be, from
01:22Bokker Group, who are a defence-focused investment firm.
01:25Allspace basically provides advanced communications technology and it's actually used by soldiers
01:30on the battlefield, but they also do stuff in other sectors as well.
01:33Basically it eliminates interruptions to communications, which obviously can occur during military operations.
01:38Very important.
01:39It's very important what they do there.
01:41And they say their technology users can stay connected, whether they're on land or in sea
01:46or in the air.
01:47So and obviously, £33m is a major deal for them.
01:50It's a big investment.
01:51I've got a story from SpaceA Ventures and Promus Ventures, they're all blue-chip investors,
01:56they also participated in the funding round.
01:58Great.
01:59So I've also got a quote here from the chief executive of Allspace, Paul McArthur.
02:03He said, all of our investors' confidence reflects the critical role our technology
02:07plays in addressing the growing demand for resilient and seamless connectivity across
02:11defence and space industries.
02:13So moving on from that, I understand you've had another breaker today from the Cotswolds.
02:17Yeah, a busy day this morning.
02:19So we've got a £35m turnover tech firm based in the heart of the Cotswolds, like you say.
02:24That's received a £9m investment from BGF.
02:28So the Active Growth Capital Investor has completed the investment in Qubiz, which is
02:32the name of the firm.
02:33And that's a technology value-added reseller that's headquartered in Syrinchester in Gloucestershire.
02:40The significant investment will support Qubiz in accelerating its growth.
02:45Qubiz was founded back in 2003 and it's established itself as a key player in the tech industry.
02:51It offers a range of IT infrastructure services that are focused on networking, server and
02:57storage infrastructure and also cybersecurity, which is quite an interesting area.
03:02And in the year ended 31st March 2024, Qubiz delivered £35m turnover, as I mentioned,
03:10and also a £2.6m EBITDA.
03:12So they're a fast-growing firm and this £9m BGF investment will accelerate that growth.
03:18I'm sure we can expect that turnover to rise for the following nine investments.
03:21So just to finish off here, I've got news from a law firm.
03:24So a national law firm, Thomson Solicitors.
03:27It's relocated its leads team to a new office in the city.
03:32Thomson is a personal injury and employment rights law firm established back in 1921.
03:37So over 100 years old.
03:38100 years old.
03:39Historical.
03:40Quite a historic firm.
03:41It has 18 offices across the UK and the firm's agreed to take a 3,640 square foot office
03:48space at South Parade on a 10-year lease.
03:51There's a big vote on confidence and a real nationwide presence there.
03:55Yeah, absolutely.
03:56So that will see the firm's 64-strong leads team relocate from Cofferdale House on East
04:01Parade to the offices at South Parade.
04:03Quite a big team there as well.
04:04Yeah, absolutely.
04:0564 people.
04:06The move will allow Thomson to better serve the thousands of clients they represent across
04:11Western North Yorkshire from the lease offices.
04:13Fantastic news there.
04:14Significant property story there.
04:16So that's all from us today.
04:18For more on these stories, please be sure to check out our website, insideindmedia.com,
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