Adam and Stephen discuss the acquisition of a firm founded by UK Special Forces veterans, results for a retail, leisure and hospitality group, and a new McDonald's drive-thru.
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00:00The acquisition of a firm founded by UK Special Forces veterans results from a retail measuring
00:05hospitality group, a new McDonald's drive-thru, featuring today's business briefing.
00:09So, Adam, what's caught your eye this morning?
00:18An interesting deal in the West Midlands with a secure mobile communications provider having
00:23been acquired by private equity firm Alita Capital.
00:27Serbis was founded in 2010 by two people who previously served in the UK Special Forces.
00:34It's behind Serbis Secure, a secure communications platform which utilises hardware and software
00:40to provide top-level security, threat detection, threat protection, sorry, and compliance.
00:46Today it's primarily being used for UK military and government customers, but there is scope
00:52for the tech to be used in the private sector as well.
00:56The acquisition of Serbis marks another step in Alita's aim to create a leading UK provider
01:02of critical infrastructure services, and it builds on prior investments in the likes of
01:06ITM Communications and Base IT.
01:09A really interesting deal, that.
01:11Yeah, certainly.
01:12Whilst we're at it, we've got results from the Leakes Retail and Leisure Group, which
01:16is headquartered in South Wales and can trace its history back 125 years.
01:21So the Leakes Retail business currently has stores in South Wales, Carthaginianshire,
01:27the West Midlands and Wiltshire, and recently opened its latest store in Cheltenham.
01:32The group as a whole reported EBITDA of £6 million and a pre-tax profit of £3.1 million
01:37last year, which the group said was a strong performance considering the various challenges
01:42in the retail sector at the moment.
01:44Along with the retail business, the group also owns the Vail Resort, which is a four-star
01:49hotel with two championship golf courses, a spa, health and racquets club, and a number
01:55of restaurants, which is located to the west of Cardiff.
01:57Now, that arm of the business was said to have had an outstanding year with turnover
02:01of 7%.
02:03The last part of the group, the newest part of the group, is its distillery operations
02:08at Hensel Castle, and the group said that was an exciting year for that arm of the business
02:13with a number of supermarket listings and further investment in the production facilities
02:17there.
02:18It's an interesting company doing well, as always.
02:22Also this morning in the North East, we have a story on a Gateshead-based website accessibility
02:27software business, and it has secured a £4.6 million following investment from BGF.
02:35Recite Me's technology removes online obstacles for those with disabilities, visual impairments,
02:41learning difficulties, the elderly, and people using English as a second language.
02:47In the last 12 months, its technology has actually supported more than 7 million users
02:51across Europe, the US, and Australia.
02:53Now, the funding is signalling the start of a growth phase for the company, as it looks
02:57to expand its accessibility offering, and it follows a previous funding round from BGF,
03:03taking the total from the investor to £8.8 million.
03:07Well, the last thing for us today, in Yorkshire, we have plans for the demolition of the Bingo
03:13Hall, the construction of a new McDonald's restaurant, which looks likely to take a step
03:17forward.
03:18So McDonald's submitted plans earlier this year for a site in Hull, aiming to demolish
03:24the former Bingo Hall and construct its new drive-thru restaurant.
03:28In the application, pioneering consultant Litchfield highlighted a number of potential
03:32economic, social, and environmental benefits associated with the plans.
03:36So, for example, it's expected to support the creation of about 70 full-time equivalent
03:41jobs and could generate more than £3 million of additional GVA for the area.
03:47A number of responses have been received to the application, both supportive and opposing,
03:53and the Council's Planning Committee will now make its decision next week, 4th December.
03:59Councillors have been recommended to approve the scheme, so we'll see how that one checks out.
04:02Yeah, we'll definitely keep an eye out for the result.
04:04And that's it from us.
04:06You can read more about those stories or others at insidermedia.com, where you can also subscribe
04:11to our newsletters and learn about upcoming events.
04:15Goodbye.