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£6m coach firm gears for growth with Manchester professionals

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Tyrers, the £6m turnover Lancashire-based coach and travel operator has appointed Manchester-based accountants Alexander Knight & Co as it gears for even more growth following a record year.

R. S. Tyrer & Son was established in 1972 by Bob Tyrer. Bob had been a coach driver for more than 30 years and started his own business at the age of 58, with one vehicle: a Bedford with a Leyland engine on a Plaxton body.

Over the years his fleet expanded to five vehicles before he passed away in November 1992 when family members carried on the business.

Turnover last year grew by 20% compared to the previous year, topping £6m. The management team is confident of more growth as it plans further investment in new vehicles and premises over the next 18 months. The firm now operates more than 80 vehicles.

Clients include Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, NST Educational Tours, as well as local authorities and schools.

Richard Buckle, managing director of Tyrers Coaches, said: “We had a good year last year thanks to growth in the number of new contracts we secured with schools, private companies and growth in the number of UK excursions booked by customers.

“We are delighted to appoint Alexander Knight & Co as our new accountants. They are experienced in acting for other successful coach operators which will stand us in good stead as we plan our next phase of growth.”

Murray Patt, founder of Manchester-based accountants Alexander Knight & Co, said: “Tyrers is an historic family-owned business whose vehicles are instantly recognisable across Lancashire. The business is growing organically and perfectly located to serve Manchester, Bolton, Preston, Wigan, Blackburn.

“The importance of reliable management information cannot be understated as the business seeks to enhance its trading position and make new investments over the next eighteen months. We are delighted to have been appointed by the directors.”

Andy Burnham to delve into Greater Manchester’s Economy at upcoming conference

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Mayor Andy Burnham will face questions and share his opinion on Greater Manchester’s economy at The Lowry Hotel next month.

Speaking at pro-manchester’s Economics Conference, Andy Burnham will be discussing how he believes our region’s economy has evolved in the past year and his predictions for the year ahead.

Now in its fourth year, after the success of last year’s theme, the pro-manchester Economics Conference is solely focusing on the economics of Greater Manchester, with fascinating themes to drive the agenda.

These themes include Brexit, employment, inclusive growth, housing, commercial real estate and much more.

pro-manchester’s chief executive, Dr John Ashcroft said: “I am delighted to have Greater Manchester’s Mayor taking to the stage at our Economics Conference to discuss his opinion on our region’s economy.

“I believe Mayor Andy Burnham will add great value to the topics we will be discussing throughout the day and look forward to hearing his insight.”

urbanbubble expands nationwide as its build to rent partnership with Legal & General strengthens

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urbanbubble announces that it is expanding its property management activities outside the North West as it secures further nationwide Build to Rent (BTR) schemes with Legal & General.

Following the success of the partnership’s inaugural BTR scheme, multi-award winning The Slate Yard in Salford, Greater Manchester, urbanbubble will now take on the management of Legal & General’s latest BTR schemes in Bath and Birmingham, alongside its newest acquisition in Deansgate, Manchester. With the extension of the partnership, urbanbubble will manage over 1,500 BTR apartments on behalf of Legal & General.

As with The Slate Yard, urbanbubble will be responsible for every aspect of the operational management of the new schemes, providing best customer practice and creating well-run rental communities across the country. urbanbubble will also support Legal & General in underwriting future acquisitions as the company seeks to rapidly expand its BTR portfolio to 6,000 units by the end of 2019.

The expansion of the alliance pre-empts financial results from urbanbubble, which will reveal a 33 per cent rise in revenue from £2.6m to £3.6m in the year ending June 2018.

Driven by urbanbubble’s increasing nationwide reach and growing number of units under management, forecast to almost double from 8,000 to more than 15,000 by 2021, the fast-growing firm, headed by founder and managing director Michael Howard, expects to see revenue rise to £6m in the year ending June 2019, with further growth to £9m in 2020 and to £12.5m in 2021.

In Manchester, urbanbubble expects to be managing some 2,500 residential units by late 2019, while in Liverpool the number of homes under its management is forecast to increase from 1,700 at present to about 4,000 by 2020. In these regions, the business manages schemes on behalf of Legal & General and other blue-chip clients such as English Cities Fund, Salboy, Elliot Group, PAG, Capital and Centric and Mulbury.

Delivering the expansion from urbanbubble’s head office in Sevendale House, Dale Street Manchester, will be a workforce set to double in size from 150 today to around 300 by late 2019.

Key to urbanbubble’s growth is its sector-leading focus on customer care and service, offering an entirely holistic approach, which has seen the Manchester-based business grow into a market leading BTR operator.

Michael Howard, founder and managing director of urbanbubble, said: “Our long-stated ambition to be the greatest residential property manager is being driven by our values-driven ethos of putting our customers at the heart of everything we do.

“urbanbubble’s partnership with Legal & General combines our commitment to the highest quality property management with Legal & General’s unerring focus on long-term management of blue-chip property assets to make our cities and towns better places to live.”

Dan Batterton, BTR Fund Manager at LGIM Real Assets, said: “We are pleased to be extending our partnership with urbanbubble, who are providing best in class management for our residents as we seek to improve standards across the rental market.

“urbanbubble shares our vision of providing homes for each individual rather than a one-size-fits-all flat to rent. This new level of service allowsfor all types of tenants’ needs and gives them choice. This new standard will help make renting an active option for those looking for a new home.”

Shortlist announced for 2018 Manchester Hoteliers’ Association Annual Ball and Awards

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The shortlist has now been announced for the 15th Manchester Hoteliers’ Association Annual Ball and Awards.

Nine awards will be handed out during an event at The Principal Hotel next month which celebrates Manchester’s dynamic and diverse hospitality offer.

More than 600 people from the region’s industry are expected to attend the evening on Friday, 26 October, with The Greatest Showman being the theme for the event.

New category Outstanding Contribution to Hospitality is one of the awards that will be given out.

In the running are Helen Hipkiss, The Lowry Hotel, Michelle Muirhead, Pendulum Hotel & Manchester Conference Centre and Paul Burton, Hilton Manchester Deansgate & Airport.

Other awards include Rising Star, which sees Aidan Hull, Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre, Alex Platt, DoubleTree by Hilton-Manchester Piccadilly, Maketa Solcanska, The Lowry Hotel and Videlina Gurgova of Pendulum Hotel & Manchester Conference Centre all shortlisted.

The Top team award will go to either the Commercial Team, The Mere Golf Resort and Spa, Conference and Banqueting Team, The Principal Hotel or the Hotel Football Team, Hotel Football.

Winners of six other categories, Back of House Customer Service, Bright Idea Award, Front of House Customer Service, Mentor of the Year, Unsung Hero Award and Young Chef of the Year, will also be revealed on the night.

Manchester Hoteliers’ Association (MHA) Chair Adrian Ellis congratulated those shortlisted by judges and praised all entrants from the region’s hospitality and tourism who entered the fiercely contested categories.

“The 15th MHA Annual Ball and Awards is upon us and we are looking forward to some great people coming together to celebrate the great offer that exists here in Manchester.

“Our aim is to raise in excess of £35,000 for our chosen charities which are Breast Cancer Care, The Christie, Hospitality Action and Mustard Tree.”

He added: “With the theme for the event being The Greatest Showman, we’re also expecting to have a lot of fun, which is important.

“I’m sure all who attend will have a memorable evening and I wish those shortlisted all the very best and would also like to thank everyone who submitted entries in 2018.”

WhiteNoise Media creates winter TV campaign for Super Break

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Manchester-based video marketing agency WhiteNoise Media continues its relationship with short break specialist Super Break, with the launch of a winter TV commercial to promote winter holidays to Iceland.

Having launched a successful campaign with Super Break earlier this year on a series of videos to promote overseas charters, WhiteNoise Media was approached to handle the company’s next TV campaign.

The advert is designed to encourage sales for Super Break’s North Iceland short winter and Christmas breaks, with Super Break being the first company to offer direct flights to Akureyri from the UK.

It features footage shot across North Iceland, including stunning landscapes, whales in the wild, the Christmas House, Northern Lights and thermal outdoor spa pools. It will run on ITV and Channel 4 from September 3rd, capturing viewer attention in time to book winter excursions.

Katherine Scott, spokesperson for Super Break, said: “It has been fantastic to work with WhiteNoise Media on our latest TV campaign which showcases just a selection of the experiences and stunning landscapes in North Iceland. Our Icelandic breaks offer an incredibly unique experience for our customers and the advert really brings this to life in an inspirational and exciting way.”

Lee Holdsworth, CEO and founder at WhiteNoise Media said: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Super Break again and help them showcase such a beautiful and diverse travel destination. We’ve worked with them previously on producing online content so it’s great to strengthen our working partnership with their latest TV campaign.”

Altrincham law firm named in list of highest achievers for national charity campaign

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A law firm based in Altrincham has raised over £4,500 for charity, after taking part in a will-writing campaign. The campaign asks solicitors to waive their fees to write wills for local people in return for a voluntary donation.

Price Slater Gawne Solicitors have taken part in the annual Will Aid scheme and raised an impressive £4,785 in the month-long fundraiser. This is the first time they have taken part in Will Aid and they were the 2nd highest fundraising firm in Cheshire for 2017.

Melanie Byrne, from the firm commented: “Our team has thoroughly enjoyed participating in Will Aid.

“Will Aid allows us to help nine of the UK’s best-loved charities to transform the lives of children, their families and whole communities, as well as ensuring the security of their own loved ones.

“We are happy to donate our time towards Will Aid. It is a great way of generating a link with new clients. We would recommend that other law firms get involved.

“We are delighted to be involved again this year and encourage those interested in making a will during Will Aid month, to contact us to book an appointment”

Karen Jones from the British Red Cross paid the firm a visit to present them with a certificate.

She said: “We are very grateful to Price Slater Gawne Solicitors and the Will Aid scheme for this generous contribution.

“The Red Cross uses donations to reach people in crisis, here in the UK and all around the world.

“£300 could feed ten families in Syria for a month. £80 could help train four people in life-saving first aid skills here in the UK. And with £1,000 our UK volunteers could give five people the support they need to readjust to life at home following a spell in hospital.”

Lawyers wrote dozens of wills during the month of November, generously giving their time for free for the whole month.

Will Aid, which is celebrating its 30th year since launching, is a charity will-writing scheme that raises money for nine wonderful charities: ActionAid, British Red Cross, Christian Aid, NSPCC, Save The Children, Sightsavers, Age UK, SCIAF (Scotland) and Trocaire (Northern Ireland).

Peter de Vena Franks, campaign director for Will Aid said: “Will Aid has made an amazing contribution to the work of the nine participating charities and last year was no exception. Thanks to the commitment of local solicitors that took part in this year’s Will Aid, many people both in the UK and abroad will receive life-changing support and local people who used the scheme have the peace of mind thanks to having a professionally drawn up will.

“I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to Price Slater Gawne Solicitors and let them know that thanks to them, lives will change for the better and people who need it will continue to receive the help and support that the charities work so hard to provide.”

Superheroes and Pink Ladies help Hurst raise £4,800 for charity

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Superheroes, super-fit cyclists and the Pink Ladies and T Birds from the hit movie Grease helped accounting and business advisory firm HURST to raise nearly £5,000 in a charity challenge.

Six teams of staff each undertook an activity for the day to raise money for MedEquip4Kids, HURST’s charity of the year.

More than 40 people took part in the activities, including chief executive Tim Potter, partners, managers and PAs.

The 2018 HURST Charity Challenge saw staff dressed as superheroes such as Batman and Superman posing for selfies with members of the public in Stockport town centre.

Another team collected old mobile phones and ran a face painting, cake sale and tombola stall in the town centre, while nearby a team ran a raffle.

One group offered a car wash and valet service from HURST’s Stockport office car park while another, dressed as Grease characters, washed cars from the premises of HURST clients HMG Paints and Acrobat Carbon Services, in Manchester, Middleton and Ashton-under-Lyne.

The team which raised the most money, £1,500 in total, undertook a static cycle challenge at The Gym Stockport Redrock. They completed the equivalent of seven laps of the M60 – each 58km long – in under six hours while collecting donations.

HURST partner Simon Brownbill, the firm’s director of practice development, said: “We’re delighted with the result of our first charity fundraising day of this kind and we are grateful to everyone who supported our teams to help make the event such a huge success.

“Along with raising a fantastic amount of money, we were able to get involved with the community and spread the word about the great work that MedEquip4Kids does for our local hospitals.”

MedEquip4Kids raises money to provide paediatric medical equipment and facilities for hospitals and community health teams that are not funded by the NHS.

HURST aimed to raise £7,000 this year but has now smashed the target with the total currently at £9,200.

A group from the firm recently completed the Three Peaks Challenge of climbing the highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales in under 24 hours, while fundraising events still to come include HURST’s annual corporate football tournament.

Horwich Farrelly announces ‘un-belizeable’
prize for two employees

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Horwich Farrelly, leading specialist insurance law firm, is sending two colleagues to Central America after setting its 750 employees a unique challenge to come up with creative ways to beat plastic pollution. Litigation Executive, Joanne Brehaut, and Legal Support Team Administrator, Briony Martin, will shortly be travelling to Belize to learn more about ecology and the damage plastics are causing to oceans and wildlife, after impressing a panel of judges with their innovative approaches to reducing their household plastic consumption.

In June, Horwich Farrelly made a pledge to eliminate single-use plastics across the firm by 2020. And to launch the initiative a month-long competition was set challenging its people to improve their own sustainability.

The competition was recently judged by Thomas Reynard, Chief Operating Officer at Horwich Farrelly, Wendy Mitchell from B&M Waste, and Kate Hadfield from sustainable design agency, Carbon Creative. The panel were impressed by the level of employee engagement right across the firm, as well as the quality of the entries, which included original poetry, collages made from discarded stationery and an advertising campaign. However, the judges unanimously selected submissions from two colleagues based at the firm’s Manchester headquarters to win the all-expenses paid trip to Belize.

In her excellent and thought-provoking blog, The Fortnight Challenge, Briony Martin documented a new way of dealing with plastic every day over a two week period. This included upcycling containers into plant pots and bird feeders, and chopping up meat and veg trays, which are notoriously difficult to recycle, to create pellets to improve soil drainage. The judges felt Briony’s blog ‘demonstrated fantastic levels of innovation and creativity.

Joanne’s short film Plastic Pollution Project explored simple ways her household was able to reduce plastic waste. Her strategy included buying unwrapped vegetables at the greengrocer’s, swapping bottled toiletries for shampoo and conditioner bars, and even roping in her mum to make her own reusable bin liners. Judges were impressed with how simple changes to her daily routine, such as combining her daily dog walk with collecting litter in her local area, had a real impact on cleaning up her local community.

Joanne and Briony will travel to Belize in the autumn where they will be able to learn more about ecology, water conservation and see at first hand the harm plastic is doing to our oceans and sea life. Living in a simple beach camp, they will also have the opportunity to snorkel daily as well as delivering education to local communities and taking part in beach clean ups.

Thomas Reynard, Chief Operating Officer at Horwich Farrelly, commented: “As a firm we’re already making great progress when it comes to our pledge to eliminate single-use plastics by 2020. For example, by giving all our people a reusable water bottle we’ve reduced the need for an estimated 100,000 single-use plastic cups each year. This competition takes things even further, enabling us to engage with our people on the important topic of reducing plastic use and beating plastic pollution in a fun and creative way.

“I would like to thank the other judges for supporting this initiative. We were all overwhelmed by the response, with so many creative ideas and entries from colleagues across the business. Briony and Joanne are more than worthy winners and we look forward to waving them off later this year, for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in conservation efforts on the beaches of Belize. At the end of their trip, I’m sure they’ll return to the firm bursting with advice on what we can all do to continue to reduce our plastic usage.”

Joanne said: “I am very passionate about reducing our impact on the environment and animal welfare so I really wanted to do something that would leave a lasting impression and hopefully inspire others to make simple changes, which is why I came up with easy ways to reduce your impact that anyone could adapt to. I am looking forward to meeting some really inspiring people both at the camp and locals from the area.”

Briony added: “I’m hoping I’ll be able to see and learn about as many species as possible whilst also helping to document and protect them. I did my degree in Zoology and really care about the environment so this is such an exciting trip for me”

Shopping centre manager celebrates her first year at Spinning Gate Shopping Centre

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Karen Cox, Centre Manager of the Spinning Gate Shopping Centre in Leigh is celebrating her first year anniversary in post.

Karen has been in the Shopping Centre industry for over 20 years, when her career began as Centre Administrator at The Galleries Shopping Centre in Wigan.  Karen enjoyed a number of roles and successes during her time at The Galleries, having achieved a number of national marketing awards.  After a successful career in shopping centre management in her home town, Karen was appointed Events Manager at intu Trafford Centre, where she had sole responsibility for the annual events program.

Following this post, Karen then took up a position as Business Support Manager at intu Trafford Centre, forming a brand new department which provided support to the 15 operational departments on site.  Having successfully formed the Business Support team, it was then time for her next career move; managing the Spinning Gate Shopping Centre which Karen took up position as CM 12 months ago.

Spinning Gate Shopping Centre comprises of 110,000sq of retail space in Leigh Town Centre with 40 retail units contained within the ground floor mall.  The shopping centre is active on social media, with almost 8k followers on Facebook and 3k followers on Twitter .  The centre has recently introduced Instagram to add to its social media platforms and is benefitting from showcasing the centre and its retail partners too.

Karen said: “The past 12 months have gone so quickly, it feels like only yesterday since my first day on site!  With Christmas around the corner, we will shortly be sharing the details of our Christmas campaign along with details of our new Christmas decorations too.  Retail is an ever evolving environment and we are really excited to see what the next year will bring.”

New Head of Lending to lead GC Business Finance into fresh era of growth

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Manchester based responsible finance provider GC Business Finance has appointed Chris Hutchison as Head of Lending to drive growth and awareness of its loan and investment products and services.

Chris joins GC Business Finance, which is part of The Growth Company, from RBS Group, bringing over 30 years’ experience in commercial banking, asset finance and SME support to his new role.

Chris will be responsible for delivering growth in the lending and management of the £160m GC Business Finance loan portfolio, across a mix of products including Start Up Loans, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, GC Angels and business growth loans. Providing loans and investments between £500 and £500k, GC Business Finance has supported thousands of the North West’s fastest growing and most visible new businesses including Zeal Creative, Seven Bro7hers brewery and Brighter World Energy.

Chris said: “GC Business Finance is one of the country’s most respected alternative finance providers, working with and funding thousands of businesses that would otherwise simply not exist. What we have to offer is a unique ladder of finance that helps businesses of all sizes to grow and transition at the many different stages in their life, whether they need angel investors to back a life changing medical device, support to quickly capitalise on an export opportunity or start-up funding to launch a new venture.

“My role within the team will be to grow our reputation even further, proactively building awareness of our services across an ever evolving and expanding audience – from the banks and LEPS to start-up networks and influencers.”

Paul Breen, Director of GC Business Finance, said: “Chris has spent the past three decades working at the heart of commercial finance and SME support and will be a huge asset to our team. He understands what makes SMEs and start-ups tick and just how vital flexible and responsive funds are in helping pre-start, start-up and existing businesses grow.”

Established in 2002 and part of the Growth Company, GC Business Finance provides alternative business finance options for growing businesses that have been unable to obtain funding through a mainstream lender. Outside the North West GC Business Finance is a national back office provider for the Start Up Loans Scheme.