Robyn and Simon discuss a fast-growing honey manufacturer in Wales, iconic motorway services, an acquisition in Yorkshire and an innovation event in Manchester.
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00:00Sweet success for a honey manufacturer, rising profits for Westmoreland services,
00:06a benchmark acquisition and an innovation showcase. That's what's coming
00:10up in today's Daily Business Briefing.
00:17Hi I'm Simon Keegan and I'm Robyn Hewson. Hi Robyn, so first of all I think we're
00:23gonna go with some good news aren't we? Yeah. So you've got a nice story from Wales to
00:27share haven't you? Yeah definitely. So the Wales team have been putting together a
00:31list of the top 25 fastest growing food and drink companies and the one that's
00:35come out on top is Hilltop Honey. So it was established by a former bricklayer
00:41Scott Davies back in 2011 after a back injury prevented him from working in
00:46construction. So it ended up being a really good thing for him as the company
00:50is now reporting a turnover of 33.7 million in their latest accounts which
00:55is up from 20 million the year before. So that makes them the fastest growing
01:00in the sector in Wales and their growth is looking likely to continue as they've
01:05also secured some funding from Santander. So you can see the full list
01:10that has the top 25 food and drink companies that are growing really fast
01:13in the April and May edition of Wales Business Insider. Sounds like a hive of
01:17activity. Fantastic pun. Thank you. So another good news story, we're keeping it
01:24positive aren't we, is Westmoreland Services have increased their profits. Now
01:29Westmoreland Services is probably going to be better known to our readers and
01:34viewers by their brands like Tbay services. Do you know Tbay? I've not been
01:39to that one I don't think. Tbay is not what people from Yorkshire call eBay.
01:42It's a great way, it's a real like artisan farmers market type services
01:50up in the Lake District and they've got a similar one at Gloucester
01:53Services off the M5 and they've also got the Reg Ed Centre which is again
01:59it's lovely produce and it looks all it looks all castle-y. But anyway it's got
02:05kind of a cult following as well. Colleen Rooney, Clare Balding, Frank Skinner have
02:10all been on the one show talking about it because it is a bit fancy. Wow, I need to pay a visit.
02:14You should, you really should. So they've announced last year pre-tax
02:20profits have gone from 5.1 million to 6.3 million which is really good but
02:26that's despite the turnover being lower. So turnovers dropped from 141.7
02:33million to 138.7 million but the good news, so that's lower fuel
02:39prices but they've offset that with increased trading in the non-fuel stuff
02:46but it's great because they really work with local producers so
02:52within a 30 mile radius they work with 412 local producers and
02:59they've added 60 new producers to the business in the last year so that is a
03:04great success story, one for the North West Business Insider. So what else have we got?
03:10Actually more good news, so we've been very positive today aren't we? So over in
03:15Yorkshire a financial advisor, Robert Zumbaxter, has been acquired by
03:20Benchmark and so Benchmark is a financial planning business that's part
03:23of Schroders, it's their asset management company, they actually own the building
03:26that we're in right now. So yeah, Benchmark has been on this big growth
03:30strategy and the acquisition forms part of that. It's going to bring them
03:35200 million pounds worth of client activity and over the next two
03:41years they're going to fully integrate into Benchmark, so exciting times for
03:45Robert Zumbaxter. It is exciting times. Now on Friday I was at quite an exciting
03:51event as well which is the GM Innovation Showcase, so that was held at the Royal
03:56Exchange Theatre. We'll love it in there. So I got to chair a panel with GM's
04:02Business Growth Hub and the GMCA and we had representatives from the University
04:08of Manchester, Manchester Met, Salford Uni, Innovation UK and it was all about
04:15the innovation ecosystem and how businesses can work more effectively
04:22with academia and all of the businesses that are being helped. I mean they've
04:27supported 900 companies just in the last couple of years. Is that just in Greater
04:32Manchester? Yeah, since 2023 that is and they're talking about some of the new
04:38things that we're going to see in the area as well like Atom Valley which is
04:42going to be, you know, Rochdale Oldham. It's going to be a real centre for
04:46innovation, moving away from the idea that you just have to be in that kind of Oxford
04:50Road corridor to get this innovation. So it's really exciting times and we're
04:55going to be covering that event and we're also going to keep an eye on some
05:00of these exciting companies I think. So anybody who wants to read more about
05:06these stories can do so on insidermedia.com and why not give us a
05:11follow on social media as well. We're on X and we're on LinkedIn so you can
05:17follow us there. See you next time.