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Friday, August 15, 2025
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Beauty brand blends business strategy to target new overseas markets

Sam Whitear
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CODE Beautiful, a Manchester-based beauty brand, has its sights set on expanding to the U.S. and South Korea after success in exporting across Europe.

The business has been creating beauty products, including mascara and lip-plumping treatments, since 2014. Its vision is to create products that beauty fans cannot live without, four of their products won Beauty Shortlist awards in 2018.

CODE Beautiful products are sold online via its website, as well as through retailers like Beauty Bay and Harvey Nichols.

The firm started working with the Department for International Trade (DIT) in 2015 to get support to develop and execute an exporting strategy. Its export sales now make up more than 10% of the company’s turnover with customers in France, Ireland, Spain and Scandinavia.

CODE Beautiful is now focusing on strengthening its position in the U.S. market. Additionally, the company is exploring expanding into South Korea, a trend-setting country for the beauty industry.

Sarah Cross, Founder of CODE Beautiful said: “Exporting is a huge area for growth for the business but at the start of our journey we knew we needed to find help in order to be successful. It was daunting at first as I didn’t know where to start, but DIT trade advisers helped me build relationships and source potential buyers in overseas markets.

“We worked with DIT to adapt our packaging to suit different overseas markets and reflect changing consumer tastes and languages. We also gained valuable support in understanding what shoppers in different markets want from customer service teams and social media content, meaning we now have dedicated teams for every country in which we operate. As a result, we are now seeing success of international customers buying directly from our website.

“We are now much more confident about exporting and it is so rewarding. We have truly seen the business benefits and believe that if we can do it then other businesses can too.”

Paul Stowers, Acting Regional Director at the Department for International Trade for the North West, said: “CODE Beautiful is a prime example of a business from the North West thriving through trading internationally. There is huge demand for British goods overseas and DIT is available to help local businesses start exporting by advising and supporting them wherever possible.

“Of course there are challenges that arise when exporting which need to be considered but we have a team of International Trade Advisers across the region to help businesses understand and learn about new markets. If you think exporting might be for you, please get in touch and find out how we can help.”

Beever and Struthers plays key role in £250m bond issue to provide funding for 700 new homes a year until 2024

Sam Whitear
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Accountants and business advisors Beever and Struthers provided key financial advice on a major bond issue that raised £250m (£100m retained) to provide 700 new homes a year over the next six years, including 600 affordable units a year.

The Manchester-based firm acted for its client Longhurst Group, an independent provider of affordable homes, care and support services throughout the Midlands and East England, on raising the £250m through the bonds market.

This is the second bond issue Beever and Struthers has assisted Longhurst Group with, advising on an initial bond issue in 2012. In addition to our work with Longhurst the firm has also acted on a further bond issue in the last nine months as private registered providers (PRPs) look to access capital market funding.

As reporting accountant, Beever and Struthers was responsible for key roles such as the provision of financial information in the bond prospectus issued to potential investors, verifying this to be accurate and not misleading, and confirming there had been no adverse change in the financial position of the Group since the latest audited accounts.

The £250m raised will be used to deliver 3,500 homes throughout the Midlands over the next five years – around 1,800 of the properties will be affordable rent with the remainder being for low cost home ownership and market sale.

The bond issue also involved Longhurst’s financial advisors Savills Capital Advisors Limited, funders Lloyds Bank and NatWest, and legal advice from London-based Winckworth Sherwood and Clifford Chance.

John Jones, partner and head of corporate finance at Beever and Struthers, said: “We are one of the leading providers of specialist financial advisory services to PRPs and other not-for-profit organisations nationwide and were delighted to assist Longhurst with this tremendously successful fund raising.”

Rob Griffiths, deputy chief executive and chief financial officer at Longhurst Group, said: “We’re very pleased with the results from our latest bond issue and the level of interest from investors.

“We will be using the proceeds from the bond issue to fund our forward development programme where we are looking to deliver much needed new homes each year for affordable rent, low cost home ownership and market sale.

“This is another significant step in the group’s history. It makes us stronger financially, will help us realise our ambitious growth plans and continue to improve the lives through the provision of more homes.”

Longhurst Group, based in Boston, Lincs, already owns and manages more than 22,500 homes in the Midlands.

Girl Guides take on UKFast Digital Challenge

Sam Whitear
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British technology firm, UKFast, is teaming up with Girlguiding to create a digital challenge badge, engaging and educating girls in different areas of digital technology.

With the Girlguiding programme undergoing an evolution this year to reflect a changing society, the badge is designed with an emphasis on STEM learning and hands-on activities relevant for a digital world. 

The badge is available to Guide units globally and offers an introduction to the hardware and processes underpinning computing and the internet, basic coding skills, app development and knowledge about staying safe online and spotting fake news.

UKFast engineers have overseen the creation of the badge content and the company is supporting the launch of the digital challenge badge by hosting and facilitating a number of ‘digital parties’ at the purpose-built training labs within its Manchester HQ. 

Guide units are invited to the digital parties to be inspired by UKFast’s engineers and trainers and take part in coding workshops, they also have the chance to enjoy a ride on the firm’s famous 50ft slide. The first of the digital parties took place with Guides and leaders from 2nd Northenden Guides. Activities required for completion of the challenge badge can be done anywhere, with few technical resources, ensuring it is accessible to all.

Girlguiding divisional commissioner Pam Plummerm said: “We challenge the girls to get out there and try something different while giving them fantastic opportunities along the way. 

“Girlguiding is evolving as the needs of girls have changed and that’s why challenge badges like these are so important. We like to tread new ground and dare to do new things and challenge the girls.  

“Working with partners like UKFast encourages the girls to work towards taking on roles in industries where female leadership and skills are urgently required. Qualities we nurture in the girls include leadership, vision, confidence and team building, all of which are required for the modern workplace.” 

UKFast MD Gail Jones, added: “It’s fantastic to see badges move on since my time in Brownies and Guides, when my first badge was Homemaker.

“So I am thrilled we are able to help give the girls a taste of our digital world and to see how exciting a career in tech could be. We’ve created a practical badge that develops skills that are invaluable to our industry that sadly aren’t being taught in schools to the standards that we need. I can’t wait to see the girls’ feedback.”

UKFast works with 60,000 students from more than 60 educational institutions across Greater Manchester. The firm’s commitment to transforming tech education has seen their bid to open a digital-focussed school in partnership with the Dean Trust approved by the government.

Pareto Financial Planning celebrates 10th birthday

Sam Whitear
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Manchester-based independent financial adviser, Pareto Financial Planning, celebrated its 10th birthday last week with an exclusive party at 20 Stories.

Founded by John Stevenson and George Chantry in 2008, the business has gone from strength to strength and now has funds under influence totalling more than £500m for an array of clients including high net worth individuals and owner managed businesses.

To celebrate the milestone, the award-winning firm hired out 20 Stories and welcomed more than 300 clients, partners and friends of the business.

Guests were treated to an evening of food, drink and entertainment, including performances by speed painter Dave Sharp, plus the Happy Mondays’ Rowetta and legendary Hacienda DJ Graeme Park.

Dave Sharp’s stunning paintings – of Muhammed Ali and Winston Churchill – took just 7 minutes each to create and were auctioned off to raise money for Beechwood Cancer Care and Manchester Mind.

The most notable absentee was the infamous Mancunian rain, allowing guests to soak up panoramic views of the city from the outdoor roof terrace of the recently launched restaurant and bar.

Pareto Managing Director, John Stevenson, said: “It’s been a fantastic journey since we started in 2008, and we wanted to say a massive thank you to our loyal clients, partners and friends of the business, which have all been so instrumental to our success.

“After 10 consecutive years of organic growth, we’ve got some exciting plans in place to continue our expansion, and we look forward to helping businesses and individuals for years to come.”

Forward Role boosts ranks with Head of Marketing appointment – and three new consultants

Sam Whitear
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National Marketing, Digital and IT recruiter Forward Role has boosted its award-winning team with the appointment of Emma Allison as the firm’s new Head of Marketing.

Experienced in the recruitment industry, Emma joins Forward Role’s growing Manchester-based team after leaving leading app developer Mapway, where she worked as Marketing Manager for two years.

Before that she spent three years working across a number of client-facing brands in the marketing department at a leading UK recruitment group.

Joining Emma at Forward Role’s city centre base to expand its IT and ecommerce divisions are three new recruitment consultants.

Vicky Walker joins as a consultant in the IT department, Aimée Buchan will boost the e-commerce team and Zac Donlon adds to the business’s IT contract capability.

The new hires take the Forward Role team to 34, making it the largest specialist Marketing & Digital recruiter in the north of England and a major player on the national stage.

Forward Role founder and Managing Director Steve Thompson said: “I’m delighted to welcome four more Forward Rollers to our growing family. They all bring a mix of extremely relevant commercial skills to the business and I’m confident they will play a big part in what’s shaping up to be another record-breaking year for us.

“We’re thrilled to have appointed Emma to such an important role within our Marketing team. It’s a really exciting time for the business as we look to launch a new brand and website in the middle of the year and she will play a key part in delivering these projects.”

Emma, who is from Eccles, Greater Manchester, said: “Forward Role has a fantastic reputation in the industry as both a brilliant recruitment consultancy, serving some of the region’s biggest businesses, and a great place to work.

“Steve and the team have achieved so much and I can’t wait to get started and play a role in driving the business on to even greater heights.”

Bolton-based leading pharmaceutical firm secures £4.7million funding deal

Sam Whitear
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One of the UK’s largest manufacturers of paracetamol-based products is set to significantly increase productivity after securing a £4.7million funding deal.

M&A Pharmachem Ltd manufactures pharmaceuticals and medical devices for medical staff around the globe to prescribe and use across the healthcare sector.

The business, based in Bolton, was established 40 years ago and now employs 150 staff. After experiencing a setback with their bankers, M&A Pharmachem looked to their advisors, Barlow Andrews Chartered Accountants, who worked alongside North West based finance firm, PMD Business Finance, to secure the funding for four new packaging machines.

Gerard Pessagno, managing director of M&A Pharmachem Ltd, said: “Over the last two years we have invested over £5million on our factory plant and equipment, specifically in the manufacturing, packing and ancillary service areas.

“The majority of our projects have been self-financed, but some have been backed privately. This is because the UK high street banks have been far too slow in making decisions and on this occasion, we were let down at the eleventh hour by the bank.

“Our accountants, Barlow Andrews, introduced us to PMD Business Finance and within a couple of weeks, the finance was in place. This meant we could drive forward our ambitious expansion plans to revitalise our offering. Our previous packaging machines were 20 years old and were restricted in the amounts they could produce.

“However, these new machines are set to increase our current capacity significantly. It is an exciting development for us as a company, because it will enable us to tender for different types of business and will also open up the possibility of further export markets.”

Oldham-based PMD Business Finance is one of the biggest independent brokers in the UK. Over the last eight years, PMD has worked with businesses up and down the country, offering alternative finance solutions to high street banks.

Peter Dobson, managing director of PMD, said: “Raising awareness of alternative finance is very important to us as a firm. M&A Pharmachem’s story of being let down at the last minute is all too familiar to us. It is always disappointing to hear about businesses essentially being forced to give up on their plans for expansion and growth because they have been told ‘no’ by the banks. There are other options available that are totally flexible, and that is where we step in.”

Tom Brown, head of direct finance at PMD, added: “There have been many stories in the media about the importance of British manufacturing recently and we are proud to support one of the UK’s largest pharmaceutical firms which is flying the flag for British manufacturing. Not only is M&A Pharmachem Ltd an industry leader, it is also right on our doorstep and it has always been important to us as a firm to support fellow North West businesses.”

Phil Riding, of Barlow Andrews, commented “Dealing with PMD was like a breath of fresh air with their ‘can do’ attitude and prompt turnaround of the funding package for the new equipment at very competitive rates. We look forward to continuing to work with them for this client and also other clients seeking alternatives to traditional bank lending.”

Altrincham’s iconic building fully let as law firm takes final office suite

Sam Whitear
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A fast-growing Altrincham law firm is moving into the town’s landmark building at 1 The Downs.

Price Slater Gawne has trebled in size while specialising in working for individuals and their families in most areas of private law including family law, wills, trusts and probate, Court of Protection and medical negligence and serious injury.

The firm has taken the 2,600 sq ft suite of offices on the ground and lower ground on a 10 year lease.

Christopher Gawne, director, Price Slater Gawne, said: “We have out grown our offices at Moss House in Altrincham and wanted to relocate to the town centre. 1 The Downs is an attractive and prominent building which meets our requirements and will be great for our business. It is exciting to see the refurbishment taking shape and we are looking forward to moving in over the summer.”

Daniel Lee, director, Regional Property Solutions who manage and let the offices on behalf of the landlord TELL Holdings, said: “This iconic building totalling 7,000 sq ft is now fully let following the complete external and on-going internal refurbishment works by TELL Holdings.  Price Slater Gawne’s offices will overlook the main route through the heart of Altrincham, which will provide them not only with excellent new space but a high profile location”.

Foresight invests £3 million into DA Languages Limited

Sam Whitear
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Foresight Group has invested £3 million from the Foresight Regional Investment Fund into Altrincham-based, DA Languages Limited.

DA Languages is a fast-growing interpreting and translation services business with around 20 staff based at its head office with a network of thousands of vetted professional linguists, who speak more than 450 languages, from Polish to Abkhaz and Zulu and complete thousands of interpreting and translation jobs each month.
The company offers three core services, face-to-face interpreting, telephone interpreting and written translation services to corporates, charities, NHS Trusts and local authorities.

The company was founded in 2007 by Actar Arya, when she recognised a gap for high quality and reliable interpretation services after her husband had witnessed an interpreter making an error in court.

Foresight’s investment will build on DAL’s rapid growth, and will be used to further expand and professionalise the company as it continues to grow. Alongside the investment, Foresight has introduced a new Finance Director, Christina Tamblyn who was formerly FD of Ascribe, a healthcare software business.

Claire Alvarez, Senior Investment Manager, Foresight, said: “DA Languages is a rapidly growing, successful business, whose services support and enable the increasingly multicultural and diverse society here in the UK. With an already strong market position, we are looking forward to helping DAL further diversify into the private sector translation market. We are confident that the company will continue to go from strength to strength.”

Actar Arya, Founder and Managing Director, DA Languages, commented: “I have loved setting up DAL, providing useful services to those who need them. The company has grown rapidly and I am excited to bring further support on board to continue the business’s expansion plans.”

James Livingston, Partner, Foresight, added: “DAL marks the eighth investment made by the Fund which has now deployed more than £22 million into smaller growth businesses across the region. At the end of last year, our investees in the region had created over 160 jobs, a 35% increase from the previous year. DAL is a good reflection of the entrepreneurial culture that is so prevalent in the North West.

FRIF now has a broad and diversified portfolio with several further new investments imminent. We look forward to working with DAL on the next step of its journey.”

Former Keepmoat Regeneration regional MD heads trio of senior appointments to achieve 100 per cent increase in turnover at Placefirst construction by 2020

Sam Whitear
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Frank Mondino, former area director of Keepmoat, heads a trio of senior appointments by Placefirst Construction, the construction subsidiary of Placefirst, to drive the company’s growth plan.

The award-winning Manchester-based developer, which began life refurbishing derelict terraced properties in small northern towns, now benefits from a strong national pipeline of development sites that will enable the company to build 4,000 homes for market rent by 2022.

Placefirst Construction is the in-house construction arm of the business and currently acts as the principal contractor for all of the company’s developments.  The growth plan will see Placefirst Construction turnover grow from £28m in 2018 to £110m by 2020.

Charged with delivering that growth will be Frank Mondino, former North West area managing director of Keepmoat Regeneration, where he managed a development portfolio worth almost £100m and a 1200-strong workforce, including subcontractors.

During 22 years at Keepmoat Regeneration and its predecessor Bramall Construction, Frank worked across several sectors including residential and commercial, with achievements centred around housing.

Typically delivering around 500 residential units annually within a mix of tenures including rented and open market sale, retirement and supported housing, alongside refurbishment and maintenance of around 5,000 properties, across the North West of England for both private and social landlords.

He will take up the newly created post of managing director of Placefirst Construction, joining an already established and high quality senior team.

Joining Frank at Placefirst Construction are commercial director Pete Adams and senior technical manager, Johnson Mulk.

Pete was formerly commercial manager at Wates, where he played a key role in major schemes such as £60m high-spec student accommodation at Circle Square, Manchester for Select Property Group and an £82m project to deliver 1500 homes and apartments. Prior to his time at Wates, Pete held the same post at Galliford Try Partnerships having been regional chief quantity surveyor with Lovell Partnerships.

Completing the three senior arrivals at Placefirst Construction is Johnson Mulk, formerly technical manager at Prospect (GB) Ltd, where he was solely responsible for the technical performance of the business and specialised in key areas of expertise including, planning, surveying, civil infrastructure, structural engineering and the delivery of feasibility reports on brownfield and greenfield sites.

Frank will head a team of 21 specialists in the construction division of Placefirst, forming a key element of a total workforce of 44.

Placefirst has existing and occupied rental residential schemes in Accrington, Lancs, Welsh Streets, Liverpool, West End One and West End Two, Morecambe, Cross Heath Grove, Leeds and The Green, Hartlepool.

The firm’s secured pipeline of housing developments sites include Bolton, County Durham, Sheffield, Morecambe and Wolverhampton.

With more than 1500 Placefirst residents, the business has 693 houses built or under construction and has a land pipeline of 2,085 units.

David Smith-Milne, managing director and founder of Placefirst, said: “The essential and additional skills and invaluable experience of Frank, Johnson and Pete will help our excellent construction team to realise our ambition of doubling our housing output in just two years thanks to a strong and growing pipeline of projects in the private rented sector of the North and Midlands.”

musicMagpie appoints new Chief Technology Officer

Sam Whitear
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Stockport-based musicMagpie has appointed Chris Sproston to a newly created role of Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the company. Chris will be responsible for leading transformational technology change within the business in the UK and the US, where the brand operates under the name of Decluttr. He will be overseeing IT strategy, infrastructure, architecture and development.

Chris has more than 20 years’ technology experience within the retail, financial services, education, commercial and international sectors. Before joining musicMagpie, Chris was responsible for architecture, development and data at the Police Mutual Group. Previous to that, he was a strategic consultant at the University of Salford, interim Chief Operations Officer at Godel Technologies Europe and prior to that head of IT Development at the Co-operative Group.

Commenting on his appointment, Chris said: “I am delighted to be joining musicMagpie at such an exciting and important time as it embarks on a new era of growth. I have a real passion for technology and the role it can play in an organisation’s success. I’m looking forward to working with the team to deliver best in class results across all IT functions.”

Steve Oliver, CEO of musicMagpie, comments: “We are thrilled to have Chris on board as part of an exceptional senior management team as we look to an exciting period ahead for the company.  Chris’ passion and commitment are representative of musicMagpie’s ethos and culture and we welcome his expertise in the delivery of our technology and development strategy.”

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