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TRUTH CREATIVE ACQUIRES MANCHESTER CITY CENTRE OFFICE

Sam Whitear
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A Grade 2 listed office building in Manchester city centre has been sold to creative branding agency, Truth Creative, for its own occupation.

Niche office agency, Canning O’Neill brokered the deal jointly with Fisk & Co., on behalf of a private pension fund. The 3,538 sq ft building, at 12 Tib Lane, in the heart of Manchester’s Central Business District, was comprehensively refurbished internally in 2007 to provide highly characterful office space. Since then it has been occupied by various tenants including on-line leather jackets business, Boda Skins, before being sold.

Truth Creative is a creative branding agency that specialises in the creation and development of brands. Its services include strategy and insight, branding, brand activation, content, digital, design for retail, employer branding and PR and Media Outreach. The company counts organisations such as University Academy 92, Shaws of Darwen and GC Aesthetics among its clients.

Speaking about the deal, Conrad O’Neill, director at Canning O’Neill, commented: “This asset represented a rare freehold opportunity in the prime core of the city centre, resulting in a great deal of interest. Truth Creative reacted quickly and this has enabled the agency to relocate from Kennedy Street, which is just a minute’s walk away.”

Jo Scott, founder and managing partner at Truth continued: “We are pleased to achieve this milestone for our business in purchasing our own property. The building is steeped in character and was the perfect home for our business both in terms of location and the standard of accommodation.”

Canning O’Neill acted jointly with Fisk & Co. on behalf of a private pension fund.
Truth Creative was unrepresented.
The value of the transaction is undisclosed.

FW CAPITAL DELIVERS £7.5M OF NPIF & CBILS LOANS IN SIX WEEKS

Sam Whitear
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In just six weeks FW Capital has invested over £7.5m in Northern businesses through NPIF loans backed by CBILS from NPIF – FW Capital Debt Finance, which is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

FW Capital provides loans between £100k and £750k to SMEs that are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cash flow backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) . Both new and existing customers are eligible to apply.

Since FW Capital launched their NPIF loans backed by CBILS the funding has helped 24 businesses through two funds across the North of England, with a focus on the North West, Cumbria and Tees Valley. Businesses have received the money into their accounts in as soon as 9 working days from the application date, with the average being just 17 days.

The loans went to SMEs in a variety of sectors, including engineering, manufacturing, construction, health and education.

Since 2010, FW Capital has invested more than £154m into businesses and created or safeguarded more than 7300 jobs. It has expanded to a team of over thirty in offices across the North.

Gary Guest, FW Capital’s Fund Director in the North West, said: “FW Capital has provided a crucial and swift lifeline to SMEs across the region through our NPIF loans which are backed by CBILS

“It is heartening to have already reached the £7.5m milestone in just six weeks. We look forward to continuing to support SMEs by helping them access the finance they need during these challenging times.”

One business that recently benefitted from an NPIF loan backed by CBILS is Stockport Village Nursery, which received funding to enable the business to immediately make adaptations in-line with new social distancing rules.

The loan ensures that all the children can return to class sizes no larger than 16 as specified by the guidelines, in addition, it will provide working capital headroom in case there is a shortfall in child places due to more parents working from home.

Managing Director David Carroll said: “The safety of our staff and children is paramount. At full capacity we can accommodate up to 120 children, but we need to make adaptations so that we can reduce class sizes, giving comfort to parents.

“We approached the bank for a loan but found it difficult to get a response. We were fortunate a family member, Mike Berger, has worked with FW Capital before and he introduced us. He supported us with the financial model and other documents we needed to prepare.

“The entire investment process only took around three weeks. There was constant communication throughout the process and there was never any doubt that we would receive the money which really took the pressure off.”

Grant Peggie at British Business Bank, said: “FW Capital has been key in the delivery of NPIF loans backed by CBILS, helping us to provide vital support to businesses across a number of sectors following the pandemic. To deliver £7.5m in CBILS loans over a period of just six weeks is a fantastic achievement and it’s great to see Northern businesses receiving support from NPIF-backed CBILS loans have already proven a valuable tool in addressing regional disparities particularly during Covid-19.”

Operating from the British Business Bank’s Sheffield head office, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund provides a mix of debt and equity funding (£25,000 to £2m). It works alongside ten Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the combined authorities and Growth Hubs, as well as local accountants, fund managers and banks, to support Northern-based SMEs at all stages of their development.

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

Delivered by the British Business Bank, via NPIF – FW Capital Debt Finance, CBILS will support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is managed by the British Business Bank on behalf of, and with the financial backing of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Seasoned venture capitalist and entrepreneur joins YFM Equity Partners

Sam Whitear
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YFM Equity Partners (YFM) is continuing its focus on growth stage investment, particularly in the technology sector, with the appointment of venture capitalist and entrepreneur Victor Christou who takes up the new position of partner, head of growth, at the specialist small business investor that operates across the UK.

Victor began his career as an academic at the University of Oxford before launching a spin-off business, Opsys, in 1997 that pioneered OLED display technology. After selling the business in 2002, he founded Aborescent and then moved to Oxford Capital Partners in 2005 where he was a senior investment manager before joining Wellington Partners as a venture partner. In 2013 he joined Cambridge Innovation Capital, where he was CEO for almost four years.

As well as being a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, Victor was also a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

At YFM, Victor takes on the newly-created role of head of growth, with overall responsibility for growth stage assets within the PE house’s existing investment portfolio. In this role, he will be seeking new opportunities for investment, especially into high-growth technology ventures in YFM’s growth capital focused VCTs. Based in the firm’s London office, Victor will work across the UK, supporting YFM’s investments into rapidly growing, regional businesses.

David Hall, managing director of YFM said: “Victor’s breadth, depth and wealth of experience through investing in and managing businesses across all stages of their growth journeys, coupled with a deep insight of investors’ needs, is a rare combination of skills. His ethos and approach are also a great fit with the YFM culture.

“Victor’s appointment reflects our continuing support for growth stage investment and further strengthens our technology venture experience. It’s great news for our team, our invested businesses and our investors that such an experienced venture capitalist and entrepreneur is joining YFM for the next phase of our development.”

Victor comments: “I was attracted to the role by YFM’s great reputation and its commitment to regional support. I believe there are exciting opportunities to take YFM’s offering to rapidly growing tech businesses across all regions of the UK. In this new role as head of growth and with my background in deep technology investing, this is a fantastic opportunity to use my experience to broaden the capabilities of the YFM team and really make a difference.

“I am particularly looking forward to working as part of such an inclusive and collaborative team with a strong and ethical culture and working alongside some passionate CEOs across the portfolio.”

YFM’s investment portfolio already includes a number of prominent software IT and telecoms businesses such as Manchester-based cloud integration technologies provider Matillion; data visualisation, reporting and analytics software provider Panintelligence in Leeds; e-learning software authoring platform Elucidat in Brighton; Traveltek in East Kilbride, a pioneer of travel technology solutions for travel agents and tour operators; and Arcus Global in Cambridge which provides cloud based software for the public sector.

YFM typically invests between £2m and £10m per transaction into businesses with strong growth potential located across the UK regions through YFM’s network of offices in London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.

REPIC STRENGTHENS SENIOR TEAM WITH TWO NEW APPOINTMENTS

Sam Whitear
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Greater Manchester based, REPIC, the largest household waste electrical and electronics equipment (WEEE) producer compliance scheme in the UK, has strengthened its leadership team to continue to drive and deliver services, performance and innovation across its producer compliance schemes with the appointment of two new senior executives.

Graeme Milne joins the Bury based compliance scheme in the role of Strategic Business Development Director and Mark Frakes FCA has recently joined as Finance Director.

Graeme brings a wealth of industry experience to his new role, including 17 years in the waste and recycling sector, across a broad spectrum of WEEE activity. Graeme joined REPIC from Katalyst Business Consulting which he founded in March 2016 following eight years as a key member of the Viridor senior executive where he led the commercial team with direct responsibility for sales, strategic planning and customer service. Prior to joining Viridor he held executive positions with WEEE specialists Shore Recycling.

As Finance Director, Mark brings with him over 15 years of experience from practice, manufacturing and consulting in a number of highly regulated industries. During his career, Mark has worked for a number of blue-chip companies in the UK and overseas, such as AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Pilkington Glass. Mark joined REPIC in June from Survitec Group where he was providing consultancy services, previously he was acting CFO for Brammer UK Ltd, part of the Rubix Group and Head of Finance for Sanofi’s Holmes Chapel site.

As key members of the REPIC Board both appointments will have an essential role in delivering REPIC’s approved strategic plans as well as supporting scheme members on future legislative developments and the impact on their businesses.

Louise Grantham, chief executive of REPIC, comments: “With Graeme’s extensive management experience within the waste management sector and Mark’s strong commercial acumen these two key appointments will, I’m sure, prove to be a huge asset to REPIC as we continue to contribute to the future development of producer responsibility legislation and deliver excellence in our compliance services to all our members.”

Healthcare Communications provider agrees 10-year lease at Manchester’s City Tower

Sam Whitear
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Schroder Real Estate Investment Management (“Schroders”) has agreed a new 10-year lease with Ashfield Healthcare Communications at City Tower, Manchester.
One of the world’s largest agency networks in healthcare communications has taken 9,059 sq. ft. of space across the entire seventh floor of City Tower.

Rob Cosslett, Investment Manager for Schroders, said:“This deal highlights the success of the developing offer at City Tower.

“The fact that the space is continuing to attract tenants of this calibre with large requirements is testament to City Tower’s enduring appeal, even in a turbulent market. We look forward to continuing to develop and enhance our occupier offering.”

Andrew Davidson for Ashfield Healthcare Communications said:“Manchester as a city is integral to our future growth plans given its deep scientific and creative talent pool and we’re looking forward to moving in in the coming months as we continue to ramp up operations.”

“We were impressed with City Tower’s ‘vertical village’ feel, and the amenity on offer in the building made it a natural choice for us to relocate our growing Manchester city centre operations to. “
A pre-emption deal has been signed to allow for further expansion in the building in the coming months, with the 10-year lease including a five-year break.
Schroders has also agreed a new deal with existing tenant, Sonoco Limited. The global packaging solutions provider will occupy additional space within City Tower upsizing to a 1,979 sq ft. suite on the 26th floor of the building.

Schroders completed a major refurbishment of City Tower in 2017, delivering 36,400 sq. ft. of Grade A office space across four floors, and repositioning the ground floor reception and lift lobbies throughout the building.

The firm also launched a City Tower portal for all residents, which unlocks exclusive offers at a selection of Manchester’s most exclusive hospitality venue as part of their increased commitment to tenant engagement.

OBI and Cushman and Wakefield acted as joint leasing agents on the deal.
City Tower is owned in a joint venture held between Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust, the actively managed UK REIT, Schroder UK Real Estate Fund and Immobilien Europa Direkt.

Manchester-based Voicescape appointed by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to boost rental collections

Sam Whitear
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Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has appointed Voicescape to help boost its rent collections amongst current and former housing tenants.

The software business, which provides customer engagement and tenant sustainability solutions for UK social landlords, will enable the Council’s housing team to maximise operational efficiencies in the management of former tenant arrears (FTA) and current tenant
arrears (CTA).

Currently, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council manages more than 20,000 homes across the South Yorkshire town, with annual rental income totalling £83 million for 2020-21.

Focusing initially on FTA collections, with CTA collections being rolled out later this summer, the Council intends to provide tenants with further access to its housing service, as a result of working with Voicescape.

Paul Elliott, Business and Commercial Programme Manager, Adult Care, Housing and Public Health at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, said: “Since rolling out Voicescape’s solution to our FTA team we have seen an increase in collection rates and reduced the down time of staff chasing former tenant’s arrears. Not only does Voicescape reduce the time officers spend on less productive tasks, it helps us update our systems by telling us which telephone numbers are no longer in use. We are so pleased with the results we will be rolling out the system to the wider income collection team later this summer.”

Through the partnership, the Council will be able to analyse and measure customer data, profile the financial risk that Universal Credit poses to the organisation, as well as use Voicescape’s cutting-edge technology to understand tenant behaviours and make evidence-based recommendations on how to build and maintain engagement.

Peter Hudson, Sales Director at Voicescape, commented: “Communicating and staying connected with tenants has never been more important or challenging as it is at the present time. It’s essential for social housing providers to find innovative ways of reaching as many people as possible, in order to maintain high levels of rental collections.

“Even within the first few weeks, we are already seeing impressive results from our work with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and we’re confident, as the service continues to roll out amongst all areas of rental collection, that the housing team and tenants
alike will benefit from the operational efficiencies that our technology and software provides them.”

NEW HOMES COMING SOON TO MIDDLETON

Sam Whitear
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SHOW homes at a new housing development in Middleton will soon be available to view by appointment only.

Elan Homes is transforming a former brownfield site in the Greater Manchester town to provide 67 new homes across 3.9 acres of a 4.38 acre site.

Known as Millfields, the development on Boothroyden Road will offer a choice of two, three and four-bedroom semi-detached and detached designs.

They will be showcased by two show homes due to open in early September. The properties will be available to view by appointment only, with social distancing measures in place.

Marie Morris, sales director for Elan Homes in the North, said: “Plans for this site were first mooted back in 2015 but it wasn’t until last summer that we acquired the site. There’s a pent up demand for new homes in Middleton and the wider Greater Manchester area and we’ve received a steady stream of enquiries from potential purchasers. We’re now looking forward to inviting those who’ve registered their interest to be the first to see inside the show homes – a three-bedroom semi-detached Howden and a four-bedroom Brandon. Both properties will be professionally styled and fully furnished, enabling visitors to imagine themselves living here.”

Prices for the properties will be announced when the development is launched.

New build homes are generally more energy efficient than older properties, but Elan’s homes at Millfields will shower heat recovery units and triple glazed windows.

As part of Elan’s commitment to the environment, mature Manchester Poplar trees along the boundary of the River Irk are being retained, with homes at the southern end of the site look out towards the trees and river.

Elan will also contribute £81,076 towards the improvements of recreational open space in Alkrington Woods and Rhodes Lodges Site of Biological Importance.

Manchester food business launches work from home pizza kits to help teams connect together

Sam Whitear
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Despite the easing of ‘lockdown’ working from home (WFH) is part of the ‘new normal’ for many of us whether we like it or not and it can be all too easy for team members to feel isolated and disconnected from their colleagues.

Happily, there’s a fairly easy solution to help teams to bond and that’s a Dough-Re-Me Neapolitan Pizza party to help colleagues connect together and grow as a team.

No matter what type of company you run and where your co-workers are located it’s more important than ever to make sure everyone feels like they are valued and is a key part of the team.

Quality down time is proving to play a significant role in the retention of staff and in times where morale can easily get low, is equally as important as ensuring that the ‘job gets done’. Teams that can share some fun outside of their day-to-day work often work better too – shared experiences help to build those all-important bonds, which can ultimately lead to better productivity.

There are six easy steps to follow for having a fun night in as a team with Dough-Re-Me.

1/ Agree a date, a time, and send out an invite to a Zoom Pizza Party in your team’s virtual diary.

2/ Order the required number of Dough-Re-Me Neapolitan Pizza kits – they will then be delivered to every participant’s door by contactless courier.

3/ Hop on your Zoom call and get busy putting your pizzas together.

4/ While you’re all waiting you could really get in the mood by changing your Zoom call virtual background and swap it out for the cheesiest Italian restaurant background you can find, and dish out virtual forfeits for the worst and best to mix it up a little.

5/ Get cooking! Have some fun making your pizzas virtually and then simply tuck in and even enjoy a glass of wine or two. You could even get a little competitive by having a Ready Steady Cook style pizza cook off!

6/ If competition is not your thing, then why not continue your pizza party fun with a movie night? Just download Netflix Party and tune in together or you could catch a virtual gig, just check out Bandsintown and then hit the platform the band you want to listen to is streaming on or get totally trivial and download Houseparty and play a game or two of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire…

WFH doesn’t mean you can’t have fun together as a team. All you need to do is get creative and enjoy.

Dough-Re-Me pizzas are lovingly created using only the finest ingredients sourced directly from Italy, with no artificial preservatives or flavourings.

Each Dough-Re-Me kit comes complete with all the ingredients to make two Neapolitan margherita pizzas…

Hand-made 48-hour naturally fermented Caputo flour pizza dough, our signature tomato sauce, made using only the finest San Marzano tomatoes, and delicious fior di latte mozzarella.

And because our kits have been developed by chefs all those little extra finishing touches to create that authentic taste sensation are included too… extra virgin olive oil, organic basil, Maldon sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

We’ve developed these kits so anyone can enjoy authentic hand-crafted Neapolitan pizza in the comfort of their own home in a frying pan in just under 5 minutes, with no mess and all the fun…

Dough-Re-Me pizzas are available for nationwide home delivery, all pizza ingredients are freshly prepared and boxed in chilled protective eco sourced packaging and delivered by courier within specified date ranges to ensure that customers receive the freshest ingredients direct to their door.

Dough-Re-Me classic Neapolitan pizza kits come in two portion sizes:

Due for two people priced at £15

Famiglia for 4 people priced at £25

A variety of dietary options are also available in Due or Famiglia sizes, including vegetarian, vegan and gluten free.

Pennies turn to Pounds and Coffee2Cash

Sam Whitear
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Pennies turn to Pounds and Coffee2Cash
During the coronavirus lockdown Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers in Oldham have collected the cash they would normally spend of coffee and put it all into a pot for Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre in Oldham.

Now an amazing £5,000 has been presented to the team at the Oldham Centre as part of a coffee2cash project.

Maggie’s was the chosen charity of the year for the solicitor’s firm but like many charities has been hit hard by the Corona pandemic.

“We had planned on helping out weekly in the garden, greenhouse, on open days and doing general kitchen work and baking,” said Suzanne Wright of Pearson, who has coordinated the project.

“A lot of sponsorship events have been cancelled and we wondered what we could do to help out, not all our staff want to run marathons and so we came up with coffee2cash idea.

Instead of buying a cappuccino coming into work, or having a late lunch caffeine pick-me-up we’ve been working from home, pocketing the pounds and donating it all to our chosen charity,”
she added.“It’s hard to believe how much we actually spend on coffee during normal office hours and there was an amazing £2,231.25 collected up.”

As a bonus the kid-hearted Partners at Pearson dug deep and rounded it up to £5,000.

“2020 was supposed to be the year we ran the Manchester 10K, volunteered on a weekly basis and generally got all our staff involved in a charity close to many of our hearts and so the Partners decided to double up on the coffee collection,” said Partner and Practice Manager Joanne Ormston.

With no NHS or Government funding Maggie’s relies on external assistance to keep open providing essential support for over 10,000 people in Oldham every year. Throughout the recent pandemic it has provided online support and has recently opened its door again to visitors.

MERCEDES-BENZ OF STOCKPORT CELEBRATES OUTSTANDING FIRST YEAR

Sam Whitear
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LSH Auto UK, part of LSH International, one of the largest dealer groups for Mercedes-Benz cars worldwide, is celebrating an outstanding first year of trading at its flagship site, Mercedes-Benz of Stockport.

The state-of-the-art, purpose built, three storey facility launched in August 2019 and has become LSH Auto UK’s Mercedes-Benz hub for the North West, attracting an unprecedented number of new customers and sales leads in its first year.

Over the last 12 months, the business has grown new car sales by more than 21% and used car sales by 34%, despite the UK lockdown which closed the showroom in April, May and June 2020.

At the same time, LSH Auto UK grew its team at Mercedes-Benz of Stockport by 27% and is now recruiting for a further 15 positions.

Mercedes-Benz of Stockport has two buildings at the flagship site. From its 13,492sqm showroom – the Autohaus; a retail space for new and used cars. The site is also home to an aftersales facility and a 17,166sqm purpose-built high-tech Body, Paint and Repair Centre, which operates as LSH Auto UK’s regional Used Car Preparation Facility and Parts Distribution Centre.

Martyn Webb, Managing Director of LSH Auto UK, said: “Mercedes-Benz of Stockport has had a fantastic first year of trading. Despite the impact of Covid-19 and the UK lockdown, we’re in good shape and are looking forward to continuing to grow the business into 2021. Our success is testament to the fantastic team that we have and their commitment to delivering the best possible service to our customers.”

The business is now recruiting for experience partners to join its sales team, with 10 full time positions, four opportunities for weekend roles, and a full-time handover experience partner role.

During the lockdown period, the aftersales and servicing facilities at Mercedes-Benz of Stockport remained open in order to provide essential services for key workers including NHS staff, police and firefighters. The teams provided customer and technical assistance for Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles used for a range of customers from emergency services, to home shopping, postal and parcel deliveries, utilities and breakdown services.

All LSH Auto UK sites are now open and operating on an appointment only basis to manage social distancing. A range of appropriate safety measures have been introduced to maintain the safety of customers and colleagues.

“We know that a number of our customers still wish to shield at home, so we have also launched a full digital platform to enable them to browse online, book a solo test drive from their home, buy online and choose either the click and collect option or home delivery. It’s been incredibly popular and our customer experience team have helped more than 19,000 customers over the phone or via online chat and emails over the past 12 months.

“We’re a business that always looks to the future and we never rest on our laurels. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve our service for our customers and we’re grateful for their continued support.”

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