Adam and Stephen discuss strong sales at Morrisons, the latest results for Liverpool John Lennon Airport and two Insider events
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00:00Strong sales at Morrisons, the latest results at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and two insider events featuring today's business briefing.
00:12I'm Stephen Fowler. And I'm Adam Beach.
00:14And what's caught your eye this morning Adam?
00:16Some interesting figures released by Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
00:19They've actually reported an increase in revenues following continued recovery in the travel sector.
00:24Now, and this is supported by significant investment over the past year.
00:28The airport welcomed 4.3 million passengers in its most recent financial year to March 2024.
00:34An upturn of 15% and actually only 10% under its pre-pandemic numbers.
00:38Now these rising passenger numbers have allowed the airport to increase revenues by 14% to 44.4 million during the same period.
00:48So obviously a strong year for the airport.
00:51Yeah, what have you got for us Stephen?
00:54Well sticking with the results for me, Morrisons have reported their latest quarterly sales figures from the end of April to the end of July.
01:01Total sales excluding fuel grew by 2.1% to 3.9 billion.
01:06While like-for-like sales, also excluding fuel, grew by 2.9%.
01:10Morrisons said it had been a particularly strong performance of its clothing ranges.
01:14So its clothing brand Nutmeg, where like-for-like sales grew by 8%.
01:17And also its back-to-school range, which seems a bit early in the year, but always best to be prepared.
01:21And sales there were going by 23%.
01:23Morrisons also said it benefited from improved availability thanks to the use of new AI availability cameras in 400 of its stores.
01:31And an investment in its Morrisons more card.
01:34It's good news for staff, where pay from the start of October will be going up to £12 per hour.
01:42And alongside the results, Morrisons also announced the sale of more than 70 of its properties, which is raising more than £300.
01:50I think my daily meal deal purchases have added to that somewhat.
01:53Must have helped, yes.
01:55We also have big expansion from a company that supplies adapted vehicles for disabled users.
02:02Specialist Vehicle Rental provides mobility services to customers across the country, thousands of them in fact.
02:08It was the sole provider of specialist vehicles for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
02:13The business secured a funding package from Lloyds Bank to secure a second site in Aldrich.
02:19Now with the new premises set to open in October and more space, the company is expecting to increase turnover by about 30% over last year.
02:28So we're really significant for that company in the region.
02:33The last thing from us, it was a really busy night for our events team last night, where we had both the North East Dealmakers Awards and the Wales Dealmakers Awards.
02:41Now both of those events celebrated the key deals from the two regions, as well as the firms and the individuals that helped bring them to life.
02:48The North East event was held at the Newcastle Gateshead Hilton and compared by Ciarán Bracken,
02:54while the Wales Awards were held at the Mercure Cardiff Holland House Hotel and compared by Alex Zane.
03:00The winners from both of the events will go on to our inaugural UK Dealmakers Awards in February, so good luck then.
03:08The winners are all online now and we'll have image galleries from the events up later today.
03:14So if you were there, you'll be able to have a look and see if you can feature.
03:17Great. Like Stephen said, you can read more about those events on insidermedia.com,
03:24where you can also subscribe to our newsletters and read about further upcoming events. Thank you.
03:30Insider Media