Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 12th September - video Dailymotion

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Jennifer and Simon discuss a £1.3bn deal, the acquisition of a historic biscuit maker, the North West's Most Exciting Companies and 30th annual Dealmakers awards.

Transcript

00:00Deals, deal makers, pasty makers, artificial intelligence and a brand new

00:05event. That's what's coming up on today's Daily Business Briefing.

00:14Hi I'm Simon Keegan. And I'm Jennifer O'Keefe. Well I've got some news about deals and

00:20deal makers coming up but Jen I just wanted to ask you first of all you've

00:24got a big deal story for us off our website today haven't you? I do indeed

00:28yes so a Blackburn based fulfillment company Stasi which has a major

00:34UK presence has recently announced that it's been acquired by the

00:39multinational postal operator called B Post Group and in a deal that's valued

00:44at 1.3 billion pounds. Wow that is a big deal. They have their ones in Blackburn as well as

00:48sites in Manchester, Leicester and Rugby and they also have a international

00:53presence too with centres across Europe and the US and B Post Group then is a

00:58Belgium headquartered company and it has 36,000 employees across its centres

01:05in Europe, North America and Asia and B Post Group bought Stasi and it said as

01:12part of its plans to strengthen its position in the logistics value

01:17chain. Right brilliant well we see a lot of activity in that sector and talking

01:22big deals we've got our Deal Makers Awards coming up on October the 17th and

01:27we've got the Deal Makers preview going in the next issue of the mag which is

01:31the October issue which goes to print next week. Now you can read about all of

01:36the shortlist in there and there's also details of the event itself. It's a 30th

01:42annual event so we've got an after-party as well so don't forget to stick around

01:47for that and I can also reveal that we've got another Deal Makers event

01:51coming up. This time it's not awards and drinks it's a daytime event more of a

01:58sober affair and it's a Deal Makers lunch it's a conference and

02:03we're going to do a series of these and the first one is looking at private

02:07equity and in particular how we can strengthen the Northwest private equity

02:12community and perhaps do the deals that are currently maybe going to London or

02:18going even further afield. So really excited about that and I'll be revealing

02:23some of the speakers very soon. Now also in the magazine we've got the most

02:29exciting companies we've already featured the list but this is a round

02:34table following that where I invited some of the most exciting companies to

02:38join me and there was some brilliant stories some amazing entrepreneurial

02:44stories. One of them was a company called My Manu and they make earbuds which

02:51translate in real time so you could be talking to someone Russian and they

02:56can be speaking one of about 150 languages and it just translates it for

03:02you in real time. It's like something of Star Trek isn't it? Amazing. Another one

03:06with Appacut so this was a company that started in lockdown. I don't know about

03:13you but I had a few makeshift haircuts in lockdown. I know it looks like I've

03:16got one now. And Appacut what they do is it's kind of like the Uber of hairdressers

03:23so you kind of go on the app and they've got a network of barbers. Really good

03:27really good business idea. And the final one I'll just mention is called Verve

03:32which was founded by My Protein's founder Oliver Cookson who's been on the

03:39cover of Insider before and Verve is a nutrient drink so it's the equivalent of

03:45taking about 42 different supplements it's one of these in a powder you mix it.

03:50So Verve if you're watching send us some samples and we'll test them. Now talking

03:56of food and drink I think you've got another culinary story for us haven't you?

04:00I do yes down in the South West actually and so the UK's or the world's

04:07rather fourth largest producer of Cornish pasties has announced it's

04:12purchased a historic biscuit maker. So Prima Bakeries Group acquired the

04:20biscuit maker Furness of Cornwall which has roots dating back to 1886.

04:25Right. It wouldn't be what you would think is it going from Cornish pasties to

04:30biscuits. No. I suppose it's all bakery but. Absolutely still in the same family.

04:34So and the acquisition actually comes at a great time for Prima Bakeries Group and

04:39so this year the group announced that it was moving to an employee

04:44ownership trust. Right. And that transaction actually was named as

04:50Insider's Deal of the Month back in February and so and the company has also

04:55recently announced that sales have grown by two million pounds year-on-year and

05:01Group turnover is expected to reach 15 million pounds by the end of this year.

05:05Great times. Absolutely and the group is also planning to open a 20,000 square

05:13foot production facility in St. Columb later this year which it said

05:19will allow to double production for its pasties. Fantastic. Well I was just down

05:24in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago and I do love a Cornish pasty. Are you a fan?

05:28I've never had one. You've never had a Cornish pasty? No. Jen I'm gonna take you for a Cornish pasty.

05:34Thank you so much. You're in for a treat. Now I know that some of our local pasty

05:38producers like Cars Pasties here in the Northwest probably throwing things at

05:43the computer screens now so I will say a good Lancashire pasty like Cars

05:48Pasties excellent as well. You want to try the cheese and jalapeno. Cars if you

05:54are watching this send them our way. Well Jen I think that's all we've got

05:58time for today. All of the stories that we've talked about you can get on

06:02insidermedia.com. You can follow us on LinkedIn. You can follow me on LinkedIn

06:08at Simon Keegan. You follow me on Twitter Simon K Insider. Do whatever you like

06:12and we'll see you again tomorrow.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 12th September

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