Robyn and Laurence discuss a strong year for dairy giant Arla, a senior appointment at PwC and the green light for a Belfast hospital investment.
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00:00A strong year for dairy giant Arla, a senior appointment at PwC and the green
00:05light for a Belfast Hospital investment. That's all coming up in today's business
00:09briefing.
00:14My name is Lawrence Kilgannon and I'm Robin Hewson. Well, morning Robin. Morning
00:20Lawrence. Well, big appointments sort of stock in trade for us and you've got
00:24news of a really big one in PwC. Yeah, so it's a big appointment for PwC in
00:28Manchester. They've hired qualified lawyer Laura Nadel and she's going to be
00:34their market senior partner for Manchester. So Laura's been with the
00:37firm for a decade, became a partner in 2021 and is now stepping up again. She
00:43replaces Adam Waller who's retired from PwC at the end of December and she's
00:48going to lead collaboration across PwC services and 1,900 colleagues who are
00:52based in Harbourn Square. So yeah, quite a big undertaking. That really is a massive
00:56operation isn't it? Because it's grown up significantly over the last so
01:01many years I suppose. And a lawyer as well, so that's interesting because they're
01:05accountants essentially. But best of luck to Laura. And sticking with
01:10professional services, we've got results for Bradmers, a commercial law firm
01:17based in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Lancashire, so a northern base there. Long
01:24established, in fact established in 1815 Robin. Can you think of any
01:28historical landmarks from there? Oh gosh, you put me on the spot there. I don't think so.
01:33I think, actually I'm unsure now, but I think it was the Battle of Waterloo, so remarkable. I
01:38watched the film recently and I watched maybe too many history podcasts as well,
01:42listened to too many history podcasts. But anyhow, Bradmers, they've pushed
01:45turnover past £50 million for the first time, so a great year for them.
01:50Profits have also gone up, so a successful year round for them.
01:56So okay, well we've got some results for Arla too. Yeah absolutely, so great news
02:01for Arla, they've had a really strong year. So the dairy giant has reported
02:05results that have enabled the highest dividend payout to farmer
02:09owners in the company's history. So in 2024 they've achieved total revenue of
02:14£13.8 billion and also a net profit of £401 million. So a fantastic year and also
02:20really nice for the farmers that they work with to be able to give that to
02:24them as well. Yeah, absolutely, because we've mostly been covering farmers
02:28protesting about inheritance tax and things like that, so it's good to have a
02:32positive note. Yeah, exactly that. And they've reported a return to branded
02:36volume growth with popular brands that people know, like Lerpac leading the
02:40way in kind of helping them increase their profits. I do wonder if it's
02:44kind of the return to office and everyone getting their city centre
02:47Starbucks. Yeah, perhaps, and also of course milk. Someone needs milk, although not so
02:52often here it seems at the moment. I'm never going to make my brews. Yeah, we never have any in the office.
02:56Yeah, so they've had a fantastic year and they've also invested more than £1 billion
03:02into projects to support their future operations. So a strong year
03:06and it seems like more strong years ahead for Arla. Okay, great stuff and
03:10we'll finish with news of a new hospital investment that's going ahead in
03:13Belfast. They've got the formal go-ahead for an investment of £671 million, so
03:19obviously these massive infrastructure schemes create a lot of jobs for
03:22construction suppliers and supply chain etc. And that's going to be in
03:28Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, a children's hospital with up to 155 beds,
03:3310 theatres, and apparently capacity for emergency services of about 45,000
03:38children a year. So it's going to be a real big investment I imagine that'll be
03:42going on for the next so many years. So yeah, to find out more about the stories
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