Alice and Laurence discuss funding for a raw pet food manufacturer, growth at a Northern Irish law firm and the acquisition of a Midlands tech business.
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00:00Funding for a raw pet food manufacturer, a year of growth for a Northern Irish law firm
00:05and the acquisition of a Stoke-on-Trent tech firm. That's all coming up in today's Business Briefing.
00:18My name is Laurence Cleland. And I'm Alice Bird.
00:20Well, morning Alice. We're both pet owners. So, a story that caught my eye is the growth funding for a raw pet food manufacturer.
00:32Nature Raw is the business name, Nature Raw Pet Food. Where do you put yourself when you're buying pet food?
00:40Because, you know, there's the organic, there's the raw.
00:43I am kind of like, on the day-to-day, I will buy just kind of the generic pet food.
00:49But on Christmas or like on a birthday, I will treat Phoenix to like some really nice organic food.
00:56Yeah, well, that's similar to me. But it does seem like there's a big community out there who are more focused on getting raw pet food.
01:06So, Nature Raw have secured this funding from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, NPIF2 for short, through Mercia Debt Finance.
01:15And that's just to sort of support their growth plans. They're a B Corp, which I suppose fits with that kind of part of the industry.
01:25And they sell quite a lot of direct to consumers. Any idea how many subscribers they have?
01:31I'd say maybe like a few thousand.
01:34Well, actually, no, it was 15,000, so I was amazed by that. It's such a big number.
01:39Direct to consumer, that's where you go.
01:40Yeah, direct to consumer. And also, those sales are supplemented by sales to sort of pet food, pet shops, and also to, I think, grooming parlours and so on.
01:52So, clearly, it's a growth industry and NPIF2 has decided to battle that with some funding.
01:59So, watch this space and hopefully we'll start cheating.
02:03But I don't know, maybe we're both cat owners, so I don't know if that's any more for dogs. I don't know.
02:08I think, yeah, people seem to be more picky with their dogs.
02:11Yeah, perhaps, perhaps. But, anyhow, you've got some news about Northern Irish Law Club.
02:16Yeah, we do. So, McKees, they've celebrated a year of growth, during which they made a host of appointments and they also moved into a new office in Belfast.
02:25So, the business launched their 7,500 square foot site in the Linen Hall building in Belfast.
02:32So, really nice building. It's got open plan offices. It's got meeting rooms and privacy pods.
02:37In the last 12 months, the business also appointed eight people across its team.
02:42So, you know, they work in, like, dispute resolution, commercial property, commercial.
02:47So, yeah, they've been growing quite a lot. A lot of that has been seen in the leisure and hospitality sector.
02:54Yeah, it's definitely a growth area for them.
02:57And as a result, their managing director, Chris Ross, said that they've entered this year in a really strong position.
03:02And he said they've got lots of exciting plans on the horizon.
03:05Fantastic. Well, law firm stories always do well with that audience.
03:08And actually, sticking with law firms, the head of Scott Appleton Boggs Corporate Department team, North West, Giles Cheshire,
03:16he's given us his take on what he expects for the corporate finance, private equity market going forward into 2025.
03:23And it seems like big exits are potentially on the agenda,
03:28because Giles was telling me that there's quite a few sort of landmark investments made in 2021, 2022, which are coming to maturity.
03:36So, he expects that there'll be buyers for them. So, we'll certainly wait and see.
03:40They're perfect stories for us.
03:43In terms of buyers for those assets, he didn't think there'd be too much by way of flotations.
03:49It was a quiet year, last year.
03:51Yeah, I can't really remember that many at all.
03:54In terms of standout names, I can remember the Applied Nutrition.
03:57Yeah, that was a good one. And even that was like towards the end of the year.
04:00It was, it was. But that one got a lot of publicity because of like community investing.
04:06So, he doesn't think there'll be many flotations, but more likely the buyers will be sort of listed firms with sort of money to spend on the right assets.
04:14So, look forward to seeing if that comes to pass.
04:18And then you've got news of an interesting tech company in the Midlands.
04:22Yeah, so Instock, a business which has accounts brands such as Santander and Centrica's clients,
04:28has been snapped up by international media group Auspicious.
04:32So, DVLX has been acquired. They're a digital customer content and platform business.
04:38We've got three core offerings, which include kind of immersive digital content, those types of things.
04:44You can get some interesting sort of descriptions in the world of tech, for sure.
04:50Yeah, well, they've been acquired by Auspicious Holdings, which is looking to grow in the learning and HR market.
04:58So, as a result of the deal, DVLX's co-founder and chief executive has joined the group as a global chief innovation officer.
05:06He's got a lot of experience and well-placed for that role.
05:09But he will also be remaining with DVLX to kind of grow that business following acquisition.
05:15Exciting stuff.
05:16Mm-hmm.
05:17Okay.
05:22Well, if you want to read more about that story or any of the stories we've discussed today,
05:26you can do so on insidermedia.com.
05:28And while you're there, you can subscribe to our magazine and our newsletters.
05:32Thanks for watching.