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Henry Boot Developments announces new MD

Sam Whitear
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Henry Boot Developments (HBD), which has an office in Manchester, has appointed Ed Hutchinson as Managing Director following 14 years with the business.

Ed joined HBD in 2004 as a Project Manager and was appointed a Board Director eight years later. He replaces David Anderson, who announced his resignation in July. To ensure a smooth handover, he will work closely with David during the coming months prior to David’s departure.

John Sutcliffe, CEO of Henry Boot PLC, said: “Ed has been an intrinsic part of HBD’s executive team for many years now, during which time he has made a tremendous contribution to the business and will continue to do so in his new role.

“Ed inherits a robust business, backed by a talented and experienced team of senior directors who have worked together for many years.  Under Ed’s leadership they will continue to deliver great schemes for our clients into the future.”

Ed commented: “The business is in great shape. Having been with HBD for 14 years, six of those as a Director, it’s a business I know incredibly well, and I look forward to picking up the mantle and continuing to focus on growing what is an impressive and diverse development pipeline.”

HBD, the development arm of Henry Boot PLC, is currently working with a commercial development pipeline of over £1bn, spanning the UK. In its interim results announcement last week, the Group revealed a pre-tax profit of £26.2m for the six months to 30 June 2018, up from £22.6m a year earlier. Revenue for the period is also up, while net debt has fallen by 58%.

WaterAid Appoints Manchester Agency as Global Web Development Partner

Sam Whitear
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Manchester based creative and digital agency Access has been appointed by international non-profit organisation WaterAid as its global web development partner.

The appointment follows a competitive four-way pitch for both the charity’s ongoing platform support and future digital design, development and project work, including the growth of its current digital portfolio from seven member sites and three country sites to more than 40 sites and nine microsites in the next three years.

Access was awarded both areas of work based on its Drupal development expertise and track record of creating highly engaging digital experiences.

Operating across 35 countries, WaterAid helps transform lives by getting water, toilets and hygiene to people living without these basic human rights. It was established in 1981 by the UK water industry before becoming an independent charity, and has so far reached 25.8 million people with clean water and 25.1 million with decent toilets.

As its global web development partner, Access will be responsible for the development, governance and deployment of all websites and microsites across the entire global operation, working towards WaterAid’s ambition for everyone, everywhere to have clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene by 2030.

The agency will also expand WaterAid’s current Drupal websites, adding more country sites and a range of microsites, and further develop the WASH Matters site, which provides reports, research and insight to the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector.

Temina Milovanovic, Digital Marketing & Product Lead for WaterAid, said: “Our digital platform is a core element of our entire global operation, communicating the vital work we’re doing as well as facilitating ongoing fundraising from all around the world.

“We launched a new Drupal website in the UK in 2017 and more Drupal sites are now being rolled out for the countries in which we work. The next phase is to further enhance the performance of the website, and develop new features that will bring our supporters closer to our work.

“User experience is a fundamental element of our digital performance, making it as easy as possible to take action and see the results of their support. Access’ best practice UX and development capabilities were a key factor in our agency choice.

“Continued investment in our digital capabilities will ensure we maintain the high levels of support we provide to those most in need, garnering support from both consumers and businesses to either participate in our events or volunteer.”

Temina continued: “Access demonstrated exceptional experience and expertise in Drupal web development. This was coupled with their flexible and versatile approach, important for our organisation’s culture and structure.”

Simon Landi, Managing Director of Access, said: “Working alongside Acquia we will provide a holistic approach to developing and maintaining the web platform’s architecture and integrity. We’ve already completed a technical audit of the site and will commence our wider support with immediate effect. We also have a number of broader projects in plan to help to improve the site performance, conversion and achieve WaterAid’s long term digital ambitions.

“This is an exciting win for the agency and we are looking forward to working with WaterAid to further raise their standards across their digital portfolio.”

Access will be responsible for the day-to-day performance of WaterAid’s global digital platforms, providing technical support and proactive development work, as well as managing integration with third parties.

The agency’s remit is to also support and implement WaterAid’s new digital campaigns. It will see Access plan, design, implement UX best practice, and the build the website components of the campaigns.

The Food Porn Awards invites eateries to enter this year’s competition

Sam Whitear
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Eateries from across the North of England have the opportunity to enter this year’s Food Porn Awards from 27th August 2018.

Celebrating the region’s best-looking food, entries close on the 10th October, with chefs, restaurants, bars, pubs and eateries encouraged to submit images of their most mouth-watering dishes in order to be in with a chance of winning the coveted 2019 award.

This year, the awards are open to culinary creations that fall under the categories of Fine Dining, Casual Dining, Street Eats and Desserts. The curators of the Food Porn Awards, Shoot the Moon will have the challenging task of selecting the 12 finalists.

The finalists will move through to the live cook-off round, with the expert food Photographers at STM Photography, to capture images of their dishes before the entries are revealed to the industry judges for them to make their final decisions.

A select panel of expert judges will come together to select the winners from each category, with a public vote determining the winner of the People’s Choice Award, allowing the public to have their say and support their favourite eateries. The final winners of the prestigious award are to be announced in February 2019. Previous winners include former MasterChef winner Chef Simon Wood and Chef Dave Coulson who recently represented the North East on BBC’s Great British Menu.

The inaugural Food Porn Awards took place in 2016 and following on from its continued success, has returned for a fourth year in its search to find the region’s finest culinary creations. This year, the awards launch a food news site, as an evolution of their ever-growing involvement in the Northern food scene.

Phil Marshall, STM managing director and curator of the Food Porn Awards, said: “The Food Porn Awards are based solely on mutual publicity for the region’s food community. With cross-regional press coverage, an expansive social reach, publicity through the awards ceremony and wide distribution of video content & stunning imagery, there’s every reason to be involved.”

“The quality of entries we received last year was outstanding and judging by developments in the Northern food scene, this year’s entries will be even stronger. We know there is a lot of talent in the North and we look forward to showcasing this at this year’s Food Porn Awards.”

New appointments at Markel Law

Sam Whitear
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Markel Law, the independent solicitors firm owned by Markel, a leading specialist insurance provider, has made two appointments in its Manchester office.

Karen Parry has joined the firm as a solicitor in the commercial property department. Karen has worked in commercial property since 2002. Her area of expertise includes landlord and tenant matters (including acting for landlords in respect of their lease management requirements covering large property portfolios including office, retail and industrial premises), acquisitions and disposals, site assembly for development schemes, development work generally, secured lending and the property aspects of corporate acquisitions and disposals.

Soibi Iketubosin has joined the firm as a corporate and commercial solicitor. He advises individuals and businesses in relation to a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, distribution agreements, standard terms and conditions for the supply of services and goods on both a business-to-business and business-to-consumer basis.

Commenting on the appointments Graham Neyt, managing director of Markel Law, said: “I am pleased to welcome Karen and Soibi to the Markel Law family and I am confident that their experience, enthusiasm and know-how will be a tremendous asset to our company. As we continue to grow and evolve as a business, they will strengthen our focus of delivering the best value and services for our customers.”

 

Salford social supermarket expands with support from the Edward Holt Trust

Sam Whitear
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Lucie’s Pantry social supermarket, based at homelessness charity Emmaus Salford, will double its capacity thanks to a £66k grant from the Edward Holt Trust.

Lucie’s Pantry provides a sustainable and affordable source of food and household essentials to members of the Pendleton community struggling to make ends meet through debt, illness or low income. The Edward Holt Trust grant of £22k per year for three years (subject to annual review), will enable Lucie’s Pantry to increase its membership from 80 to 160 households, supporting up to 800 people in Salford.

The Edward Holt Trust originated in a 1955 endowment from Sir Edward Holt, owner of Manchester’s Joseph Holt brewery and Great Uncle of Richard Kershaw, the current Chairman of the Trustees and Chief Executive of Joseph Holt’s.

Richard commented: “We are delighted to support this excellent project which enables Emmaus to provide a greatly improved service within Salford. The endowment by Sir Edward Holt was to help support the local community and expanding Lucie’s pantry certainly hits the spot.”

Pat Ekins was formerly a member of the Emmaus Salford community – a charity which offers support to people who have experienced homelessness. Pat recently moved in to her own flat and thanks to the support from the Edward Holt Trust, is now employed full-time as Project Manager at Lucie’s Pantry.

Pat said: “It’s massive what the Edward Holt Trust has done for us to allow Lucie’s Pantry to expand. There are so many people out there who’ve not got enough money, they’re not eating properly and it’s heart breaking.

“We’ve got a long waiting list so with the support from the Edward Holt Trust we can get more people signed up and benefitting from Lucie’s Pantry.”

The social supermarket model is different to food banks. People who want to use the social supermarket become members of Lucie’s Pantry. Members pay £2.50 per week and are able to choose items to the value of approximately £15.

Simon Locke, Community Director at Emmaus Salford, said: “We are extremely grateful to the Edward Holt Trust for their generous support to enable Lucie’s Pantry to help even more people and families across Salford.

“Food poverty, or food insecurity, is a growing issue affecting many people in communities up and down the country. What we try to do with Lucie’s Pantry is break the stigma and offer great food for great people who are struggling to make ends meet.”

Cabinet Office renews emergency response contract with UKFast

Sam Whitear
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Following an open tender competition through the Digital Marketplace, the Cabinet Office has signed a renewed contract with UKFast’s public sector department for the delivery of a private cloud platform for ResilienceDirect, which supports effective response to incidents like natural disasters, terror attacks and power outages.

The secure platform delivers a suite of capabilities to prepare, exercise, respond and recover, supporting a co-ordinated and efficient response linking the national tier Government Departments COBR and the local emergency services working collaboratively with local councils, utility providers and many other sectors.

The British hosting firm won the initial two-year contact in 2016 and the extension gives the Cabinet Office access to UKFast’s industry leading government hosting services and round-the-clock support for another year, with the option of a further year’s extension.

Luana Avagliano, head of ResilienceDirect, said: “UKFast won the contract by being open, honest and proactive. The team are excellent at exploring how to maximise private cloud to make sure we are getting value for money.

“UKFast is a truly innovative company and delivers solutions to the challenges we face. Disaster recovery, for example, is expensive but we need to have that capability to allow failover. UKFast not only provide gold standard disaster recovery but our dedicated team are constantly rechecking infrastructure, security and assurances.

“We have to be as secure as anyone can possibly be – UKFast are the best in their league and really help to keep the UK safe.”

More than 36,000 users are currently registered on the platform, spread across more than 3,500 organisations. ResilienceDirect needed a solution to provide the scalability to cope with a huge spike in users logging onto the platform and sharing vast amounts of data during an emergency situation.

Steve Jewell, head of UKFast Public Sector, said: “It’s a huge honour to be given this renewed responsibility and to continue to support the government on such a critical project. It’s testament to the huge investment we’ve put into UKFast’s public sector capability in recent years.”

“We have developed a fantastic partnership with the ResilienceDirect team and know their systems well. By working closely with the whole network of co-suppliers we are able to support the whole resilience community.”

UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones said: “The government is doing incredible work to bring in more sophisticated systems in the face of modern-day terrorism and an ever-evolving list of threats. Using a cutting-edge cloud platform is the natural way to do that.

“We’re ensuring the government knows there is a British cloud option aligned to the needs of the people of this country. Government needs to know where its data is and values having people at the end of a telephone day and night to support them when they need it most.”

UKFast is a government approved supplier through the G-Cloud 10 framework and delivers services to the MoD, NHS, emergency services, education and both local and central government.

Footy Accumulators and Altrincham FC tackle Motor Neurone Disease together

Sam Whitear
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Following Footy Accumulators recent sponsorship of Altrincham FC seeing Altrincham FC’s main stand at the J.Davidson Stadium being renamed the ‘FootyAccumulators.com’ stand, Footy Accumulators have also joined the club in a mission to support Motor Neurone Disease.

Former Robins captain Mark Maddox was told at the age of 37 that he was diagnosed with the disease which would’ve been such crushing news, but that hasn’t stopped him going and achieving incredible things. He ran the London Marathon on behalf of the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND) back in 2013, raising an incredible £5000. Now Footy Accumulators, together with Altrincham FC want to help the MND Association in their battle against the illness with a current Robins hero.

Jordan Hulme scored 31 goals for Altrincham last season leading their way to winning the Northern Premier League Premier Division title and he’s a firm favourite with the club’s supporters. He’s made the step up to the National League North with ease too, netting 4 times in his opening 4 games, which has led to Footy Accumulators making a pledge.

Altrincham director Lawrence Looney, who was a key player in setting up the sponsorship deal, said: “This innovative collaboration is the first of its type for Altrincham Football Club & represents a very real opportunity to create, develop & grow commercial opportunities for both partners.”

For every goal that Jordan scores this season, Footy Accumulators will donate £50 to the MND Association via their official JustGiving page. The Motor Neurone Disease Association does some fantastic work and with it so close to Altrincham FC, it feels right that they support their efforts.

Local carpet company floors it

Sam Whitear
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Bury-based The Cormar Carpet Company is celebrating an awards double, adding a further pair of accolades to its growing list of industry honours.

Voted for by leading trade magazine ‘The Stocklists’, Cormar has picked up two Golds in the Flooring Innovation Awards, which recognise everything that’s new, exciting and innovative in the UK floorcoverings sector. It follows a run of industry wins that include Best Carpet Manufacturer and two Supplier of the Year awards.

Cormar’s industry-leading online trade portal, which allows flooring retailers to stock check, order online and manage payments, was awarded Gold in the Services category.

It also scooped Gold in ‘Marketing’ for its recent brand relaunch and new consumer website. The company’s brand new look – the first in over a quarter of a century – was a significant investment in moving the business forward and has been backed with a new website that has been re-engineered and re-designed to inspire and motivate consumers.

“Once again, everyone at Cormar is to be congratulated,” said David Judge, managing director at Cormar. “Awards such as these are won by a whole team of people whose efforts contribute to the quality of our offering and the efficiency of our customer service.

“We’ve had a very busy year launching our new brand identity and overhauling all our marketing collateral, all while ensuring we keep our exacting standards in our products and services. So it’s been fantastic to be rewarded by our industry with these accolades.”

TIP grows its relationship with Huntapac in new five trailer deal

Sam Whitear
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Fourth generation family company Huntapac Produce Ltd has recently taken delivery of five brand-new 13.4m Gray & Adams single temperature refrigerated trailers from TIP Trailer Services as part of a seven-year deal that includes full repair and maintenance of the Carrier trailer fridge systems.

The decision by Huntapac to acquire these latest trailers from TIP follows on from the service they received last Christmas from TIP, who supplied a number of refrigerated trailers in an emergency situation to assist with increased demand during the Christmas peak period. The subsequent five-trailer deal is the first time that Huntapac has worked with TIP on new trailer supply.

“We were really impressed by the quality of service we received from TIP during the Christmas peak period, so when we were looking at a possible alternative supplier of trailers for our fleet we decided to place this order with TIP based on their previous excellent service. We have been particularly impressed by the quality of the account management from TIP and the relationship between the two companies has worked really well so far,” said Will Hunter, operations director at Huntapac Produce Ltd.

All five G&A refrigerated trailers feature Carrier Vector trailer refrigeration systems and are expected to cover in excess of 120,000 km per annum over their seven-year life in the Huntapac fleet.

Huntapac Produce Ltd was established over 75 years ago and is one of the largest and most successful root producers in the UK, employing over 500 staff and running a fleet of 60 tractor units, 80 fridge trailers and 50 bulk trailers. With its head office in Preston, Lancashire, Huntapac supplies many of the major supermarkets in the UK, as well as independent retailers, wholesalers, food service companies, caterers and food manufacturing operations.

“Under the leadership of Warren Hunter, Huntapac Produce has grown significantly in recent times and its distinctive trailers are an everyday sight on our roads. We are really pleased to have had the opportunity to work closely with them on this new trailer deal, which allows us to demonstrate the effectiveness of the TIP customer service operation. We are looking forward to developing a strong and effective working relationship between our two companies over the full duration of this trailer contract,” said Mike Furnival, managing director, TIP Trailer Services UK & I.

Luxury dog bedding company Charley Chau shortlisted in The 2018 NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards

Sam Whitear
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North West based luxury dog bedding company Charley Chau has been shortlisted for the 2018 NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards in the Family Business Entrepreneur of the Year category.

Christine and Jenny Chau, the two sisters behind Charley Chau, have beat off some tough competition in order to make the shortlist, with a record number of businesses entering the awards nationally across the wide range of categories.

Now in its sixth year, the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards has celebrated some amazing entrepreneurs over the years, many of whom are now household names. Past winners include David Buttress of Just Eat, Julie Deane OBE of The Cambridge Satchel Company, James Watt of BrewDog and most recently, Hannah and Sophie Pycroft of Spectrum Collections.

Co-Founder Christine Chau said: “I am thrilled to bits that Jenny and I have been shortlisted for the Family Business Entrepreneur of the Year category in the 2018 NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. We never dreamed that an afternoon spent making our first dog bed on the sitting room floor would lead to us founding and running Charley Chau together. Setting up Charley Chau and growing this business with my sister has been an incredible experience. I left the security of a long-term career and six-figure salary for no income and an uncertain future and it has been scary at times, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I am so proud of what we’ve achieved together. We are so lucky to have created a successful business based on our love for dogs.”

Founded in 2010, after endless frustrating searches for comfortable, stylish dog beds for their own Italian Greyhounds, the Manchester-based sisters have attracted legions of Charley Chau devotees and now have happy customers in over forty-five countries around the world.

Creator of the Awards, Francesca James, said: “We have been inundated with some incredible entries this year, and all shortlisted applicants should be extremely proud of themselves! This year has yet again seen a record number of entrants and we’ve been absolutely blown away by the strength and diversity of applications.”

“We cannot wait to celebrate entrepreneurship across Great Britain with them and put a spotlight on the incredible talent within the British entrepreneur ecosystem.”

Gordon Merrylees, Head of Entrepreneurship at NatWest, said: “Following another record-breaking year, I want to thank all of the entrepreneurs who entered and congratulate those who have been shortlisted, I look forward to seeing them at the regional finals.”

“Entrepreneurial spirit is still clearly alive and well, and NatWest is thrilled to be able to continue to support these awards to celebrate success with the businesses that are the lifeblood of the UK Economy as they start, scale and succeed.”

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