In today's Business Briefing, Robyn and Phil discuss a new era for a Liverpool landmark, expansion plans at the Humber port, a surge in sales for a Welsh skincare brand and tributes to The Vivienne.
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00:00A new era for a Liverpool landmark, expansion plans for the Humber, a surge in sales from
00:06a skin care product in Wales and tributes to the Vivian, all coming up in this morning's
00:12business briefing brought to you by Shawbrooke.
00:15Well, good morning, I'm Phil Cunliffe.
00:22And I'm Robin Hewson.
00:24The new Deputy Editor of the North West Business Insider, so congratulations on the promotion,
00:28Robin.
00:29It's a great way to start the new year.
00:30Absolutely.
00:31And yeah, happy new year to all our viewers this morning.
00:35So Robin, you're going to kick us off with a story in Liverpool, I think.
00:38Yeah, so it's a story about a really iconic building over in Liverpool.
00:42So it's St John's Beacon, which is known locally as Radio City Tower.
00:45Oh, of course.
00:46Yes.
00:47So it's been a radio station for the last 25 years, and I think it's really iconic in
00:50Liverpool for that purpose.
00:52But the building is now available to let, so it's going to be a really unique opportunity
00:56for a new occupier.
00:58And the owners of the building, Rivington Hark, have said it doesn't have to be the
01:02same thing again.
01:03It could be a fine dining experience, it could be a sort of quirky office space for a business.
01:08So yeah, really exciting space and something very different for the right occupier.
01:12And it'll be interesting to see who takes out their offer up and see what happens.
01:16Yeah, absolutely.
01:17I mean, it's meant to be an incredible space.
01:18Our journalist, Remy Greasley, had a look round and said the views were incredible from
01:22the top.
01:23Amazing.
01:24Yeah, lucky Remy.
01:25Well, I've got a story in Yorkshire, this is on the Humber.
01:30The Associated British Port, ABP, has lodged plans to develop its Stalinger interchange
01:37site.
01:38The aim is to provide automotive storage space for customers of the ports of Immingham and
01:44Grimsby.
01:45And this comes after the port operator had purchased the freehold of the 227 acre site
01:52in December last year.
01:54The plans include external storage and distribution of goods and products associated with port-related
02:01import and export activities, and together with up to 130,000 square feet of floor space
02:10of associated buildings, landscaping, infrastructure, etc.
02:13So it's great news for the port, for its customers who are looking to expand, of course, and
02:20also critical, really, for the region, because it's going to create a lot of jobs.
02:25Fantastic.
02:26Yeah, good news coming out of Yorkshire.
02:28So I think you want to talk about the Vivian, who's sadly died.
02:33Yeah, so a really sad story this week about the death of the legendary drag queen, so
02:38James Lee Williams, better known as the Vivian.
02:40So I don't know if you're familiar, Phil, but the Vivian was...
02:44I'm vaguely familiar.
02:45Vaguely, yeah.
02:46So the winner of the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, also featured on Dancing on
02:50Ice.
02:52It doesn't sound like a business story at first, but the Vivian was actually really
02:55good friends with one of our former 42 Under 42 in the Northwest, Alyssa Corrigan, and
03:01she shared some words of wisdom and things like that that she'd had from James.
03:05She actually said that James had taught her more about branding than any business guru
03:09ever could have done, and she also said that James' success wasn't some overnight miracle
03:14or just through luck.
03:15It was the result of tirelessly owning his craft, and long before the spotlight found
03:20the Vivian, he was kind of always working in the background to create this really impressive
03:24brand, and that's what led to his success.
03:26Yes, so getting the brand right is critical for any business, of course.
03:31That's really interesting, and obviously sad news about the death.
03:36I don't know what you were doing on Christmas Day, Robin, but I was certainly tuned in to
03:40the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special.
03:42Oh, absolutely.
03:43We were doing the same.
03:44Yeah, absolutely.
03:45The finale that took place on Christmas Day, a wonderful ending to it, but there's a
03:50company that was actually based in Bari, where a lot of the filming of the show took
03:55place.
03:56They're a producer, manufacturer of hand wash, a special luxury, cruelty-free-produced hand
04:05wash, and their product was featured in Pam and Mick's bathroom, believe it or not, on
04:11that final episode, and such was the force of that appearance on that show that sales
04:19have actually grown since that point on Christmas Day by about 20%.
04:23It's unbelievable, isn't it?
04:26Just that one appearance on an iconic show was viewed, of course, by over 19 million
04:32people on Christmas Day, so a lot of views.
04:36The company's TikTok views have soared also from around 2,000 to over 100,000 in just
04:44two days.
04:45I mean, it does sound like everyone across the country was watching it that day, so not
04:48too surprised.
04:49It's an incredible end.
04:50An incredible end here is just to let you know that all those stories and more can be
04:54viewed by going to insidermedia.com, and where all those stories and more can be viewed,
05:05but also all our events that are coming up in 2025.
05:08It's going to be a busy January and February for us all, so that's it from us.
05:14We'll look forward to seeing you again very soon.