Northern Financial Review

Newcastle-based bakery and “food-on-the-go” retailer Greggs said on Tuesday its first half sales rose 14.7% to £546 million and underlying pre-tax profit rose to £40.6 million…

French carmaker PSA — owner of Vauxhall — has warned that the car giant could cease production at its Ellesmere Port factory on the Mersey…

Shares in Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct fell by as much as 27% on Monday morning following the chaos that surrounded the retailer’s delayed annual results…

Shares of Wetherby-based ecommerce firm Proactis Holdings rose about 17% on Monday after it said it has received a “preliminary unsolicited approach from a US-based investor…

West Yorkshire-based textile business Camira said it has acquired San Francisco based textile company Luna Textiles. “Luna has a distinctive portfolio of patterned textiles, designed…

New UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a new Manchester-Leeds rail route to “unleash regional growth” in a speech in Manchester. A new Trans-Pennine rail…

Bradford-based window and door company Safestyle UK said on Friday it continues to make progress on phase two of its turnaround plan with revenues for…

Banking group CYBG — owner of Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank, Virgin Money and digital brand B — promised shareholders on Friday it would be clearer…

Shares of Newcastle-based cloud software giant Sage Group, the UK’s largest listed tech company, fell about 12% on Thursday after it issued a trading update…

Shares of Manchester-based investment firm AJ Bell rose 5% on Thursday after it said in a third quarter trading update its customers increased 5% to 224,644…

Manchester-based cyber security company NCC Group said on Thursday its revenue from continuing operations rose 7.6% to £250.7 million and profit before taxation increased 52.1%…

Macclesfield-based engineering and thermal processing giant Bodycote said on Thursday it delivered a “resilient” set of half year results to June 30 as its revenue slipped 0.4%…

East Yorkshire-based chemicals giant Croda International said on Wednesday its personal care business had been impacted by the trade war between Beijing and Washington as…

North Yorkshire-based power company Drax Group plc on Wednesday reported a rise in adjusted core earnings for the first half of the year, boosted by…

Liverpool-based bargain retailer B&M European Value Retail said its sales revenue rose 21.4% to £967.7 million in the quarter to June 29, 2019. B&M UK…

The North West of England’s 65 listed companies added £1.28 billion to their total stock market value in the second quarter of 2019 to reach…

Manchester-based soaps and consumer products company PZ Cussons said on Tuesday its revenue fell 6.8% to £689.4 million and adjusted profit before tax fell 12.9% to £69.8…

UK company dividends rose 14.5% to an all-time high of £37.8 billion in the second quarter, beating the previous record of two years ago by…

Shares of Sheffield-based energy storage and clean fuel company ITM Power rose more than 10% on Monday amid news that it signed an agreement for a…

Durham-based mobile technology bank Atom said on Monday it raised another £50 million in a fundraising round with participation from existing investors BBVA, Toscafund, Woodford…

Banco Santander said on Friday it will support thousands of SMEs in the North of England over the next five years as part of its…

Stockport Council has launched a public consultation on a draft regeneration masterplan for up to 3,500 new homes in Stockport Town Centre West. The public…

Merseyside-based Vimto and soft drinks firm Nichols plc said on Wednesday it revenue rose 10.2% to £71.6 million and profit before tax rose 2% to…

Salford-based broadband giant TalkTalk Telecom Group said on Wednesday it added 118,000 new customers to its fibre product in the three months to June 30 as…

Leeds City Council said on Tuesday the old Polestar Petty printworks on Whitehall Road has been identified as the location for a new world class…

Directors of Manchester-based car dealership Lookers plc have bought up shares in the company just a few days after the firm’s share price plummeted after…

Manchester’s Bruntwood SciTech, the UK’s only property business dedicated to development in the science and technology sector, said it agreed a three-year £185 million funding…

Macquarie unit MEIF 6 Fibre Ltd will buy KCOM Group Plc in a deal that values the Hull-based telecom and cloud company at £627 million….

Shares of Manchester-based car dealership Lookers plc fell another 16% on Friday after it warned in a trading update its underlying profit before tax for…

Doncaster-based DFS Furniture said in a trading statement on Thursday its underlying profit before tax is expected to be slightly above £50 million compared to £38.3…

Leeds-based leisure and logistics firm Dart Group, owner of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said on Thursday its profit before tax soared 36% to £177.5 million as group revenue rose 32%…

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on Wednesday delivered a scathing review of the UK’s seven largest accounting firms, saying “poor quality audit work remains unacceptably common.”…

Philip Day’s Spectre Holdings is set to take Wakefield fashion firm Bonmarché Holdings private after the retailer’s last major institutional shareholder sold its stake in…

The £2 billion auction of Warrington-based Electricity North West has been derailed by the UK Labour Party’s plan to nationalise energy networks if it wins…

Sheffield-based Benchmark Holdings, the aquaculture health, genetics and nutrition firm, said on Tuesday its chief financial officer (CFO) Mark Plampin will step down from his…

Newcastle-based Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, said on Tuesday it agreed to forward fund a 146-home private rented sector (PRS) development with 12,500 sq…

Shares of Manchester-based corporate rescue practice Begbies Traynor Group plc rose 4% on Tuesday after it said its revenue for the year to April 30 rose…

Warrington-based Eddie Stobart Logistics plc said on Tuesday it will restate parts of last year’s earnings after its new chief financial officer (CFO) Anoop Kang found problems…

UPDATE 3 — The UK’s Takeover Panel said it started an auction process on Sunday, July 7, for the sale of Hull-based telecom and cloud…

Shares of Sheffield-based European building materials supplier SIG plc fell about 5% on Friday after it said trading conditions remain challenging and there has been…

Manchester Airport Group (MAG) said its revenue rose 8.7% to £889.4 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 5.9% to £379.8 million in the year to March 31….

Shares of Sheffield-based affordable housebuilder MJ Gleeson plc rose 9% on Thursday after it said in a trading update its Gleeson Homes division delivered its largest…

Scandal-hit York housebuilder Persimmon said on Thursday its revenues for the first six months of 2019 slipped to £1.754 billion from £1.836 billion amid a…

Bury-based JD Sports Fashion Plc said late on Wednesday it will review its corporate governance and remuneration policies after shareholders sent a strong message with…

Shares of Bury-based JD Sports Fashion Plc rose about 3% on Wednesday after it said it is on track to deliver headline profit before tax…

Manchester’s MediaCityUK said it appointed Chis Reay as property director to drive forward the delivery of its £1 billion phase two ambitions for the creative,…

Advertising and communication giant WPP said on Tuesday it will create a new home for its Manchester agencies.  The new purpose-built campus will be located…

More than £394 million is to be invested into the five local authority areas on both sides of the border between England and Scotland. The…

Newcastle-based cloud software giant Sage Group, the UK’s largest listed tech company, said on Monday it is moving its flagship UK offices from North Park…

Every university in the north of England is to come together for an historic summit to agree a plan of action to drive the Northern…

Developer and Asset Manager MEPC has unveiled its newly approved masterplan for phase two the £600 million Wellington Place development in Leeds, following permissions from…

Train operator Arriva Rail North announced that the first nine trains of a £500 million new fleet for local rail services will start carrying passengers…

Apple said late on Thursday that Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, will leave the company as an employee later this year to form an…

Philip Day’s Spectre Holdings Limited announced on Thursday the early closure of its £5.7 million cash takeover offer for Wakefield fashion firm Bonmarché Holdings following…

Port of Tyne said its adjusted pre-tax profit increased to £2.1 million and turnover rose 22% to £57.5 million in 2018, with almost all existing…

French carmaker PSA — owner of Vauxhall — said on Thursday that a final decision on whether to build its next generation Astra model at…

Intu Properties plc — which runs 17 shopping centres including Manchester’s Trafford Centre and Arndale Centre, Newcastle’s Eldon Square and Gateshead’s Metrocentre — has issued a…

Shares of Manchester-based car dealership Lookers plc have lost almost a quarter of their value in the past two days following its announcement that the…

Troubled Wakefield fashion firm Bonmarché said on Wednesday that recent trading has been so poor that it now recommends shareholders accept billionaire businessman Philip Day’s…

Shares of York-based Gear4music, the online retailer of musical equipment, fell more than 6% on Tuesday after it said revenue rose 48% to £118.1 million for…

Train operator Grand Central — part of Deutsche Bahn’s Sunderland-based Arriva group — confirmed on Monday that its plans to run frequent trains between Blackpool…

Newcastle United announced on Monday that its manager Rafael Benítez will leave the club when his contract expires on June 30, 2019. Newcastle finished 13th in the…

Progressive policy think tank IPPR North argues in a new report that the Northern Powerhouse has undoubtedly boosted the economy of the North in many…

Shares of Manchester-based fashion retailer N Brown Group rose about 4% on Thursday after it said in a trading statement that its first-quarter total revenue fell…

Castleford, West Yorkshire-based Premier Technical Services Group plc (PTSG) said on Thursday its independent directors agreed to a £265.3 million takeover offer from a subsidiary of…

Thirsk, North Yorkshire-based steel group Severfield said on Wednesday its revenue edged higher to £274.9 million in the year to March 31 and underlying profit before…

Glasgow-based banking group CYBG confirmed on Wednesday it will retire its 175-year-old Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank brands and rename itself Virgin Money UK by the end of…

Shares of Wakefield-based video game developer Team17 Group — which went public in 2018 — rose 14% on Tuesday after it issued a trading update ahead of announcing…

The UK’s largest onshore gas field may have been discovered at a drill site in West Newton, East Yorkshire. Reabold Resources Plc said in a…

Manchester Airport Group (MAG) has put a portfolio of industrial assets and development land around its airports up for sale for £500 million, according to a…