Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 18th September - video Dailymotion

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In today's business briefing, Robyn and Stephen discuss the acquisition of a luxury travel firm, a new build to rent development in Manchester and the Yorkshire Dealmakers Awards.

Transcript

00:00The acquisition of a luxury travel firm, a new build to rent development in

00:04Manchester, and the Yorkshire Dealmakers Awards. That's all coming up on today's

00:08business briefing.

00:14Hello, I'm Robin Hewson. I'm Stephen Favell. And welcome to today's briefing.

00:18So Stephen, what's the top story for you today? So yeah, big news in Yorkshire.

00:22It's the annual Dealmakers Awards shortlist. We've got that announcement

00:26today. Big day on the corporate finance

00:29calendar, as you're aware, from the North West.

00:31So we're celebrating the deals, the firms and the individuals

00:34that have been key in the sector over the last 12 months. And it's been quite a big

00:3812 months. We've heard from the deal-making community that

00:41in spite of things like the cost-of-living crisis, the various sorts

00:44of economic uncertainty, there's been a lot of activity in the region. So

00:48we've now had the various suggestions from the

00:51community and they've been whittled down by our expert judging panel.

00:55So you can find all the shortlists now on our newly redesigned website

00:58before we reveal the final winners on the 21st of November at the Royal

01:03Armouries in Leeds. Fantastic. And we are both from Sheffield,

01:06so we'll be rooting for the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Dealmakers. Yes, if

01:10we'll add a little bit of that, a bit of bias, then we'll be there.

01:13And the Leeds ones, that's okay. So a story from Manchester today

01:17is about a new build-to-rent development. So this is a sector that's really

01:20popping off in Manchester at the moment. There's all sorts going on.

01:24We've actually just done a feature on it in the latest issue, which you'll be

01:27able to read when that comes out later this month.

01:29But the latest scheme to be proposed is a 23-story development

01:34from ZephyrX, who I think are a bit of a new player

01:37in town. And it's going to include 237 one- and two-bedroom apartments,

01:42as well as ground floor commercial units, so probably cafes, things like that

01:46as well, which will be nice. So construction could start later this

01:49year once planning consent has been achieved.

01:51And it's going to be in the Great Ducie Street, Green Quarter, Red Bank area, where

01:55there's quite a lot of development. Yeah, well, we'll keep an eye out for

01:59that from our office window. Yeah, absolutely. We'll probably see it out there.

02:02So what else have you seen today? Yeah, so another one of the big stories

02:05today. We've got the latest financial results for Baker & Baker, which

02:08is a bakery products company, believe it or not. So they've had a really strong

02:12year. Revenue's grown by about 12 percent, and

02:15they've said that, again, it's a better than expected

02:17performance, again, given things like the cost of living crisis,

02:20cost inflation, things like that. The company itself

02:23employs about 1,400 people across the UK. It's got sites in

02:26Brombo in the northwest, Ashington, Daventry and Bradford,

02:30so a really major buyer in a lot of areas in the UK.

02:34During the year, it's completed a number of structural changes

02:38to help boost productivity. It's also changed its product mix

02:41and invested in the expansion of its Wirral site, so it's

02:45done a lot of investing to support that growth.

02:48It's also launched a new ESG strategy and has set a target of being net zero by

02:532040. Oh, exciting times then. And another story

02:57in the northwest today is about luxury travel, which is always

03:01exciting. So travel scene has snapped up a

03:04majority stake in luxury travel firm eShores.

03:06So eShores are a Manchester-based tour operator who specialise in creating

03:11tailor-made, long-haul packages. Is that something you'd consider?

03:15It would. I've just come back from holiday, not long-haul. I was only up in

03:18Scotland, but certainly something I'd be interested in.

03:19Oh, lovely. I believe you've got holidays planned as well?

03:22Yeah, I'm in Corfu in a couple of days, so yeah, nearly there, ready to be on a

03:26Greek island. But this acquisition for travel scene

03:30brings about £12 million of turnover and it's the third investment

03:33they've made in 12 months, so yeah, super acquisitive at the moment.

03:36And travel scene group is headed by industry expert Jen Atkinson

03:40and backed by Eritre Capital Partners. So I think that's all we've got time for

03:45today. If you want to hear any more about any

03:47of these stories, then you can head to our website insidermedia.com

03:50and we'll be back tomorrow for more of the top stories from across the UK.

03:54Goodbye.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 18th September

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