Famously described as the “brains and guts” of industrial Britain, Trafford Park remains home to pioneering, industrious & creative companies such as DCB Group which, in part,  has operated there since 1973.

On 18th July the company, which is made up of print management company Print Search, creative and design agency Caspa and print on demand company Aspen, will celebrate its 10th anniversary located in what was the world’s first industrial estate.

The DCB Group was founded in 2008 after an MBO by David Beale who had previously worked in print management since 1996 and had been a director at various print companies including Astron and Office Depot. David announced ambitions to take the business from £3m to £10m and invested over £750k to improve technology and efficiency within Print Search who organise the printing of menus, corporate literature, promotional posters, flyers and other materials plus overseeing the logistics of the likes of the Lowry Theatre, A-plant, NUS, plus a number of Premier League Football Clubs and most recently adding Explore Learning to their key client list.

The acquisition of the creative and design agency Caspa in 2012 enabled the group to go a step further and offer an all-round communications service to allow DCB to offer on-site creative and marketing services to existing clients whilst also having Caspa’s own clients such as Carlsberg. DCB is referred to internally as a ‘Family of Businesses’ and this is how the sister companies relate to each other – the service offerings complement each of the businesses but equally are also capable of standing alone and servicing clients directly with services like leaflet distribution.

Managing Director, Victoria Hart, joined the business in 2000 after previously working at Co-operative Retail as a Supply Chain Project Manager and went on to look after in store digital marketing. Victoria rose steadily through the ranks at DCB Group from Account Manager to Account Director for pubs and restaurants to Client Services Director before being promoted to MD in 2015.

Victoria puts her success down to becoming an expert in her field, learning every day to understand her industry and its future enabling her to talk to clients and peers with facts and confidence. Being a woman in a male dominated sector did not hold Victoria back and she believes her tenacity and ambition was her recipe to success. Her advice to the next generation; “Ask questions – lots of questions.  Respect those that have been in the industry for many years and try and learn as much from them as you can. I would also say to be authentic, believe in yourself and build a good support network around you.”

The DCB Group will celebrate 10 years In July, which is not only a great achievement in itself but a chance to look back and reflect on the last decade and there is a lot to celebrate, including the acquisition of Caspa Marketing and Aspen Manufacturing. Various award wins followed including, most recently, the Best in Small Business Award in 2017. Awards complemented our Quality, Environment and Health & Safety accreditations as part of our long running commitment to be a safe and happy place to work, which was further confirmed with a major refurbishment of the premises.

As July marks 10 years, the DCB Group looks forward and contemplates what the next 5 years will look like. MD Victoria Hart said: “Print will remain a vital industry! In a digital world, printing is as necessary as ever. You only have to look at theatre programmes, football programmes, billboards by the road, labels, posters etc. Print is a fundamental part of daily life and helps lots of other industries to conduct business.” Investments in systems such as the print on demand templating solution means more efficient processes and reduced transactional costs which ultimately leads to a future of happier clients.

Victoria adds “To be honest, I believe there will always be a demand and a place for printed media as people like to look, touch and feel it. Print brings a depth and permanence.”

Key Retirement, the UK’s leading independent adviser for equity release and later life lending, has today rebranded as Key. These changes will be rolled out across all the companies’ assets on a phased basis including the website, customer facing communication and digital channels.

The updated website will include a new ‘discovery zone’ for customers looking to research equity release including a variety of tools such as enhanced calculators, property valuations, online eligibility checkers and plan comparisons. It will also include a myth buster as well as extensive content and help for customers.

This is the start of a brand refresh project for parent company – Key Retirement Group – as it works to bring cohesion to the look and feel of its brands while representing the company’s aspirations in this rapidly growing and changing market.   Further changes will be announced over the next 6 months.

Working closely with McCann Manchester and Start Design, the Group will support this rebrand by unveiling a new eye-catching advertising campaign with the first slot appearing on national TV on 24 July 2018. This advert – which includes the strapline “Good Advice is Key” – is a first for the equity release market as it looks to highlight the vital importance of advice in an entertaining and eye-catching way.

Simon Thompson, Chief Executive Officer at Key Retirement Group, said: “The equity release market is growing and evolving at a phenomenal rate as an increasing number of over-50s realise that they can use housing equity to meet the financial challenges they face.   We need to evolve to meet these needs and highlight our fundamental belief that good advice to key to safe sustainable consumer outcomes.

“We have chosen to kick off our brand refresh project by launching our good advice is key campaign. Retirement is no longer the event that it was 20-years ago when we launched and this change reflects the reality for many of our customers.  We have a real passion for giving high quality advice and we wanted to bring this to life in our advertising. We will be working on making changes to our other brands over the next 6-months as we focus on ensuring we are ideally positioned to take advantage of the opportunities offered by these markets.”

Will Hale, Chief Executive Officer at Key, said: “As a company, we have been pioneers in the equity release market since we launched twenty years ago and we are delighted to unveil our new brand to the market today.  We have worked hard with our agencies to truly define what makes the company a market leader and believe that this rebrand reflects not only our heritage but our evolution.  We look forward to providing our award-winning service to our customers under our exciting new branding.”

Leading medical negligence and serious injury law firm Fletchers Solicitors, has boosted its workforce with 50 new hires over the past 12 months.

The firm, which has offices in Manchester and Southport, has reported a 13 percent increase in staff numbers, taking its workforce from 386 in May 2017 to 436 in June 2018.

The list of appointments has included the high-profile acquisition of Trevor Ward, a senior solicitor with over 30 years’ experience within the legal sector and specialising in all areas of medical negligence, from birth trauma to general surgery claims. And Sion Wynne, a ranked lawyer in ‘Chambers & Partners’ who has been appointed as a team leader and will work as part of the medical negligence team.

In addition, Peter Rigby has recently been promoted to the firm’s new head of medical negligence serious injury.

Over the past year, the legal firm has also expanded its in-house team of nurses from 11 to 16. The new additions include Helen Villier-James and Lesley Rowlands who will both take the position of nurse analyst.

The wave of new appointments has been brought in to allow the firm to take on more cases as part of its growth plans over the next 12 months, which includes handling nearly 30% more medical negligence cases per annum.

Ed Fletcher, CEO at Fletchers Solicitors, said: “Our continued growth is testament to the strength of our team, which has resulted in an increase in the number of cases we’re taking on.

“To reach our ambitious goals in the next financial year we need to enlist additional expertise for both our Manchester and Southport offices to further build on our success.”

Data from retail software company Vend has found that Manchester’s independent retail sales increased by a huge 61% on the days that England played during the Football World Cup tournament, compared to the same days the previous month. This compared to a national rise of 6% per England match. This was despite average retail sales across the duration of the tournament sitting 11% lower than the previous month.

And clearly many football fan’s enthusiasm waned once the mighty Three Lions were knocked out. Sales dropped off slightly following England’s exit from the World Cup on the 11th July, with retail sales declining by 4% for the days following England’s exit and in the lead-up to the final. And, spending on the day of the final between France and Croatia was 34% down compared to the average spend across England’s game-days throughout the tournament.

“There’s not doubt that people hit the streets and bars in droves over the past month. And it’s great to see how England’s games boosted retail sales as supporters celebrated – particularly as these fell on the weekdays that are usually a bit slower for retailers such as Mondays and Tuesdays. But the days in-between didn’t see sales at their usual levels. Perhaps because people were taking some down-time and saving their bank balances for the next big game,” says Higor Torchia, Country Manager for Vend in EMEA.

The stores that did the best out of England’s game days were fashion and apparel retailers which saw a 24% increase on game days compared to the same days the previous month, and food and drink retailers which saw a 7% increase.

And it seems Manchester fans were the biggest spenders on game day, with average retail sales increasing by 61% when England played, compared to the national average, while London sales were up 14% and Edinburgh up 8% compared to other cities. Elsewhere sales were much lower than the national average on game-day, perhaps as people chose to celebrate at home and spent less time on the high street.