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Laurence and Adam discuss southern expansion for a coffee shop chain, a strong year for a motor dealership business and a creative agency deal.

Transcript

00:00Strong year for a motor dealership group, southern expansion for a coffee shop chain

00:05and a new store for Nuvola. That's all coming up in today's Business Briefing.

00:16Well good morning Adam, first thing so everyone enjoys a coffee and you've got news of an expanding

00:22chain. That's right, East Midlands based 200 Degrees is actually about to open its most

00:28southerly site in England at Cotswolds Designer Outlet. The new location is actually its 23rd

00:33coffee shop across the UK but it is the first the brand's first opening of 2025.

00:39I've not been to 200 Degrees, have you experienced them?

00:43Yeah lovely coffee and always a lovely environment and interior decor is always very nice.

00:48East Midlands headquartered is that right?

00:50Yeah I believe they were founded in Nottingham which is my patch and they were of course acquired

00:55by the group behind Cafe Nero last year so they're now part of a larger entity which I'm sure

01:00plays a part in their expansion across the UK.

01:03And this is their most southern sort of expansion so far?

01:08Certainly yeah, it's the most southerly site so far. A lot of their locations are

01:12dotted around the Midlands and the north. This is obviously a big milestone for the company

01:17and it will create up to 15 jobs in the area as well at the coffee shop.

01:20Excellent, excellent news. Well talking about expansion, we've got news today of a children

01:26designer store called Nuvala. They're opening in Liverpool's Met Quarter. I don't know if you're

01:32aware of that shopping centre. It's actually more than a shopping centre now. I think it's

01:36you know it's got a bit of experience stuff, leisure as well, restaurants. But it's home to some well-known

01:42brands. One of the most famous sort of Liverpool clothing brands anyhow, Cricket is a retail. It was really

01:49famous in the noughties with people like Killeen and Winnie shopping there. And anyhow, Nuvala is

01:54taking up a big site on the ground floor, about 3,000 square foot. It's the brainchild of two

02:03individuals who met at a kid's cavern, which of course, cavern's got the connotations and

02:10Met Quarter is just around the corner from the cabin actually. And Nuvala is set to open in this month.

02:17So it'll be interesting to see. I always do marvel at the idea of designing with other kids.

02:23But yeah, because they grow out of it so quickly.

02:25Yeah, no, but obviously for special occasions and so on, it helps make it look good.

02:30It's clearly popular as well.

02:32Excellent. And you've got news of a deal in the creative agency realm.

02:39That's right. Another Nottingham company, in fact, True Story, has been acquired by

02:43Yorkshire's Ride Shotgun. Now True Story works with big names in the retail industry,

02:50and those include Holland and Barrett, Pets at Home and DFS. So some of the biggest retail names in

02:56the UK. Now it now becomes part of Ride Shotgun's global operations and actually creates a combined

03:01group of 190 people. So definitely a powerhouse agency at this point. Ride Shotgun, we mentioned the

03:09global operations. They operate offices in the UK, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, London, but locations

03:15in Bulgaria, US and Sri Lanka. So definitely some great away days there. Exactly. Yeah, some added

03:23benefits. The global client portfolio actually includes some, you know, giants of industry,

03:28including Intuit, Diageo, Kingfisher, Amazon and HSBC. So definitely an agency to keep an eye on.

03:35Excellent. Well, we also had news today of results for a motor dealership, Mitchell Group. They're

03:42based in Cheshire. In fact, they've got a really prominent site by Cheshire Oaks is a big roundabout

03:48and they've got a Lexus, Skoda and Mazda dealership there. They pushed turnover up to 75 million.

03:54They also increased pre-tax profits. And they actually made more than half a million pounds

04:00worth of contributions to charity. So it's part of the ethos of the business because I had the

04:06good fortune to speak to the founder, Mark Mitchell, and he sort of said one of the main reasons

04:12it makes them stand apart or succeed, I suppose, is their focus on colleagues. So colleague retention,

04:19they have a very low turnover of colleagues. Mr. Mitchell was always saying colleagues as

04:26opposed to staff. So that's sort of the ethos. In fact, they had 106 colleagues during the year

04:32and they all stayed. So that was unusual. There's little perks. They have a sort of luxury lodge in

04:40Snowdonia where you can get free breaks in and people get half day holidays for sports days or

04:45nativities and things like that. So I think that helps keep everyone really enthused. And also a big

04:53focus on customer service. I was amazed to hear that if you buy a car from them, you can then get

05:01your car washed every Saturday morning for the rest of your days. What a great feature.

05:06A really good feature. And you know, it's such a forward thinking thing. So you can get there,

05:13then there'll be coffees and what have you. And as I said before, it's based near Cheshire Oaks,

05:18so you could be on the way to go there. It's also near Chester and so on. So yeah,

05:24apparently more than 100 people every Saturday turn up.

05:27Well, you've got to take advantage of it.

05:28Absolutely, absolutely. So it was great speaking to Mark. And he actually said that when he was

05:35leaving school, it was back in the day, his final school report said Mitchell can, if he applies

05:42himself as much academically as he seems to commercially at the school gate, he may well

05:47make a life for himself. He's certainly done very well for himself.

05:50He certainly has. So yeah, that's really good. Anyhow, to read more about those stories,

05:54you can go to insidermedia.com. There you can subscribe to our newsletters,

05:59you can subscribe to our magazines, and you can find out about upcoming events.

06:03That's everything from us. See you next time.

Watch: Insider's Business Briefing - 5th June 2025

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