Canadian property firm to acquire WHR
Canadian real estate firm Avison Young said it agreed to acquire Manchester property consultancy WHR. The Manchester office will become Avison Young’s fifth office in…
Articles by Liz Ramanand
Hodder £19m Manchester scheme approved
A £19 million plan for a 15-storey property development in Manchester has been approved by Manchester City Council. The location of the site is on…
Quayle is first female to lead KPMG Manchester
Auditing firm KPMG has appointed Nicola Quayle to lead the company’s Manchester office from October 1. Quayle is the first woman to be appointed as…
Boohoo hires Phone House founder as non-exec
Manchester-based online fashion giant Boohoo.com announced Pierre Marie Jean-Louis Cuilleret as a new non-executive director. Cuilleret will join the board and sit on each of…
Lancashire tissue firm Accrol appoints CEO
Lancashire-based tissue maker Accrol Group said it appointed Gareth Jenkins as its new chief executive. Jenkins’ previous experience includes 24 years at DS Smith plc, one…
Endless leads buyout at Antler luggage firm
The Manchester office of private equity firm Endless has backed a management buyout of British upmarket luggage company Antler. Antler CEO David Sharman will continue…
Board moves as Virgin Money H1 profit hits £128m
UPDATE 1 — Edinburgh and Newcastle-based challenger bank Virgin Money Holdings on Tuesday announced changes to its board and said underlying profit before tax rose 26%…
£1bn Manchester Airport expansion under way
The UK Government unveiled plans to develop a new UK Aviation Strategy as a £1 billion programme to double the size of Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 was…
Manchester’s 101 Embankment sold for £105m
The Manchester office development 101 Embankment has been sold to M&G Real Estate for £105 million. 101 Embankment, the new headquarters of UK insurer Swinton,…
£1bn plan unveiled to transform Bolton town centre
A £1 billion plan has been unveiled to regenerate Bolton town centre, with Bolton Council promising to provide £100 million of the funding. The council…
Balfour Beatty, Carillion win HS2 contracts
Infrastructure and construction group Balfour Beatty said that it was awarded two contracts by High Speed 2 (HS2) — the UK’s planned high speed rail…
Education spurs Manchester fashion boom
Move over London, Paris and New York — Manchester is catching up fast as an international fashion business hub. Manchester is now home to a…
Employees get ownership at Manchester’s Tangerine
Manchester-based communication company Tangerine said that it will place 64% of its shares into an employee ownership trust. The announcement comes as the company celebrates…
Digital bank Atom confirms future in Durham
Atom bank, the UK’s first digital only bank, has confirmed its future in Durham by signing a 10-year lease on the city’s Rivergreen Centre. Atom…
CBI: ‘Stay in single market until Brexit deal’
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned that the UK needs to stay inside the single market and customs union until a final Brexit…
Hepworth Wakefield is Art Fund Museum of Year
The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire has been chosen as Art Fund Museum of the Year 2017. The £100,000 prize that goes with the award…
Kier to build £70m Nuffield hospital in Manchester
Construction company Kier has been appointed to build a £70 million private hospital in Manchester for not-for-profit healthcare provider Nuffield Health. The investment by Nuffield…
Leeds United buys back Elland Road Stadium
Leeds United announced that Greenfield Investment Pte Ltd, parent company of Leeds United Football Club Limited, has bought back Elland Road Stadium. The stadium will…
17% drop in farm workers amid Brexit fallout
A new survey by the National Farmers Union (NFU) has shown that amid confusion over the UK’s Brexit strategy, numbers of seasonal workers coming to…
Salford hires architects for campus masterplan
The University of Salford and Salford City Council have selected 5plus Architects as master planners to create a development framework for the university’s estate and a…
IPO for Chesire’s Tatton Asset Management
Cheshire-based financial advisory company Tatton Asset Management announced its intention to float on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange. Tatton said…
N Brown shares up amid online growth, store closures
Shares of Manchester-based fashion retailer N Brown Group rose about 8% after it said in a trading statement its product revenue rose 10.2% in the…
Bonmarché profit falls 39% in ‘challenging’ year
Wakefield-based Bonmarché, the discount fashion retailer aimed at women over 50, said pre-tax profit fell 39.4% to £5.8 million in the 53 weeks to April…
Australia’s IFM takes wheel with M6 toll acquisition
IFM Investors, the Australian pension fund-owned investment manager, said it acquired a controlling majority stake in the outstanding commercial debt of the UK’s M6 toll…
DFS falls 20% as it blames election for profit warning
Shares of Doncaster-based furniture retail company DFS fell more than 20% after it blamed “customer uncertainty regarding the general election” for a profit warning in a…
Bellway shares up amid ‘robust market conditions’
Shares of Newcastle-based house builder Bellway plc rose on Wednesday after it issued a trading statement saying it enjoyed a 13% increase in its reservation rate…
Severfield profit doubles as revenue hits £262m
Thirsk, North Yorkshire-based steel group Severfield said its profit before tax nearly doubled to £18.1 million on revenue up 10% to £262.2 million in the…
Boardroom changes at fashion firm Boohoo
Manchester-based fashion giant Boohoo.com said that after four years with the company Stephen Morana will step down as a non-executive director on July 1, 2017….
Fashion group N Brown’s chairman to step down
Manchester-based specialist fit fashion retailer N Brown Group — whose brands include JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo — said its chairman Andrew Higginson intends to step down…
Leeds office take-up set for record year – Savills
Office take-up in Leeds is on track to reach 800,000 square feet by the end of 2017, which would be 94% above the 2016 total…
Manchester Airport ‘third worst’ despite record May
New routes helped Manchester Airport have its busiest May on record with 2.5 million passengers passing through its terminals, an increase of 12%. However, despite…
Boohoo stock jumps after 106% rise in revenue
Manchester-based online fashion retailer Boohoo.com said its revenue soared 106% to £120.1 million in the three months to May 31, 2017. The company said it now expects revenue growth of…
Print and web group Grafenia reports near £1m loss
Manchester-based print and web design company Grafenia, owner of Nettl web studios, is finding things tough. The company said it had a pre-tax loss of £990,000 in…
International growth as GB Group revenue tops £87m
Chester-based identity data company GB Group said its revenue grew 19.2% to £87.5 million and profit before tax rose 8.2% to £10.1 million in the year ended March 31,…
AO World shares fall amid loss, UK slowdown
Shares of Bolton-based online electrical retailer AO World fell about 11% after it reported an operating loss of £12 million for the year to March 31 and warned of a “challenging…
GTCR to buy Sage Payment Solutions for $260m
Newcastle-based software giant Sage Group, the UK’s largest tech company, said it reached an agreement to sell its North American Payments business Sage Payment Solutions…