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Dan and Jen discuss a deal between two estate agents in the South East, part of a historic BBC studio put up for sale, and a supplier of equipment for the Grand National becoming employee owned.

Transcript

00:00A deal between two estate agents in the south-east, part of a historic BBC studio put up for sale

00:06in Bristol, a supply of equipment for the Grand National becoming employee-owned and

00:11footage from the Midland Sales Summit, all featured in today's Business Briefing.

00:15Morning, Jen.

00:17Good morning, Dan.

00:20So, if you want to start things off, I understand you've got some news from Bristol.

00:25I do indeed.

00:26So, the BBC in Bristol has instructed Lambert, Smith, Hampton to mark a part of its site

00:32in Clifton.

00:33The announcement follows the organisation's move to its new city centre location at Bridgewater

00:38House.

00:39So, the historic Clifton site then has been in operation since 1934 and it was the largest

00:45BBC Studios production base outside of London.

00:49It was also the former home to the BBC's Natural History Unit, which was responsible for shows

00:54like Blue Planet, Countryfile and Springwatch.

00:58The 3.2-acre site then is on White Ladies Road and comprises a variety of listed and

01:04modern buildings, as well as a large car park to the rear, so it represents a prime opportunity

01:09in the city.

01:10It'll be interesting to see who the buyer is because that sounds like quite an exciting

01:14opportunity and sort of sticking with property, I've got a deal between two estate agents

01:19in the south-east.

01:20So, Miles and Barr, who are a letting estate agent based in Kent, they've been acquired

01:25by Le Monde, who are quite acquisitive, this is their 64th acquisition and it's quite a

01:29significant deal in the south-east because it's actually their first in Kent.

01:33They've said Miles and Barr will become their sort of cornerstone brand for their operations

01:37in the county.

01:38So, Miles and Barr have been selling and buying and letting homes for about 25 years and they

01:42operate from 12 branches across Kent, so they're quite well-known and it's quite a busy county

01:47in terms of the property market, you know, I write a lot of planning and sort of property

01:50stories down there.

01:52The acquisition includes 2,400 properties under management, as well as the residential

01:57sales, commercial land and new homes aspect of the business.

02:00And it's also Le Monde, it's not their first acquisition in the south-east, you might remember

02:04in July they acquired Charters, they're based in Winchester, so it's quite clear that they're

02:10interested in expanding in the south-east and they'll love to see where they go next.

02:15I have some news then down in Leeds, actually.

02:18So William G. Search Limited, which is a Leeds-based plant and machinery specialist, has become

02:24an employee-owned business.

02:27The company was established in 1946 by Bill Search and has since been owned and operated

02:33by his grandsons, Richard William and Jamie, for the last 35 years.

02:40So the company employs a team of more than 120 people across offices in Leeds, Liverpool,

02:46Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.

02:50And the company has a very impressive client base, actually.

02:53It supplies equipment for some major outdoor events like Leeds and Reading festivals, which

02:59I know you're familiar with.

03:00Yeah, I went and auditioned, it was great.

03:02Unfortunately, my tent maybe blew away, but apart from that, it was brilliant.

03:06Very good.

03:08The company has also supplied equipment for the Grand National for the last almost 50

03:13years, too.

03:14So very impressive.

03:16And the Employee Ownership Trust means now that the employees are stakeholders in the

03:20firm who will benefit from its financial success going forward.

03:24That's some really exciting news there.

03:26You've been fan of the Grand National, Jen?

03:28I've never been, but I've seen it on TV.

03:30So do I.

03:31I'm not a betting man, but it's fun to put a bet on a horse who wins.

03:35Definitely.

03:36Well, that is all from us.

03:37But before we go, we've got some news from our editor in the Midlands.

03:40Kurt Jacobs has been at the Sales Summit in the Midlands.

03:42He's been speaking to some of the panelists about technology and AI and how they can improve

03:47sales performance.

03:48And we've got some video footage for you.

03:49So over to you, Kurt.

03:51Hi.

03:52I'm Kurt Jacobs.

03:53I'm the editor of Midlands Business Insider.

03:55And welcome to Ladywood in Birmingham, where we've just held the latest of our Sales Summit

04:00debates.

04:01It's been a fascinating discussion where we've looked at the impact of technology on business

04:06businesses, how they can improve their sales performance, find out more about the customer,

04:10issues such as hyper-personalization, how you restructure in preparation for AI.

04:15Let's see what some of our panelists had to say.

04:19I'm Cassandra Brankovic, and I'm the founder of AIQ Nexus in the Midlands.

04:23And I'm the technology lead for NetMonkeys.

04:27So let me ask a question, which I know you're going to say no.

04:32So it's increased data, AI, and so forth.

04:36That's going to lead to sales becoming more of a personal process, isn't it?

04:42You know, sort of a machine will do it all.

04:44Absolutely not, no.

04:45So if you look at the true role of a salesperson, they're not there to copy notes from meetings.

04:49They're not there to set up meetings, things like that.

04:51They're actually there to build a relationship with the client and actually understand the

04:55client on a human level.

04:56So being able to collect those data points around what the client's interested in, what

04:59they're actually trying to do with their business, you can actually have a much better

05:02conversation with them and focus on that, rather than the tapping on your keyboard,

05:07the writing down notes, all stuff like that.

05:08So it's going to pick up those unnecessary evils that we've come to accept over the last

05:13kind of 50 years with computers.

05:17Great work from Kurt there.

05:18And you can watch the full video on our website, insidermedia.com, where you can also subscribe

05:23to our magazine and our newsletters and find out about upcoming events.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 24th October

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