Robyn and Laurence discuss an expanding Japanese fast food chain, a new catering joint venture and results for a major construction business.
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00:00Expansion for a Japanese fast-food chain, a new catering operation for Manchester
00:05City and Co-op Live, and results for weights. That's all coming up in today's
00:10business briefing.
00:17My name is Lawrence Kilgannon. And I'm Robin Houston. Well, morning Robin. If we
00:22can perhaps start local in the Northwest, there's news of this interesting joint
00:26venture which is going to be providing catering to Manchester City and Co-op
00:30Live. Yeah, absolutely. So it's a joint venture that's been established by City
00:35Football Group and Oakview Group. It's called Eastlands Venue Services. And the
00:39idea is, I guess, that they're so close together and within the kind of Etihad
00:42campus. So it's going to be providing catering services to both venues all
00:47year round. So between them, obviously, they put on a huge amount of games and
00:52gigs and things like that. So yeah, it's going to be this new partnership, I
00:56guess, to bring together the catering. They must have loads of employees then
01:00because I'm just thinking you're going to have football, lots of fans
01:04turning up every other week, and concerts as well. Yeah, exactly. So there's
01:08going to be 80 full-time employees as well as a casual workforce of 3,000. So yeah, a
01:13massive team. And it's not the only news we've had from Co-op Live today because
01:17they've also been progressing their plans for a new canal side development.
01:20So it'll be opposite the entertainment venue. And if approved, it will
01:25provide a cafe, bar, and kitchen as well as a new merch store. Right, so it's all go
01:29for people who want to get food and drink at either the Co-op Live or the Etihad.
01:33Yeah, definitely. And I think we heard about these plans when they kind of first talked to us
01:38about Co-op Live and the development. And it seems like now that the arena's up
01:41and running, they're kind of moving forward with the next stage. Well, and
01:44people who've been to Co-op Live, I've actually not been, but they say that the
01:48service is really quick. So it'll be interesting to see if that is maintained.
01:51A few gigs now. It's interesting. They've got shops inside the arena instead of
01:56just bars. You can go and buy your food and drinks just like as if you're in a
01:59co-op. Oh, okay. So quite innovative. Yeah, definitely. I'd be interested to know what
02:03the crossover is between the food that football fans, for instance, have and then
02:07fans of certain bands. A lot more pies maybe. Yeah, more pies indeed. Well, one
02:12thing that they may be eating is Japanese fast food because we've got a
02:15very interesting story about Murugame Udon. They currently have sites in
02:23London and Reading, but they've been acquired by Kerali Group and they're now
02:27plotting a nationwide expansion. So I'm sure within that, Manchester will be
02:32on their target list. I imagine. And well, Kerali Group has said that they're
02:40going to be looking into sort of moving to a fully franchised model. So that
02:45tends to power people when they try to expand around the place. And Kerali was
02:49supported by PKF Smith Cooper's dealmakers on that one. So yeah,
02:54interesting to see. And are you a fan of Japanese food? I am, yeah. I've not had
02:57that particular one, but yeah, I really like it. No, same here. So yes, we'll
03:00hopefully keep our fingers crossed. Fingers crossed they come to Manchester.
03:02Absolutely. And well, you've got an interesting story about a North West
03:07based firm expanding with a property acquisition in Bristol. So tell us more
03:11about that. Yeah, we have. So Seneca Properties, who are based in Haydock, have
03:16snapped up a office complex in Bristol. So I'm not too familiar with Bristol, but
03:20I don't know if you've heard of this one. So it's 200 Aztec West is the
03:23developer. Well, yeah, Aztec West is a really sort of prominent sort of, it's a
03:27big scheme, so this must be a bit of it. But it's a really well-known address.
03:32So great news for Seneca. Absolutely. And so it's four buildings within this
03:36kind of one complex that equals about 46,000 square foot overall. So a lot
03:41of space there. And the property is reported to generate more than 800,000
03:46per year from its tenant base. So you can see why it's kind of a key investment
03:50for them. And yeah, it's part of their kind of strategy to expand their
03:54footprint in the multi-let workspace sector. So they actually already have a
03:58portfolio of 600,000 square foot and now growing. Excellent. Well, congratulations
04:03to them. And we've also got results today for Weights. They're a major sort of
04:08construction and property services group. You see their banners all over the
04:12place. And they've produced a resilient financial performance is how
04:17they've seen it, despite sort of major headwinds and there's lots of
04:21issues with inflation and interest rates and what have you. But the Weights
04:27actually reported record turnover of 2.4 billion. They also hailed its order book
04:32of 8.64 billion. So all going good. Guns at Weights. Well, to read more about those
04:40stories, go to insidermedia.com. There you can subscribe to our newsletters, you
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04:49That's everything from us. See you next time.