Moonpig, the UK’s leading online cards, gifts & flowers retailer is opening its first ever ‘Tech Hub’ in Manchester, creating fifty new technology jobs across Manchester and London, as part of a multi-million pound investment to unlock the next phase of its ambitious growth plans.

The new office opens at No. 1 Spinningfields on 1st November and will lead the development and rollout of a new world-class ecommerce, data and personalisation platform for Moonpig.

The project will be led by Peter Donlon, Chief Technology Officer at Moonpig.

“Moonpig produces over 15 million completely one-off items for customers every year, each one uniquely personal to the sender and receiver, and powered by our ‘emotionally intelligent’ technology”, said Donlon.

“We’re seeking the best engineering talent out there to turbo-charge the Moonpig business going forward.  We selected Manchester for its thriving tech scene and wealth of exceptional talent”, stated Donlon, who grew up in the north-west and graduated from University in Manchester.

Mark Evans, previously of Nested.com and Sainsbury’s has been appointed to lead the new office as Head of Engineering.

Leading e-commerce and digital agency, Visualsoft, has reported a strong increase in revenue as it approaches 20 years of business in October.

The company, which has offices in Teesside, Newcastle and Manchester, has reported a 18% rise in turnover this year, taking it from £11 million in 2016/17 to £13 million in 2017/18.

Profit before tax also increased by more than 100%, from £0.9 million in 2016/17 to £2 million in 2017/18.

Over the past year, Visualsoft has invested significantly in the business to reach these goals, including the launch of its Shared Success model – a market leading service which underlines its commitment to helping retailers grow online. 

The agency has also made a huge investment in its workforce to support its continued growth. Head count currently stands at 269, a 19% increase from last year.

 Having grown from a leading North East web developer to a nationally recognised provider of online retail services, Visualsoft now specialises in the design, build, support and marketing of online retail stores across the UK. 

Dean Benson, CEO of Visualsoft, said:“As a company, we are proud that we are now approaching 20 years in business and that across those years we have maintained our position as a market leading provider of e-commerce solutions. We have consistently delivered innovations that provide competitive advantage for our clients and our strategy remains to ensure that we are at the cutting edge of online retail. 

“In the current financial year, the company has seen strong performances across all business areas; in online retail platform sales, via our numerous marketing channel offerings and in our affiliate network. At the same time as achieving these results we remain committed to sustainable growth, which will allow us to deliver excellent service to our clients and offer secure employment for our staff, and a growing number of opportunities for prospective employees throughout the North of England.”

Altrincham’s opportunity to be crowned best British High Street will be put to the test this Friday, October 12, when a team of judges arrive for a tour of the town centre. Altrincham is the only North West town shortlisted of the 26 in the running for the ‘Champion High Street’ award for the nation’s best high street, which comes with a potential £15,000 prize.

The GBHS Awards, by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, are sponsored by Visa and recognise and celebrate local achievements on high streets. On Friday, the awards judges will tour the town centre and interview key figures in Altrincham’s renaissance.

Whilst 70% of the score is based on the judging day, a major part of the award will be down to the public vote, which accounts for 30% of the final scoring. So, Altrincham is calling on residents, workers, visitors and friends of the town to cast their vote on social media, using both hashtags #GBHSAltrincham and #MYHIGHSTREET on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. People can vote unlimited times and voting ends on Friday October 26.

Altrincham’s recent achievements have made it an exemplar for numerous other towns across the UK who have visited to learn from the town centre’s turnaround, including:

• The Sunday Times accolade of the ‘Best Place to Live’ in the North-West.
• The Observer awarded The Market Hall gastronomic destination ‘Best Local Market’
• Footfall increased 11% between 2015 and 2017.
• Vacancy rates, once the highest in the North-west, have been halved.
• Trafford Council public realm improvements and loan funding to help a total of 22 new businesses to open in Altrincham – levering in over £600,000 of private investment and creating 100 jobs.
• Public sector investment in a new transport interchange, Hospital, Health and Wellbeing Centre.
• A wave of openings by independent leisure and retail operators, with new restaurant and children’s play centre Treehouse set to be joined by a 4 -screen Everyman Cinema, Danish home interiors retailer Sostrene Grene and the first Orangetheory Fitness outside London.

The GBHS shortlisting is the latest recognition for the partnership between the many organisations passionate about the town centre, including Trafford Council, Community Groups, visitors and residents, and business represented by Altrincham Unlimited (the BID) and Altrincham’s award-winning market.

All town centres are challenged by the trends of out-of-town retail and online shopping. Visits to UK town centres are down 17% over the past decade and online shopping is rising 10% a year. Yet Government research finds that 8 out of 10 people in the North-west believe ‘that the High Street is about people’ and that they would miss it if was no longer there.

The Centre for Cities ‘think tank’ states that town centres must change to be places where “the theatre of life can thrive”, providing experience and leisure as well as shops, and Altrincham is leading the UK town centre fightback with some amazing high street experiences.

It was used as a positive case study of town centre regeneration by retail expert Prof. Cathy Parker of Manchester Metropolitan University at the September 10 Housing, Communities and Local Government select committee, who praised its effective partnership working.

Ewen Miller, the Chair for Altrincham Unlimited, the Business Improvement District, said: “Altrincham has reinvented itself as a thriving modern market town with a rich retail, recreational, residential and business mix.  It has become a gastronomic destination with its award-winning Market at the heart of a vibrant food and drink offer. Major investment in the public realm, transport Interchange, new Hospital and a brand-new Health/Wellbeing Hub, make it a great place to visit, do business and live. We hope everyone will show their support and get voting. We think the town really deserves this accolade and would urge everyone to get behind Altrincham.”

Councillor James Wright, Executive Member for Investment, Regeneration and Strategic Planning at Trafford, said: “Altrincham has continued to go from strength to strength and it is fantastic to see that the town is receiving national recognition again. The continued success is undoubtedly linked to the hard work and close partnerships between Trafford Council, Altrincham Unlimited, the business community and the other voluntary organisations within the town centre. This has made Altrincham a great place to visit, live, work and invest”.

Following a phenomenal response to the call for nominations for the first ever Manchester Culture Awards, details of the shortlisted nominees can now be revealed.

The awards recognise the best of culture in the city over the last year and have been established by the council to recognise the massive contribution culture makes to the city’s economy, and the role of culture in helping make Manchester a vibrant place where people want to live, work, and play.

The cultural call-out back in June this year saw nearly 300 nominations made across twelve different award categories.

The volume of entries along with the exceptional quality of all those nominated, meant it was no easy task for the judges who had the unenviable task of deciding who should go through to the next round of judging.

The judging panel was made up of Sara Todd, Deputy Chief Executive Manchester City Council; Alison Clark, Director North & National Combined Arts Director, Arts Council England; Mags Bradbury, Associate Director Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Central Manchester University NHS Trust; Keisha Thompson, Manchester writer, performance artist and producer; and Mark Dobson, independent cultural consultant; and Councillor Luthfur Rahman, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Schools, Culture and Leisure.

After much discussion and debate five nominees were shortlisted in each category and will now go forward to the final stage of judging.

Councillor Luthfur Rahman, Executive Member for Schools, Culture, and Leisure, Manchester City Council, said: “We had a phenomenal response to our call-out for nominations and such was the calibre of organisations, events, exhibitions, and individuals nominated that the bar was set very high for them to get through to the final stage of judging.

“It was a really tough job to whittle all of the nominations down, and it’s going to be even tougher to decide which of the five finalists in each category should be crowned the winner.”

Finalists in each award category:

Young Creative of the Year
Ali Wilson
Annalise Browne
Jonathon Heyward
Dominic Bennett
Mohammed Leonardo
Promotion of Health and Wellbeing
Streetwise Opera
HerArt
Contact
Manchester Museum
Manchester Art Gallery

Promotion of Equality & Diversity
The Proud Trust
Women’s Words on Manchester
Venture Arts
Olympias Music Foundation
Amani Creatives

Promotion of Environmental Sustainability
Manchester Arts and Sustainability Team
Manchester City Council Events Team and Walk The Plank
HOME
Bridgewater Basin Eco Partnership
Z-Arts and St Philip’s Primary School

Promotion of Talent and Leadership
SharpFutures
HOME Young Creatives
Contact
Venture Arts
Young Identity

Best Business Partnership
Bruntwood
Museum of Science and Industry
Halle Orchestra and Siemens
Z-Arts and One Manchester
Commonplace

Best Event
Paris-Manchester 1918 – RNCM
What Is the City but the People? – Manchester International Festival commission
This is Human – Project X, HOME
Manchester Science Festival 2017 – Museum of Science and Industry
This Vibrant Thing – PlatformMcr and Manchester Libraries

Best Performance
The Welcoming Party – Manchester International Festival, Z-Arts, Theatre Rites co-commission
Tony Walsh – This is the Place
#BeMoreMartyn – Hope Theatre Company
Illuminate – Company Chameleon
She Bangs the Drum – Contact Young Company and People’s History Museum

Best Exhibition
Sonia Boyce – Manchester Art Gallery
Stories of Sacrifice – British Muslim Heritage Centre
Waqas Khan – Manchester Art Gallery
Beyond Dementia – The Whitworth
Never Going Underground – People’s History Museum

Inspiring Innovation
Comma Press
The Edge Theatre & Arts Centre
Old Abbey Taphouse
Z-Arts
Manchester Street Poem – Manchester International Festival commission

Outstanding Contribution
Carcanet Press
Manchester International Festival
This is the Place (book) – Tony Walsh
Royal Exchange Theatre
Linda Brogan – Excavating the Reno

Leaders of businesses from all sectors the North West are invited to celebrate their successes of the past year, as the Institute of Directors (IoD) has launched its annual Director of the Year Awards.

For the first time in the history of the North West awards programme, the event will also extend to business leaders in the Isle of Man, thanks to the respective IoD teams joining forces last month.

The event seeks to unearth the most inspiring and pioneering business leaders, with categories including Director of the Year of a Family Business, Corporate Social Responsibility Director and the Start-Up Director of the Year. Regional IoD director Claire Ebrey, explained: “We really are rich in amazing leaders from all sectors across the North West and the Isle of Man, and this event impresses me year on year, as we are introduced to more inspirational people.

“I really would encourage anyone with a great business story to tell to apply; it’s free to enter our awards as we want 2019 to be our biggest and best celebration of great work in the region.”

Manchester Airport is continuing its 80^th birthday celebrations by reading its new free children’s book to local children at Haveley Hey Community School in Wythenshawe.

The book, aimed at Primary School children, is titled ‘Reach for the Sky’ and tells an enchanting story about travel, determination and achieving your dreams. Fifteen colleagues from a range of airport departments read the story to classes of children before giving copies to the school.

The airport is giving 5,000 free copies of the book to schools across the region to support children’s reading across its vast catchment area and offering aviation themed assemblies and workshops.

The airport’s first reading to school children of the book also supports the launch of the Take 10 initiative, which is part of the Read Manchester campaign from Manchester City Council and the National Literacy Trust, to promote reading and its impact on mental wellbeing. Take 10 encourages people of all ages to take 10 minutes out of their day for themselves to read to help feel happier, more relaxed, and improve memory and concentration.

Tricia Williams, Chief Operating Officer at Manchester Airport, said: “For our 80^th year we wanted to do a host of activity that would inspire and inform a whole range of our stakeholders, so what better way to reach out to the flyers or workforce of the future.

“As well as being fun and entertaining our very first children’s book also informs and educates, with our staff going into assemblies to inspire pupils with their tales of airport life.

“The release of the book is just one strand of our dedicated year-round education programme at Manchester Airport. In the last year alone, our staff engaged with 15,000 pupils across our catchment area through a range of initiatives including A Level masterclasses, What’s My Job workshops and work experience programmes.”

Mike Kane, MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East and Shadow Education Minister for Schools, said: “Manchester Airport’s publication of its own children’s book is a fantastic way to support children’s reading, and I am pleased to see the first reading to students take place in Wythenshawe. Paired with the Take 10 initiative, this is a great way to highlight the importance of reading to children and the positive effect this can have on their mental wellbeing.

“As Shadow Schools Minister, the moral of the airport’s book, based around determination, achieving your dreams, and never giving up, is really important as we work to inspire and educate local children. It is great to see this added to the wealth of educational outreach the airport already does.”