Dan and Jen discuss a deal between two estate agents in the South East, part of a historic BBC studio put up for sale, and a supplier of equipment for the Grand National becoming employee owned.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A deal between two estate agents in the south-east, part of a historic BBC studio put up for sale
00:06in Bristol, a supply of equipment for the Grand National becoming employee-owned and
00:11footage from the Midland Sales Summit, all featured in today's Business Briefing.
00:15Morning, Jen.
00:17Good morning, Dan.
00:20So, if you want to start things off, I understand you've got some news from Bristol.
00:25I do indeed.
00:26So, the BBC in Bristol has instructed Lambert, Smith, Hampton to mark a part of its site
00:32in Clifton.
00:33The announcement follows the organisation's move to its new city centre location at Bridgewater
00:38House.
00:39So, the historic Clifton site then has been in operation since 1934 and it was the largest
00:45BBC Studios production base outside of London.
00:49It was also the former home to the BBC's Natural History Unit, which was responsible for shows
00:54like Blue Planet, Countryfile and Springwatch.
00:58The 3.2-acre site then is on White Ladies Road and comprises a variety of listed and
01:04modern buildings, as well as a large car park to the rear, so it represents a prime opportunity
01:09in the city.
01:10It'll be interesting to see who the buyer is because that sounds like quite an exciting
01:14opportunity and sort of sticking with property, I've got a deal between two estate agents
01:19in the south-east.
01:20So, Miles and Barr, who are a letting estate agent based in Kent, they've been acquired
01:25by Le Monde, who are quite acquisitive, this is their 64th acquisition and it's quite a
01:29significant deal in the south-east because it's actually their first in Kent.
01:33They've said Miles and Barr will become their sort of cornerstone brand for their operations
01:37in the county.
01:38So, Miles and Barr have been selling and buying and letting homes for about 25 years and they
01:42operate from 12 branches across Kent, so they're quite well-known and it's quite a busy county
01:47in terms of the property market, you know, I write a lot of planning and sort of property
01:50stories down there.
01:52The acquisition includes 2,400 properties under management, as well as the residential
01:57sales, commercial land and new homes aspect of the business.
02:00And it's also Le Monde, it's not their first acquisition in the south-east, you might remember
02:04in July they acquired Charters, they're based in Winchester, so it's quite clear that they're
02:10interested in expanding in the south-east and they'll love to see where they go next.
02:15I have some news then down in Leeds, actually.
02:18So William G. Search Limited, which is a Leeds-based plant and machinery specialist, has become
02:24an employee-owned business.
02:27The company was established in 1946 by Bill Search and has since been owned and operated
02:33by his grandsons, Richard William and Jamie, for the last 35 years.
02:40So the company employs a team of more than 120 people across offices in Leeds, Liverpool,
02:46Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.
02:50And the company has a very impressive client base, actually.
02:53It supplies equipment for some major outdoor events like Leeds and Reading festivals, which
02:59I know you're familiar with.
03:00Yeah, I went and auditioned, it was great.
03:02Unfortunately, my tent maybe blew away, but apart from that, it was brilliant.
03:06Very good.
03:08The company has also supplied equipment for the Grand National for the last almost 50
03:13years, too.
03:14So very impressive.
03:16And the Employee Ownership Trust means now that the employees are stakeholders in the
03:20firm who will benefit from its financial success going forward.
03:24That's some really exciting news there.
03:26You've been fan of the Grand National, Jen?
03:28I've never been, but I've seen it on TV.
03:30So do I.
03:31I'm not a betting man, but it's fun to put a bet on a horse who wins.
03:35Definitely.
03:36Well, that is all from us.
03:37But before we go, we've got some news from our editor in the Midlands.
03:40Kurt Jacobs has been at the Sales Summit in the Midlands.
03:42He's been speaking to some of the panelists about technology and AI and how they can improve
03:47sales performance.
03:48And we've got some video footage for you.
03:49So over to you, Kurt.
03:51Hi.
03:52I'm Kurt Jacobs.
03:53I'm the editor of Midlands Business Insider.
03:55And welcome to Ladywood in Birmingham, where we've just held the latest of our Sales Summit
04:00debates.
04:01It's been a fascinating discussion where we've looked at the impact of technology on business
04:06businesses, how they can improve their sales performance, find out more about the customer,
04:10issues such as hyper-personalization, how you restructure in preparation for AI.
04:15Let's see what some of our panelists had to say.
04:19I'm Cassandra Brankovic, and I'm the founder of AIQ Nexus in the Midlands.
04:23And I'm the technology lead for NetMonkeys.
04:27So let me ask a question, which I know you're going to say no.
04:32So it's increased data, AI, and so forth.
04:36That's going to lead to sales becoming more of a personal process, isn't it?
04:42You know, sort of a machine will do it all.
04:44Absolutely not, no.
04:45So if you look at the true role of a salesperson, they're not there to copy notes from meetings.
04:49They're not there to set up meetings, things like that.
04:51They're actually there to build a relationship with the client and actually understand the
04:55client on a human level.
04:56So being able to collect those data points around what the client's interested in, what
04:59they're actually trying to do with their business, you can actually have a much better
05:02conversation with them and focus on that, rather than the tapping on your keyboard,
05:07the writing down notes, all stuff like that.
05:08So it's going to pick up those unnecessary evils that we've come to accept over the last
05:13kind of 50 years with computers.
05:17Great work from Kurt there.
05:18And you can watch the full video on our website, insidermedia.com, where you can also subscribe
05:23to our magazine and our newsletters and find out about upcoming events.