Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 27th November - video Dailymotion

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Adam and Stephen discuss the acquisition of a firm founded by UK Special Forces veterans, results for a retail, leisure and hospitality group, and a new McDonald's drive-thru.

Transcript

00:00The acquisition of a firm founded by UK Special Forces veterans results from a retail measuring

00:05hospitality group, a new McDonald's drive-thru, featuring today's business briefing.

00:09So, Adam, what's caught your eye this morning?

00:18An interesting deal in the West Midlands with a secure mobile communications provider having

00:23been acquired by private equity firm Alita Capital.

00:27Serbis was founded in 2010 by two people who previously served in the UK Special Forces.

00:34It's behind Serbis Secure, a secure communications platform which utilises hardware and software

00:40to provide top-level security, threat detection, threat protection, sorry, and compliance.

00:46Today it's primarily being used for UK military and government customers, but there is scope

00:52for the tech to be used in the private sector as well.

00:56The acquisition of Serbis marks another step in Alita's aim to create a leading UK provider

01:02of critical infrastructure services, and it builds on prior investments in the likes of

01:06ITM Communications and Base IT.

01:09A really interesting deal, that.

01:11Yeah, certainly.

01:12Whilst we're at it, we've got results from the Leakes Retail and Leisure Group, which

01:16is headquartered in South Wales and can trace its history back 125 years.

01:21So the Leakes Retail business currently has stores in South Wales, Carthaginianshire,

01:27the West Midlands and Wiltshire, and recently opened its latest store in Cheltenham.

01:32The group as a whole reported EBITDA of £6 million and a pre-tax profit of £3.1 million

01:37last year, which the group said was a strong performance considering the various challenges

01:42in the retail sector at the moment.

01:44Along with the retail business, the group also owns the Vail Resort, which is a four-star

01:49hotel with two championship golf courses, a spa, health and racquets club, and a number

01:55of restaurants, which is located to the west of Cardiff.

01:57Now, that arm of the business was said to have had an outstanding year with turnover

02:01of 7%.

02:03The last part of the group, the newest part of the group, is its distillery operations

02:08at Hensel Castle, and the group said that was an exciting year for that arm of the business

02:13with a number of supermarket listings and further investment in the production facilities

02:17there.

02:18It's an interesting company doing well, as always.

02:22Also this morning in the North East, we have a story on a Gateshead-based website accessibility

02:27software business, and it has secured a £4.6 million following investment from BGF.

02:35Recite Me's technology removes online obstacles for those with disabilities, visual impairments,

02:41learning difficulties, the elderly, and people using English as a second language.

02:47In the last 12 months, its technology has actually supported more than 7 million users

02:51across Europe, the US, and Australia.

02:53Now, the funding is signalling the start of a growth phase for the company, as it looks

02:57to expand its accessibility offering, and it follows a previous funding round from BGF,

03:03taking the total from the investor to £8.8 million.

03:07Well, the last thing for us today, in Yorkshire, we have plans for the demolition of the Bingo

03:13Hall, the construction of a new McDonald's restaurant, which looks likely to take a step

03:17forward.

03:18So McDonald's submitted plans earlier this year for a site in Hull, aiming to demolish

03:24the former Bingo Hall and construct its new drive-thru restaurant.

03:28In the application, pioneering consultant Litchfield highlighted a number of potential

03:32economic, social, and environmental benefits associated with the plans.

03:36So, for example, it's expected to support the creation of about 70 full-time equivalent

03:41jobs and could generate more than £3 million of additional GVA for the area.

03:47A number of responses have been received to the application, both supportive and opposing,

03:53and the Council's Planning Committee will now make its decision next week, 4th December.

03:59Councillors have been recommended to approve the scheme, so we'll see how that one checks out.

04:02Yeah, we'll definitely keep an eye out for the result.

04:04And that's it from us.

04:06You can read more about those stories or others at insidermedia.com, where you can also subscribe

04:11to our newsletters and learn about upcoming events.

04:15Goodbye.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 27th November

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