Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 18th March 2025 - video Dailymotion

Insider Media

Robyn and Simon discuss a fast-growing honey manufacturer in Wales, iconic motorway services, an acquisition in Yorkshire and an innovation event in Manchester.

Transcript

00:00Sweet success for a honey manufacturer, rising profits for Westmoreland services,

00:06a benchmark acquisition and an innovation showcase. That's what's coming

00:10up in today's Daily Business Briefing.

00:17Hi I'm Simon Keegan and I'm Robyn Hewson. Hi Robyn, so first of all I think we're

00:23gonna go with some good news aren't we? Yeah. So you've got a nice story from Wales to

00:27share haven't you? Yeah definitely. So the Wales team have been putting together a

00:31list of the top 25 fastest growing food and drink companies and the one that's

00:35come out on top is Hilltop Honey. So it was established by a former bricklayer

00:41Scott Davies back in 2011 after a back injury prevented him from working in

00:46construction. So it ended up being a really good thing for him as the company

00:50is now reporting a turnover of 33.7 million in their latest accounts which

00:55is up from 20 million the year before. So that makes them the fastest growing

01:00in the sector in Wales and their growth is looking likely to continue as they've

01:05also secured some funding from Santander. So you can see the full list

01:10that has the top 25 food and drink companies that are growing really fast

01:13in the April and May edition of Wales Business Insider. Sounds like a hive of

01:17activity. Fantastic pun. Thank you. So another good news story, we're keeping it

01:24positive aren't we, is Westmoreland Services have increased their profits. Now

01:29Westmoreland Services is probably going to be better known to our readers and

01:34viewers by their brands like Tbay services. Do you know Tbay? I've not been

01:39to that one I don't think. Tbay is not what people from Yorkshire call eBay.

01:42It's a great way, it's a real like artisan farmers market type services

01:50up in the Lake District and they've got a similar one at Gloucester

01:53Services off the M5 and they've also got the Reg Ed Centre which is again

01:59it's lovely produce and it looks all it looks all castle-y. But anyway it's got

02:05kind of a cult following as well. Colleen Rooney, Clare Balding, Frank Skinner have

02:10all been on the one show talking about it because it is a bit fancy. Wow, I need to pay a visit.

02:14You should, you really should. So they've announced last year pre-tax

02:20profits have gone from 5.1 million to 6.3 million which is really good but

02:26that's despite the turnover being lower. So turnovers dropped from 141.7

02:33million to 138.7 million but the good news, so that's lower fuel

02:39prices but they've offset that with increased trading in the non-fuel stuff

02:46but it's great because they really work with local producers so

02:52within a 30 mile radius they work with 412 local producers and

02:59they've added 60 new producers to the business in the last year so that is a

03:04great success story, one for the North West Business Insider. So what else have we got?

03:10Actually more good news, so we've been very positive today aren't we? So over in

03:15Yorkshire a financial advisor, Robert Zumbaxter, has been acquired by

03:20Benchmark and so Benchmark is a financial planning business that's part

03:23of Schroders, it's their asset management company, they actually own the building

03:26that we're in right now. So yeah, Benchmark has been on this big growth

03:30strategy and the acquisition forms part of that. It's going to bring them

03:35200 million pounds worth of client activity and over the next two

03:41years they're going to fully integrate into Benchmark, so exciting times for

03:45Robert Zumbaxter. It is exciting times. Now on Friday I was at quite an exciting

03:51event as well which is the GM Innovation Showcase, so that was held at the Royal

03:56Exchange Theatre. We'll love it in there. So I got to chair a panel with GM's

04:02Business Growth Hub and the GMCA and we had representatives from the University

04:08of Manchester, Manchester Met, Salford Uni, Innovation UK and it was all about

04:15the innovation ecosystem and how businesses can work more effectively

04:22with academia and all of the businesses that are being helped. I mean they've

04:27supported 900 companies just in the last couple of years. Is that just in Greater

04:32Manchester? Yeah, since 2023 that is and they're talking about some of the new

04:38things that we're going to see in the area as well like Atom Valley which is

04:42going to be, you know, Rochdale Oldham. It's going to be a real centre for

04:46innovation, moving away from the idea that you just have to be in that kind of Oxford

04:50Road corridor to get this innovation. So it's really exciting times and we're

04:55going to be covering that event and we're also going to keep an eye on some

05:00of these exciting companies I think. So anybody who wants to read more about

05:06these stories can do so on insidermedia.com and why not give us a

05:11follow on social media as well. We're on X and we're on LinkedIn so you can

05:17follow us there. See you next time.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 18th March 2025

Category

Transcript

Recommended