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Tuesday, August 19, 2025
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Senior management team strengthened to support ambitious growth plans at Stewart Milne Group

Sam Whitear
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Manchester-based, Stewart Milne Group has appointed a Chief Operating Officer to further strengthen the senior management team as it gears up for a new period of growth.

Stuart MacGregor, formerly Group Finance Director, will take up the newly created post of Chief Operating Officer following a review of the overall group structure. In his new role, Mr MacGregor will work closely with the Group’s Chief Executive, Glenn Allison, with responsibility for managing all aspects of the group’s activities and in particular, overseeing ambitious growth plans across all its business operations.

The independent, award-winning housebuilder and timber systems manufacturer has seen substantial growth in house building activity and timber frame sales over the last two years and currently has a turnover of around £300milion.

The group’s homes businesses in Central Scotland and North-west England continue to perform strongly and, with the North-east of Scotland property market picking up, Stewart Milne Homes North Scotland is also showing positive signs for the current year and beyond.

Stewart Milne Timber System, now the UK housebuilding industry’ leader in modern methods of construction, has seen a significant rise in sales over the last three years which is forecast to increase further due to the continued demand for new housing across the UK.

Glenn Allison, chief executive of Stewart Milne Group said: “Stuart has made a huge contribution to realising the group’s growth strategy and has played a critical role in delivering innovative funding partnerships with the UK Treasury and Homes England which have helped facilitate this success.

“His proven commercial skills, combined with his extensive financial knowledge and business experience, make him the obvious choice to support me in delivering our growth ambitions.”

Mr MacGregor joined Stewart Milne Group in April 2015 after a 15-year career with Heineken where he held a number of senior finance roles in the UK and across Europe. Latterly he held the position of Global Business Control Director at Heineken’s head-quarters in Amsterdam where he was responsible for the finances of the central functions of the group. During his time with the global brewer he also worked in Belgium, Portugal and Finland and has a proven track record in driving profitable and sustainable business growth.

Mr MacGregor said: “It has been hugely enjoyable and rewarding to work with Glenn and the team in the last three years. As a result of the decisions we’ve taken to invest in strong performing markets, the business is now well positioned for sustainable growth. I am excited about accepting wider responsibility within Stewart Milne Group and look forward to working with the entire team to drive the business forward.”

Heaton & Partners expands into the North of England

Sam Whitear
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Heaton & Partners, the prominent London and country property search agency, which was established four years ago, has expanded into the north of England by merging with renowned residential expert, Phil Martin of AcQuire Property. This will see Heaton & Partners now cover prime northern property hotspots including Cheshire, Manchester, Liverpool and the Lake District.

Martin worked for the original Garrington Home Finders alongside Phil Spencer, of TV’s “Location, Location, Location” programme for five years from 2004, then the follow-on company Garrington Property Finders before he set up AcQuire in 2015. Martin specialises in acting for buyers in prime residential property acquisition, ranging from luxury city centre apartments, through property investment portfolios to multimillion pound country houses. Prior to this, Martin held a career in IS/IT, with senior roles at global companies including IBM, Ernst & Young and Reebok International.

Martin will work with Edward Heaton, founder of Heaton & Partners, to grow the property investment side of the business, encouraging clients to focus on key northern cities such as Manchester and Liverpool as well as Prime Central London. Rents are forecast to grow by 7 per cent in London but by almost 18 per cent in the next five years in Manchester and Liverpool*.

Phil Martin, now a partner at Heaton & Partners, comments: “This is the time for savvy businesses like Heaton & Partners to look north. The north west has become an increasingly attractive property investment opportunity in the last few years; with Manchester particularly going through a boom. High profile companies are looking to relocate their operations to the north; the expansion of both Manchester and Liverpool airports brings new opportunities from afar, and HS2 will cut travel to London to an hour. I am delighted to be helping Heaton & Partners expand into one of the fastest growing economic regions of the UK outside London.”

Edward Heaton, founder of Heaton & Partners commented: “Having Phil operating in the major Northern hotspots is essential to the future of our business. Until the UK leaves the EU next March, house price growth is expected to continue to be stronger away from higher value areas like London and the south east. More of our clients are now considering the north west as an alternative to London. Interest domestically and from overseas has surged as investors look for alternative investment opportunities outside the capital.”

Drover vehicle subscription launches in Manchester

Sam Whitear
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Drover, the UK’s very first online Netflix style subscription service for cars, has launched in Manchester offering drivers in the area a new way to get a car.

Drover enables customers to pay a monthly online subscription for a vehicle that includes a car, insurance, breakdown cover, servicing and maintenance, road tax and discounted fuel costs at selected fuel partners. Recognising that consumers’ lifestyles are more agile than ever, Drover is offering a genuine alternative for those who may be reluctant to purchase a car outright or who don’t want to commit to a costly, long-term finance plan.

In addition, through its all-inclusive pricing, Drover aims to be completely transparent with customers about costs so they know exactly what they’re signing up for upfront and don’t get stung further down the line. Furthermore, the all-inclusive pricing, which starts at £300 per month, means that the stress and hassle of organising insurance, MOT checks and dealing with breakdowns are all ticked off in advance.

Felix Leuschner, Founder & CEO of Drover, said: “We know that an increasing amount of consumers don’t hold owning a car in the same regard that previous generations did, and many prefer a more flexible option that is suited to their ever-changing lifestyle. Despite this, the car purchase space has seen very little innovation in the past few decades and hasn’t moved accordingly.  As such, it’s clear to see there is a clear gap and that the current options for car ownership are dated.

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At the same time, the subscription market has seen a 100% growth rate every year for the last in the last five years1 because of its emphasis on personalisation and flexibility – companies like Netflix and Class Pass, for example, have seen huge success because they’ve recognised that ultimately, consumers want freedom.

We’re taking the same methodology and applying it to the automotive industry to show that a car doesn’t have to be a huge upfront investment or a stressful long-term commitment and to give consumers an alternative that’s suited for the 21st century. “

By signing up on the Drover website, consumers are able to subscribe to a monthly plan where they can select a vehicle and mileage package to suit them. A range of brands are available to choose from, and customers can either opt for a monthly rolling contract or can commit for a specific time period, which is debited from their bank account each month. Once subscribed, customers can arrange to use their vehicle to be delivered to them by their local car dealer, which typically takes 48 hours.

Initially launching in 2016 for Uber drivers, Drover has already seen rapid growth and success and decided to enter the consumer retail market in February 2018 through a phased launch in London. Since then, Drover has 2,000 active drivers on the platform and has handled over 20,000 bookings.

Continued growth for Join the Dots with £6.41m six-month revenue 

Sam Whitear
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Manchester-headquartered global consumer insight agency, Join the Dots, has released its latest financial figures which show the business generating a revenue of £6.41m in the first six months of 2018 and a 12.7 per cent growth on the same period of 2017.

The figures demonstrate the continued growth of the company which celebrates its 20th year of business this year. Despite experiencing a slower Q1 in 2018 while the company completed its restructure, Q2 quickly gained momentum for the business and has historically been a positive performance indicator for Q3 and Q4.

Commenting on the latest financials, CEO of Join the Dots, Quentin Ashby, said: “Our first half of the year has been a period of encouraging growth in a tough economic climate; we have expanded our team internationally with Mallory Salerno who joined our New York office in May as business development director and in the UK we welcomed Phil Jones as non-executive director in June. These appointments cement our commitment and investment in growing the business’ reach and ensuring we can continue to produce innovative work for both new and existing clients.

“We remain confident in the company’s performance in 2018 and continue to invest in delivering high quality services to our clients and a great place to work for our staff.”

Face for Business celebrates fifth anniversary with the answering of its 750,000th phone call

Sam Whitear
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North West-based, Face for Business, is celebrating its fifth year in business, with the answering of its 750,000th phone call and launch of a new bespoke mobile app.

Founded by husband and wife, Andy and Marie MacGregor, Face for Business makes life easier, for businesses of all sizes, through its personal and cost-effective telephone answering services.

Face for Business provides PA and reception call answering services to hundreds of businesses throughout the UK, from a variety of sectors, and answers, on average, 1,200 calls a day.

Being ISO 9001 accredited, its core team of 20 Lancashire based staff, are highly trained and enthusiastic, handling calls from a wide range of industries, including finance, construction, accountancy and professional services, to name but a few.

To coincide with its fifth anniversary, the company has launched a mobile application, allowing clients to have even better access to their calls and messages as well as having the ability to contact their PA easier. As well as being able to access all calls and messages via their desktop client portal, they can now access all the same functions via their phone.

Andy MacGregor, co-owner, said, “Innovation is at the heart of everything we do, therefore it is appropriate that, on our fifth anniversary, we launch a bespoke mobile application to complement our call handling services.

“Additionally, the answering of our 750,000th client phone call represents a significant milestone for us and demonstrates the marvellous level of growth we have achieved in a relatively short period of time.

“We deliver a personal and tailored call handling service to organisations, both large and small, across the UK, taking the pressure off them and allowing them to focus on delivering their key priorities.

“I would like to thank all of our staff for their hard work, day in and day out, over the past five years. Without their commitment and loyalty, we couldn’t deliver such a consistently high level of service to each of our valued clients.”

Kellogg’s hires new director of UK sales

Sam Whitear
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Kellogg’s has appointed a new UK senior sales director as it seeks to drive sales across its cereal and snacks portfolio. 

Chris Silcock will report directly to Oli Morton, managing director for Kellogg’s UK & Ireland, and will join the senior leadership team in the UK.

 Silcock joins from Coca Cola European Partners where in his role as grocery channel director he helped the business add more retail value growth in 2017 than any other soft drinks manufacturer (+£80m retail sales) and he also led the development and implementation of a new pack and promotional strategy in response to the Government’s soft drinks tax.

In a career spanning various FMCG categories and channels, Silcock has also held roles at Coca Cola Enterprises as a field sales director and worked for Asda Walmart for 13 years in a number of different roles, including as Impulse grocery category director. 

Silcock has a BSc in Management Sciences from UMIST, now The University of Manchester.

He will be based at Kellogg’s new HQ in MediaCityUK from Mid-September.

The appointment follows former senior sales director Oli Morton’s appointment to managing director of the UK and Ireland business. Morton announced a complete overhaul of the company’s cereals at the end of last year. This included reformulation of cereals aimed at children to reduce sugar while maintaining taste. 

Oli Morton said: “Chris is a great leader and we are delighted to welcome him to our leadership team to run our commercial agenda with our trade partners across the UK. His experience at Coco Cola European Partners helping the company navigate the nutrition debate will also be extremely valuable to Kellogg’s as we continue our health and wellbeing leadership journey.”

AKA NORTH on board with Transport for Greater Manchester as new media planning and buying agency

Sam Whitear
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AKA NORTH has announced it has won a major tender to become the media planning and buying agency for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), to promote awareness of core services and support a sustainability strategy for Greater Manchester’s transport network.

AKA NORTH will be responsible for generating brand awareness and delivering a modal shift to sustainable transport modes. It will also support TfGM’s environmental and sustainability initiatives through multi-platform media campaigns and experiential activities, improving customer engagement and enhancing travellers’ experiences throughout Greater Manchester.

AKA NORTH won the contract as part of a comprehensive and competitive tender process. The initial two-year deal, with an option for a further two years, is a significant partnership opportunity and comes on the back of a series of recent client wins for AKA NORTH, including Great Exhibition of the North and National Museums of the Royal Navy.

Mike Mellor, head of commercial and marketing for TfGM, said: “We’re very excited to be working with AKA NORTH as our new media agency partner. They combine the best of two worlds – local insights and knowledge as a Manchester-based company alongside their access to the considerable resources of the wider AKA Group. Throughout the tender process they showed us a range of creative campaign ideas to highlight their understanding of audience behaviour along with their technical knowledge to enhance our brand across traditional and digital platforms.”

Mike continued: “We aim to make the city region a cleaner, greener, and healthier place to live, work, and play in. And we firmly believe that with AKA NORTH’s help we’ll be able to encourage the public to travel sustainably. The agency joins our organisation at a key time as we increase our role in the devolution agenda and build awareness of our growing profile amongst residents and visitors into the area.”

“We’re delighted and proud to partner with TfGM as its new media agency,” added Gillian Thomson-Woolley, managing director AKA NORTH and Scotland. “With over 5.6 million journeys made using Greater Manchester’s transport network each day, AKA NORTH will be responsible for connecting TfGM to a huge audience. We’ll ensure we deliver our blend of impactful media planning alongside our gold-standard client service to deliver a clear return on investment for TfGM.”

Fletchers celebrates £6m business wins and doubles Eccles base

Sam Whitear
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Fletchers Engineering is celebrating £6m of new business and is doubling the size of its Eccles operation.

The engineering solutions company has been appointed by Morrisons Utility Services, to provide service installations for a new battery storage facility in Roosecote, Barrow. The facility, being built for Centrica, will be one of the largest in the UK. Fletchers is delivering stainless steel pipework services, steelwork & prefabricated service modules.

In addition, the team will be providing steelworks, access platforms and cooling systems for two large data centres in the South of England, while closer to home at MediaCity, the company is carrying out an upgrade to a new energy efficient heating system at Victoria Building for Peel.

Finally, retained client David Lloyd has confirmed that Fletchers will be expanding its remit by managing the maintenance of all of its Northern leisure centres on a three-year contract.

Steve Fletcher, MD, commented: “It has been a hugely successful 2018 so far and we are delighted to be working with such high-profile and interesting clients. To help manage the additional work, we have acquired an 18,000 sq ft warehouse close to our current base – we will be looking to expand our 140 strong team and add a new fleet of vehicles in the coming months.”

Buckleigh & Williams Group completes acquisition of Manchester Staff Ltd

Sam Whitear
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Buckleigh & Williams Group, today announced it has completed its acquisition of Manchester Staff Ltd, a vibrant up-and-coming recruitment firm. With Manchester Staff Ltd now part of Buckleigh & Williams, the consultancy will be able to leverage significant levels of resources, resulting in vastly improved time-to-hire rates, and market leading talent search capabilities.

Manchester Staff Ltd, founded in 2016 by Dino Georgiou, already provides a high-quality recruitment service to office-based sectors such as sales; marketing; HR; finance; and office support. As the name suggests, the company works exclusively with businesses in the Greater Manchester region, and focuses on securing local talent for local jobs.

Dino Georgiou commented: “I am delighted to have formed a strategic partnership with Buckleigh & Williams. We have joint vision of delivering significant growth for Manchester Staff and I look forward to working together with Ian and Alex to achieve our objective. Combining a local brand, dedicated to delivering jobs for the people of Manchester, with the resources and talent available at Buckleigh & Williams, we will possess the means to propel Manchester Staff Ltd to the highest levels of service and efficiency.”

Manchester Staff Ltd has seen steady growth over the last twelve months and has laid strong foundations for future success by developing key relationships with local Manchester businesses. Buckleigh & Williams recognized the potential of the recruitment brand and were able to strike a deal and add the business to their portfolio,  providing significant resources and capital.

Ian Buckley, Director of Buckleigh & Williams commented: “We are delighted to have acquired a majority stake in an up-and-coming business like Manchester Staff. We are proud Mancunians and have ambitious plans to re-invest some of the profits back into local community projects. We have a plan in place to fully support this business with the resources it needs to become a local recruitment powerhouse, and contribute to this great city.”

With immediate effect, Manchester Staff Ltd has re-located to the Buckleigh & Williams HQ at Deanway Technology Building 2, Wilmslow Road, Cheshire where it will be primed for rapid expansion with new recruits ready to join the team in September 2018.

Alex Platt, Director of Buckleigh & Williams commented: “Diversifying into new markets is a key growth strategy for us as a business. We feel Manchester Staff Ltd is the right company to invest in and has the potential to achieve our growth targets. To achieve this we will bring specialist recruitment techniques normally utilized in high-end markets such as IT, construction and engineering, to the office support sectors.  Our recruitment capabilities here at Buckleigh & Williams are of the highest standard, and we will integrate our processes and technologies to Manchester Staff seamlessly to deliver results.”

Brabners names Mind as its charity partner for 2018/19

Sam Whitear
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Independent legal practice Brabners, which has a base in Manchester, has named mental health charity Mind as its chosen charity partner for 2018/19 and has kicked off its fundraising target by raising £5,000 from its annual Charity Challenge.

The Charity Challenge took place in the Lake District and is the firm’s first major fundraising initiative of the year.

It saw teams of employees, clients, friends and family race against each other in a series of gruelling challenges. From kayaking more than a mile and a half around Derwentwater lake to cycling up to 37 miles through the Buttermere Valley. This route saw teams climb more than 4,000ft as they cycled the Honister and Whinlatter passes, before participants hiked a further 3,800ft as they ended the challenge with a nine mile fell walk through Outerside, Craig Hill and Sand Hill.

Mind promotes the understanding of mental health issues and provides advice and support to the thousands of people across the UK who need it. This event is just one of many that Brabners’ dedicated charity committee has planned to support Mind and will be followed by a number of sponsored challenges to help the firm beat its annual fundraising target of £25,000. This includes partner Phil Steele running 5km every day for six months.

Lachlan Nisbet, head of the firm’s charity committee, said: “Mind does a tremendous job of providing thousands of individuals across the country, both young and old, with expert support and guidance around mental health issues. We’re extremely proud that the money we’ve raised will provide Mind with the vital funding it needs to carry on supporting those who need its help the most, and we’re looking forward to continuing our support as we work together to raise awareness of such an important cause.”

Sandra Gilbert at Wirral Mind added: “One in four people are affected by mental health issues, so the work we do to encourage open conversation is more important than ever. Events like this not only help us to raise awareness about such an important issue, they ensure the money raised will allow us to continue to provide services to people experiencing distress.

“It’s really encouraging to see firms such as Brabners championing mental health awareness and we hope to see many more follow in their footsteps.”

Over the last 10 years Brabners has raised more than £250,000 for charities including Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Marie Curie, Help for Heroes, Macmillan Cancer Support, Crisis and Guide Dogs UK.

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