Laurence and Alice discuss an employee ownership deal at a South Wales recruitment firm, the phased MBO of Wilkinson Cowan Partnership, and a new headquarters for a clean air tech firm.
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00:00Employees taking control of a South Wales recruitment firm, a new head office
00:05for a clean air tech firm and a phased MBO completes. That's all coming up in
00:10today's business briefing.
00:17My name is Lawrence Glegannon and I'm Alice Bird. Right so Alice I mentioned in
00:22the intro there that we we had a we've got a new employee ownership deal they
00:27always catch my eye so perhaps you can tell us a bit more about that. Yes so
00:30this one is with a South Wales recruitment firm which was established
00:34in 2016 and today has a turnover of about 20 million pounds and so yeah as
00:40we said that's transition to employee ownership. The company in question is
00:44Hoop Recruitment. Now they have offices in Cardiff and in Swansea and they
00:48employ about 40 people and so the business specializes in recruiting
00:53across loads of different sectors including social care, social work, HR,
00:58professional services so very busy and the founders actually set up the
01:04business because they worked together at a previous recruitment firm and then
01:07they left there worked on their own careers but they always kept in touch so
01:11that's how they kind of joined together to create Hoop. Nice story now they're
01:15sort of like giving a legacy for their for their employees and are they staying
01:19involved? Yes so they are going to be staying involved but they have said that
01:24the ownership trust model the employee ownership trust model is critical for
01:28the business's future success. Okay great well the people always sort of talk
01:34them up as a good option for both the staff and and the founders so it's good
01:38one to see and staying with with Wales and Cardiff in particular news of two
01:44big property transactions by Grainger you know you'll know them from the
01:48North East yeah so the UK's largest listed landlord they have acquired two
01:54development sites in in Cardiff one is a 6.25 million pound investment at John
02:00Street that also includes the long leasehold of five railway arches I really
02:06like it when they repurpose them. So do I and they put like nice little shops in there. Exactly so you're gonna have a
02:11built-to-end department scheme yeah and then shops and maybe a cafe and so on
02:15there and then the other investment is a further two million pounds that's in a
02:21multi-story car park in the capital quarter which is next door to pre-existing
02:26Grainger scheme so then you know they're keen to sort of build up their presence
02:31in in in Wales and actually you see built-to-rent all over the all over the
02:36country so obviously a lot of demand for people for rental homes. Now we've
02:40opened out with a couple of stories from Wales but perhaps we can spread our wings
02:44a bit further afield and you've got a phased MBO to tell us about. I do yeah
02:47this one is in the northwest and it's a property and construction services firm
02:52Wilkinson Coen partnership and so yeah they've completed a phased management
02:57buyout so the business is headquartered in Sheedle Hume it also has an office at
03:02Liverpool Innovation Park now over the past four years the previous owners have
03:06retired and they've sold their shares in different stages now this has paved the
03:12way for the new directors to take over so they are Mark Jensen, Ben Dawson and
03:17Stuart Talkington and they've now acquired the business fully and together
03:21the three new owners have about 75 years of experience in the industry so
03:27obviously very well placed to take it forward and one of those owners Mark
03:31Jensen said that the directors are looking forward to building on the
03:34legacy of its predecessors. Now lovely but it's another nice sort of deal where
03:38it seems like it's well set for the future yeah much like the employee
03:42ownership from the start and then finally we've got news of Haworth
03:46Technology relocating its head office to a flagship Bolton scheme which is
03:52Logistics North, we sort of followed that from planning phase through to now people
03:57coming. It's really cool when you see that. It is, it's excellent and they are going to be
04:01relocating later this year, running out of year I suppose, but they've been at
04:07their current base for almost 150 years, so bittersweet I suppose, going to a
04:12sort of all singing all dancing place but then must be lots of
04:16memories associated with the earlier base which is, it's Victoria Works on
04:21Lawn Street in Farnworth. Their operation in Salford is unaffected by the move and
04:27there is actually a deal in place for the old head office as well so again
04:31it's got like a sort of certain completeness to it. Yeah, a nice full
04:34circle moment I guess. Exactly, exactly. Well to find out more about the stories
04:38we've been talking about go to insidermedia.com, there you can
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04:50time.