Dan and Stephen discuss plans for new headquarters for Frasers Group, funding for a spinout from BAE Systems and a knitwear brand worn by celebrities.
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00:00Plans for a new headquarters for Fraser's Group, funding for a spin-out from BAE Systems and a knitwear brand worn by celebrities feature in today's business briefing.
00:14So first off today we've got news of Fraser's Group which could soon receive the go-ahead for its plans to develop a new headquarters campus in the West Midlands.
00:22The group obviously is very well known, it's behind brands including House of Fraser, Sports Direct, Game, Jack Wills among many others.
00:30Now the company has plans for a new campus in Annesty and that would include logistics, offices, R&D and retail space as well as hotel and leisure facilities.
00:40There are also plans for a gym and bookable courts and pitches which would be open to the general public.
00:46The scheme has been designed by architects Patches Grimshaw which is behind the Eden Project and the second phase of London Excel.
00:54And Fraser's Group has estimated that if the plans come forward thousands of jobs could be created.
00:59And now the scheme will go before Rugby Borough Council's planning committee on the 18th of December.
01:04191 objections have been received to the plans but councils are recommended to grant approval due to the range of potential benefits to the economy and the region that it would provide.
01:14Interesting to see the outcome there.
01:16Yeah.
01:17So I've also got a story from the West Midlands.
01:19A West Midlands knitwear brand has secured funding and is targeting growth in the American market.
01:24Hades Collections was founded in Birmingham by sisters Cassie and Isabel Holland back in 2016.
01:30They offer knitted items like jumpers and scarves.
01:33The brand has been worn by Paul Meskell, Alexa Chung and Phoebe Ridgett so some quite big names there.
01:39And they've collaborated with the likes of Blondie, Iggy Pop and Liqueur.
01:43So some quite stylish individuals.
01:45Hades was helped by Business Growth West Midlands and were given specialist funding from the Birmingham and Solihull export programme.
01:53So it'll be interesting to see if they can replicate their UK success in the US and as they scale off their operations.
02:00I understand you've also got a deal from Yorkshire.
02:02Yeah, that's right.
02:03So Palatine Growth Credit has invested in Wakefield cybersecurity company Talion.
02:09Now that company provides defence infrastructure grade cybersecurity services to large corporates.
02:14So that includes things like threat detection, dark web tracing, sensitive data storage.
02:19So there's a fairly interesting backstory there.
02:21This is actually started out as BAE Systems cybersecurity unit.
02:25It was set up at the request of the UK government to provide support during the London 2012 Olympics.
02:31In 2012 Talion itself was formed through a management buyout by Kevin Knight and Mike Brown.
02:36Since then it's gone on to grow with the news to about 7.5 million.
02:39Palatine is providing £3 million of growth credit to support further organic growth and team expansion.
02:46And the deal itself is actually Palatine Growth Credit's first in West Yorkshire.
02:49So it's an expansion there.
02:51Really good deal there.
02:52I'll just finish off on a property story.
02:54Earlier this week we had news of a Burger King being demolished, but we now have news of a Taco Bell opening its doors in Broadstairs.
03:02It's good news for Mexican food fans in that South East Coast region, as it's the first time the chain has opened a restaurant in the area.
03:09It's set to create 40 job opportunities as well.
03:12So that will be quite beneficial for the local economy.
03:14That restaurant has opened at Westwood Cross Shopping Centre.
03:18And that marks more than 130 Taco Bells now established across the country.
03:22They've identified the UK as a high priority region for their expansion plans.
03:26So we can probably expect to see a few more Taco Bells opening in the near future.
03:31So for more on those stories, please visit insidermedia.com.
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