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In today's Business Briefing, Robyn and Phil discuss a new era for a Liverpool landmark, expansion plans at the Humber port, a surge in sales for a Welsh skincare brand and tributes to The Vivienne.

Transcript

00:00A new era for a Liverpool landmark, expansion plans for the Humber, a surge in sales from

00:06a skin care product in Wales and tributes to the Vivian, all coming up in this morning's

00:12business briefing brought to you by Shawbrooke.

00:15Well, good morning, I'm Phil Cunliffe.

00:22And I'm Robin Hewson.

00:24The new Deputy Editor of the North West Business Insider, so congratulations on the promotion,

00:28Robin.

00:29It's a great way to start the new year.

00:30Absolutely.

00:31And yeah, happy new year to all our viewers this morning.

00:35So Robin, you're going to kick us off with a story in Liverpool, I think.

00:38Yeah, so it's a story about a really iconic building over in Liverpool.

00:42So it's St John's Beacon, which is known locally as Radio City Tower.

00:45Oh, of course.

00:46Yes.

00:47So it's been a radio station for the last 25 years, and I think it's really iconic in

00:50Liverpool for that purpose.

00:52But the building is now available to let, so it's going to be a really unique opportunity

00:56for a new occupier.

00:58And the owners of the building, Rivington Hark, have said it doesn't have to be the

01:02same thing again.

01:03It could be a fine dining experience, it could be a sort of quirky office space for a business.

01:08So yeah, really exciting space and something very different for the right occupier.

01:12And it'll be interesting to see who takes out their offer up and see what happens.

01:16Yeah, absolutely.

01:17I mean, it's meant to be an incredible space.

01:18Our journalist, Remy Greasley, had a look round and said the views were incredible from

01:22the top.

01:23Amazing.

01:24Yeah, lucky Remy.

01:25Well, I've got a story in Yorkshire, this is on the Humber.

01:30The Associated British Port, ABP, has lodged plans to develop its Stalinger interchange

01:37site.

01:38The aim is to provide automotive storage space for customers of the ports of Immingham and

01:44Grimsby.

01:45And this comes after the port operator had purchased the freehold of the 227 acre site

01:52in December last year.

01:54The plans include external storage and distribution of goods and products associated with port-related

02:01import and export activities, and together with up to 130,000 square feet of floor space

02:10of associated buildings, landscaping, infrastructure, etc.

02:13So it's great news for the port, for its customers who are looking to expand, of course, and

02:20also critical, really, for the region, because it's going to create a lot of jobs.

02:25Fantastic.

02:26Yeah, good news coming out of Yorkshire.

02:28So I think you want to talk about the Vivian, who's sadly died.

02:33Yeah, so a really sad story this week about the death of the legendary drag queen, so

02:38James Lee Williams, better known as the Vivian.

02:40So I don't know if you're familiar, Phil, but the Vivian was...

02:44I'm vaguely familiar.

02:45Vaguely, yeah.

02:46So the winner of the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, also featured on Dancing on

02:50Ice.

02:52It doesn't sound like a business story at first, but the Vivian was actually really

02:55good friends with one of our former 42 Under 42 in the Northwest, Alyssa Corrigan, and

03:01she shared some words of wisdom and things like that that she'd had from James.

03:05She actually said that James had taught her more about branding than any business guru

03:09ever could have done, and she also said that James' success wasn't some overnight miracle

03:14or just through luck.

03:15It was the result of tirelessly owning his craft, and long before the spotlight found

03:20the Vivian, he was kind of always working in the background to create this really impressive

03:24brand, and that's what led to his success.

03:26Yes, so getting the brand right is critical for any business, of course.

03:31That's really interesting, and obviously sad news about the death.

03:36I don't know what you were doing on Christmas Day, Robin, but I was certainly tuned in to

03:40the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special.

03:42Oh, absolutely.

03:43We were doing the same.

03:44Yeah, absolutely.

03:45The finale that took place on Christmas Day, a wonderful ending to it, but there's a

03:50company that was actually based in Bari, where a lot of the filming of the show took

03:55place.

03:56They're a producer, manufacturer of hand wash, a special luxury, cruelty-free-produced hand

04:05wash, and their product was featured in Pam and Mick's bathroom, believe it or not, on

04:11that final episode, and such was the force of that appearance on that show that sales

04:19have actually grown since that point on Christmas Day by about 20%.

04:23It's unbelievable, isn't it?

04:26Just that one appearance on an iconic show was viewed, of course, by over 19 million

04:32people on Christmas Day, so a lot of views.

04:36The company's TikTok views have soared also from around 2,000 to over 100,000 in just

04:44two days.

04:45I mean, it does sound like everyone across the country was watching it that day, so not

04:48too surprised.

04:49It's an incredible end.

04:50An incredible end here is just to let you know that all those stories and more can be

04:54viewed by going to insidermedia.com, and where all those stories and more can be viewed,

05:05but also all our events that are coming up in 2025.

05:08It's going to be a busy January and February for us all, so that's it from us.

05:14We'll look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 8th January 2025

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