Laurence and Simon discuss insight from the latest Wales Top 300, expansion for an aparthotel brand and a department store closure.
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00:00Insight from the latest Wales top 300, expansion for an apart hotel brand, a
00:05department store closure and young people returning to the pub. That's all
00:09coming up in today's business briefing.
00:16My name is Lawrence Kilgannon. And I'm Simon Keegan. Well Sam, if we can perhaps
00:21start with this apart hotel story, what's going on there? Yeah sure, so Oak North,
00:27the digital bank, has completed a £77 million pound loan to the
00:35StayCity Group, which is an Irish owned apart hotel business. StayCity was
00:42founded in Dublin in 2004 and it's really, it's really expanding, it's really
00:50showing some great success. I think there is one near our office actually,
00:53round the back there. Ah there is isn't there, yeah in Manchester. There's one there. They're everywhere though, they're in some great cities, wherever you look
01:00they've got one. And they're opening this year in Amsterdam, Cambridge, Lisbon,
01:07Porto, Vienna, London, Belfast. Wow what a mix. To name a few. I mean it doesn't,
01:13normally something I do when I'm going on holiday, looking at the apart hotel
01:17market, but great option you know, putting your holiday a bit together for a
01:21city break. Yeah. Out of the places you mentioned, where would you pick? Well I
01:24was in Amsterdam over New Year, that was nice. Oh fantastic, what a place to celebrate New Year.
01:29Didn't really get along there, so maybe go back a little bit, explore that a
01:32little bit more. Okay I think I'll be going to Belfast as long as you
01:35suggested. A bit humdrum, I've been to Lisbon, been to the Dam, not been to
01:39Porto, but you know. I love Belfast. I'd like Belfast. Really interesting too. Yeah absolutely,
01:44such a great history and you know, beautiful place, Game of Thrones, if
01:47you're into all that as well. That's right. Excellent, well sticking with us
01:51kind of a Celtic theme, we've got a story from the latest edition of the
01:55Wales Mag. The top 300 has been released, equivalent of your top 500 in the
02:00North West and it's interesting, it reveals that North Wales dominates the
02:05top 10. There's five North Wales companies in the top 10, so great for the
02:10region, great to see. The company at the top is Redrow, now they've subsequently,
02:16our sort of data is based on you know, the most recently filed accounts, so
02:20since those accounts are filed, Redrow has actually merged with Barrett. Yes. So it's
02:24Barrett Redrow now and they actually filed results this week doing great guns
02:27but they've come top of the Wales top 300. Yeah. And other names there is
02:32Ibsen Biopharma, they are a vaccine manufacturer based in Wrexham and
02:37actually the highest rated North Wales new entrant is Moneypenny, obviously
02:43the James Bond link, but this is sort of call handling, outsourcing and so on. So
02:48great guns in North Wales and good to see. Our readers love a list, don't they?
02:53They do love a list and obviously things changing because sometimes people with
02:58the top 500, top 300, you do get some people who are stuck there. But I
03:02remember in the North West it was all changed and you had a really interesting
03:05line about the retailers and the importance of the retail, big retail
03:08businesses to employment. Yeah. Thousands of people. That's it, people talk about you
03:14know tech and fintech and medtech and all this sort of thing but you know in
03:17the North West it's your B&M bargains, your home bargains, you know your Matalan.
03:23They're some of the biggest most successful companies on our patch. Yeah and when you go to
03:28those shops as well, B&M, you know they're so well organized. The way they
03:31take you around and you go in for a bulb and you come out with a lawnmower.
03:35The IK principle. Yeah exactly right. Now an interesting line that I heard
03:42there in the intro is about young people returning to the pub. What's this all about?
03:46Well you know we all hear it don't we that Gen Z, as I think you know the
03:51younger people, they don't go out anymore like we used to. You know they're not
03:55going to the pub, they don't drink, that they're doing more kind of healthy
04:00pursuits and things like that. Which is great, but it's not great for the pubs.
04:05But now new information's coming from Joseph Holt. Okay really historic sort of
04:12brewer. Absolutely, I think it's about sixth or seventh generation. It's
04:17really historic and some of the great pubs that we know around them the
04:20Northwest as well. I mean they've got 127 pubs in the Northwest. Oh I love a pub.
04:26A proper pub like I imagine Joseph Holt's establishments are. Yeah well you know you've got the Old
04:31Monkey on Portland Street. Oh yeah. You've got the the Brickies, the Bricklayers
04:36Arms in Uxhall, where my deputy editor frequents. You've got the the Ostrich in
04:42Prestwich. You know some real characterful pubs. But what Joseph Holt is
04:48saying is that the 18 to 30s are coming back. What's bringing them back in?
04:53To the pubs. Well they say what it is, it's the nostalgic feel of it maybe
04:58that they like. But also something that was suggested is you know more people
05:05are working from home these days. So maybe there's that sense of isolation a
05:10little bit. You know you're not seeing your work colleagues during the day. So
05:13maybe you're more inclined to want to go out in the evening and catch up. Well
05:18it's a great point because if you don't use them they're going to go.
05:21And actually I read about Dry January. Lots of people do that. You know it's
05:24it's awesome. Mushroom really in the last 10 years. But at the same time the
05:28pubs hate Dry January. Well I was a part of this. So a guy called Malcolm
05:35Ireland who's a lawyer. He does kind of like the anti-Dry January. Right. Where
05:40he goes out every single day for January. He goes to a different pub. So he picks up
05:45the slack. Yeah exactly. Well it's you know it's not about drinking. You don't
05:48you don't have to have an alcoholic drink. No of course not. It's that idea as
05:52you say. Use them or lose them. If people don't go to the pub in January when they
05:57expect a good old pub to still be there in February. Yeah. And it feeds in
06:02doesn't it to the whole business of you know if you're not serving them. Well
06:09sorry if you want to get people in there perhaps the pubs have to expand what
06:12they're doing. Yeah. And they are doing that and making themselves more of a
06:17community asset. Yeah. Interestingly we mentioned the top 300 Wales businesses.
06:22Our editor there Douglas Readley he embarked on a sort of review of all the
06:26pubs in Cardiff. Oh did he? It's a tough job but someone's got to do it. He doesn't fall into the category of Gen Z there. He's a firmly Gen X if not later. At least. But I think that that thing about the
06:38habits of the pubs and hospitality that extends to retail as well doesn't it? It
06:46does and we've got a really interesting well it's a disappointing story to be
06:50honest and that is the historic dark department store Beals founded in 1881 in
06:55Bournemouth is now going to be closing its final shop. At one time I think they
07:00had more than 20 shops but they said they just can't make it viable. In
07:05particular pointing to the you know the tax and sort of national insurance
07:10hikes imposed by the government. So we see an awful lot of that from the retail
07:15sector in particular. I remember the chief executive M&S saying that Rachel
07:21Reeves was using the retail sector as a piggy bank because of course as we
07:24mentioned before they're big employers so if suddenly they're having to pay
07:28more national employer national insurance contributions it affects them
07:31perhaps more and their margins are very thin. So yeah unfortunately the Beals in
07:36Poole in the Dolphin Centre there is going to shut. So it's it's a sad time
07:41for again not me to hark on about the good old days but we're both from the
07:45Northwest and I can remember it would be a magical trip with the folks going to
07:49Georgia and releasing in Liverpool. Now that became John Lewis and it moved to
07:53Liverpool one but it was like so great it was all sort of you know crazy nooks
07:57and crannies and but then you think perhaps people you know the kids they
08:02just don't go to that sort of shop. Well people's habits are different aren't they? People they
08:06don't need the big units because people order things off the internet they don't
08:09need to keep as much stock and that's what we've seen in places like Wigan
08:13isn't it where the councils had to buy the shopping centre the galleries to
08:17knock it down and now it's going to become this mixed-use place where
08:21they're going to have hotels and bowling and climbing walls. Let's hope these things
08:27work because it's the same in Birkenhead where BT's which was part of House of
08:31Fraser the council's bought that they're looking to redo it and actually just
08:35here in Manchester the former Debenhams not quite sure what's going on there but
08:39there's lots of noise coming from that that brilliant and it's some great
08:43graphics on there so maybe there will be a future for those massive buildings
08:46which were once retail emporiums and they give you something different in the
08:49future. Watch this space. Watch this space. Anyhow to find out more about what
08:53we've been speaking about go to insidermedia.com there you can
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