Cellomatics strengthens senior management team

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Nottingham-based contract research organisation (CRO) Cellomatics Biosciences has appointed Anand Krishna as senior director to oversee customer engagement and strategy and support its continued growth plans. Anand brings over 25 years of executive leadership and field sales management experience in companies ranging from VC-funded dotcom start-ups, to managing sales across portfolios in tier 1 technology systems and operations integrators. His career has seen him lead and work with teams across the US, UK, Europe, India, and the Far East. He now focuses on working with entrepreneurs across a diverse set of aspirational businesses to provide strategic support. At Cellomatics, Anand will be a key member of the senior management team, overseeing customer care and management, sales, operations, and marketing. Commenting on his appointment at Cellomatics, Anand said: “I have admired and followed Cellomatics from its foundation and I am delighted to be joining such a fast-growing and dynamic CRO. “I am looking forward to the opportunity to work and learn from an energetic team of research scientists who play an active role in supporting the discovery and developments of treatments for diseases such as cancer, COPD and Alzheimer’s. “The company is on an exciting growth trajectory, and my priority is to bring best practices and processes to the company to support the continued rapid growth.” Cellomatics’ CEO and founder, Dr Shailendra Singh, adds: “We are on an ambitious growth curve which is fuelled by an increasing demand for our expertise in preclinical cell-based assay development in the oncology, respiratory, immunology, inflammation, and immuno-oncology therapeutic areas. “As we grow, it is important to develop our infrastructure and bring in the expertise to support our commercial objectives. Anand’s wealth of experience in working with entrepreneurs will be an invaluable asset to Cellomatics, and I am delighted to welcome him to the team.”

10-unit Lutterworth project sold

Tungsten Properties, the industrial and warehouse developers, has sold all 10 units at its development project at Bilton Way in Lutterworth, Leicestershire to a variety of private investors and owner occupiers for £5.73 million. Tungsten Park is in an established warehouse location and close to M1 junction 20. The units range from 2,500 sq ft to 4,000 sq ft. The units have all been sold to companies which include County Ceramic Tiles and Bathrooms, MED Engineering and Media Duplication. In addition, Screwfix has taken a lease on a unit which has then sold to an investor, which has resulted in all unit sales now completed. Jenny Clarke, associate development director, Tungsten Properties, said: “All units were under offer before they were practically completed which demonstrated the current high demand in the area for small trade and industrial units by both businesses needing expansion space and property investors looking for well-built units with strong covenants. It is great to have completed another project to create jobs and opportunity and return to our investors.” Philips Sutton and Wells McFarlane acted on behalf of Tungsten Properties.

NAHL returns to pre-tax profit while revenue declines

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2021 was a “year of strategic progress” for NAHL, the marketing and services business focused on the UK consumer legal market, according to its CEO. Final results for the year ended 31 December 2021 show that profit before tax increased to £0.2m, recovering from a £0.2m loss in 2020. Revenue however decreased by 4.7% to £38.9m, from £40.9m in 2020, which the Kettering-based business says reflects the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on accident numbers.

James Saralis, CEO of NAHL, said: “2021 was a year of strategic progress for the Group despite the continued difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. We progressed on our key objectives, increasing enquiries placed into NAL, reducing our reliance on joint-venture partnerships and growing our ongoing claims in NAL at year-end by 166%.

“In Critical Care, we increased revenues by 9% largely due to successful new business development initiatives, with Expert Witness volumes up 21% year on year. The Group achieved this while reducing net debt and remaining profitable. 

“At year-end we had 7,918 ongoing claims in NAL, up from 2,975 claims at the end of 2020 which we expect to convert into £8.4m of future cash.

“With the last of the COVID-19 restrictions now having been lifted, we expect to see mobility levels across the UK improve and for this to result in a gradual increase in the number of accidents in our markets.

“Finally, I would like to thank our employees for their hard work, support and commitment. They faced many challenges during 2021, including having to adjust to the changing COVID-19 restrictions, and demonstrated their resilience and dedication to supporting our customers and each other.”

“Extremely challenging year” for Derby recruitment business

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Derby-headquartered RTC Group, the AIM listed recruitment business, remains optimistic for the future after “an extremely challenging year” saw revenue and pre-tax profit decline. According to audited results for the year ended 31 December 2021, group revenue sat at £77.7m, dipping from £81.4m in 2020. Meanwhile the business posted a profit before tax of £114,000, down from £870,000 in 2020. Commenting on the results, Andy Pendlebury, CEO, said: “RTC Group, like many other companies, had an extremely challenging year in 2021. “The COVID pandemic continued to significantly impact client demand across many markets and where requirements for contract labour remained strong this was accompanied by higher operational costs to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our workforce; candidate reluctance to change employers/careers given these turbulent times and workers self-isolating increased both direct and indirect costs as programme and project continuity was heavily disrupted. “In addition, the sudden and immediate demobilisation from Afghanistan due to the complete withdrawal in August of all American, United Kingdom and NATO troops curtailed a large contribution of revenue from our international business. Further, the implementation of changes to IR 35 in the private sector, which finally became legislation in April 2021, heavily impacted our white-collar contracting community. “However, despite the untimely combination and cumulative effect of all these events, the majority of which were outside of the control of the Group, we still managed to trade, albeit marginally, in positive territory. Our balance sheet remains robust and free from long term debt or the effects of dilution, a fate which befell many shareholders of other traded recruitment businesses over the past couple of years, who raised equity at sub-optimal values in order to survive, and through the Board’s successful share option cancellation programme. “Although for many reasons we are all naturally very disappointed with the way the year played out for us, and also mindful of the fact that there are still many geo-political events and micro-economic challenges threatening the domestic and international landscape, we believe our positioning across a broad range of markets, sectors and industries, give us every reason to be optimistic about our ability to deliver long term sustainable value to all our stakeholders.”

Derby’s Mortgage Advice Bureau swoops for Bolton business

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Derby firm Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) has agreed to acquire approximately 75% of Project Finland Topco Limited, or the “Fluent Money Group,” in a £73 million deal. Bolton-headquartered Fluent is a technology enabled telephone advice mortgage broking platform with approximately 420 employees including 125 advisers across Mortgages (first charge mortgages), Secured Personal Loans (second charge mortgages), Later Life lending and Bridging Finance. The acquisition will be funded from renewed and increased debt facilities, existing cash resources and the proceeds of a proposed placing of new ordinary shares in the company to raise £40 million. Completion of the acquisition is not expected to occur before the second half of 2022. Peter Brodnicki, founder and CEO of MAB, said: “We are very excited to partner with a like-minded management team and high growth intermediary that is a leader in centralised telephone mortgage advice. “This acquisition is a perfect example of our strategy to invest in complementary businesses and platforms to help accelerate growth by broadening our proposition. MAB has targeted the fast-growing sector of national lead generation by using technology to link together its key Appointed Representatives and invested firms seamlessly. “Combined, we expect that Fluent and MAB will be able to grow this new market share opportunity quickly and effectively, complementing the local/regional strategy delivered by the rest of MAB’s growing distribution.” MAB has also entered into a shareholders’ agreement with founders/management who will be retaining 25% of the issued share capital of Fluent at completion. This also provides for a put and call option for MAB to acquire the remaining stake after 6 years at a valuation subject to performance criteria relating to future growth and profitability to align with MAB’s growth objectives. The total consideration for this put and call option and a put and call option over growth shares that will be issued in Fluent to the wider management team will be capped at £118m.

Lincolnshire door and loading bay firm snapped up

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Based in Welbourn in Lincolnshire, Fen-Bay, the suppliers of industrial doors and loading bays, has become part of Hörmann, the European provider of gates, doors, frames and operators. The move will see ongoing investment in the group which includes Lincolnshire-based Fen-Bay Services and Doncaster-based Transdek. Combined, the Fen-Bay group employs 150 people, including over 100 full-time engineers who support its 24/7, nationwide service support provision. Commenting on the acquisition, Wolfgang Gorner, Managing Director of Hörmann UK, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Fen-Bay Group to the Hörmann family. We see this as a natural fit and a key part of our drive to increase our footprint in the Industrial and Service sectors. “The Fen-Bay Group with its excellent brand, reputation and nationwide coverage will complement our existing operations, but will allow us to compete even more so in these areas. “We are also excited to build on the success already achieved by Transdek throughout Europe and we are committed to ongoing investment in the Fen-Bay Group operations. We see great potential moving forward.” The owners of Fen-Bay Group engaged Duncan & Toplis to explore the potential sale of the company. Director, Damon Brain who served as Fen-Bay’s dedicated adviser through the transaction said: “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Fen-Bay and Hörmann on this sale. “Fen-Bay is a renowned and respected company based in our region and we’re pleased to have played a role in helping to secure its future with a committed investor that can support its continued growth and success.” Carl Sedlan, Managing Director of the Fen-Bay Group, said: “We already have extensive experience of Hörmann and its strong family values, which resonated strongly with our Management Team. Everyone is genuinely excited by the opportunities moving forward and becoming part of such a well-known and respected Group.”

Aspire CRM appoints alliances manager

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Dan Orton has joined Aspire CRM, the Derby-based Salesforce Partner, and will be responsible for the delivery of projects for both the commercial and public sector. Dan will be working with both the client teams and the technical delivery team at Aspire CRM and will be responsible for driving customer success across all projects. Dan has had over 15 years’ experience in IT, managing teams in sales, project delivery and service delivery and will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience into the business. Another part of the role as alliances manager will be to strengthen relationships with strategic partners to enhance solution offerings and commercial streams. Dan said: “Having spent the vast majority of my career servicing enterprise IT clients in the maintenance space I felt like I needed new challenge with company that has the right culture fit and the desire to do right by the customer every time. “From the initial conversations with the Managing Director, Richard Ashmole, plus people I knew who already worked in the business, it was clear to see we all shared the same values which isn’t something I’d experienced previously. “I’ve also been lucky to have worked closely with Salesforce in the past and have been part of a team that designed and implemented various different process flows and automation in a previous business and really enjoyed how a system can really work for you and not just be a place to log sales opportunities. I’d often joke saying ‘We are in the wrong business’, not realising at the time this was likely to be my next career goal.” Richard Ashmole, Managing Director, Aspire CRM, said: “As we continue to grow as a business it was clear that we needed someone full time to manage our overall project delivery and relationships. “Having spoken with Dan and understood his values and his previous experience it was clear he was the right individual to help us continue our growth and customer success. It’s a key position for the business, one that requires excellent people skills, stakeholder management and a commercial acumen. Dan ticks all of these boxes and we can’t wait to get started together.”

Progress continues on new urgent care department at Chesterfield Royal Hospital

The ‘super structure’ of the £24m Urgent and Emergency Care Development (UECD) at Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has now been completed. The UECD, due to open its doors in Spring/Summer 2023, has now reached the next stage in its build with the final concrete floor slab now in place thanks to the expertise of specialist tradespeople. The final section will be the base for offices, changing facilities and staff rooms. Berenice Groves, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer, said: “This is a great landmark moment for the development. It means we have completed a pivotal stage, without issue or concern and the structural elements are now in place. As we move forward, we’re focusing more on how the building will function and truly benefit our patients, colleagues and visitors.” Berenice added: “The move to complete our structure of the UECD is a hugely positive and welcome one. The concrete – like many of the elements of the building – was managed by professionals, who are specialists in their area and we are very pleased with the process to date.” The Trust recently went out to patients, colleagues and the public to ask about the colours and artwork for the new development – the results of this will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

New business park in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, given the go ahead

A new business park set to create 50 new jobs has been given the go ahead by West Lindsey District Council on 27 January 2022. Wharton Place, which will be located on the outskirts of Gainsborough will be developed by established local commercial and residential property developer, Stirlin. Stirlin received planning approval from the local authority at the end of January for three phases of Wharton Place, which will be their third commercial development in the area. Stirlin Developments Development Manager, Matt Padley said: “Gainsborough has a bright future, with major growth ambitions and regeneration plans. With its wealth of opportunities, excellent transport links, impressive commercial offering and vibrant business community, there has never been a better time to invest in the town. “Following the success of our first commercial development on Foxby Lane: Stirlin Place, we’re pleased to provide further investment in the area with two new business parks: Willoughton Place and Wharton Place. “The new business parks will help facilitate the town’s growing economy and bring new employment to the area.” The site is suitably located on Foxby Lane, neighbouring Lincoln County Council’s Business Centre, Mercury House, with easy access to the A1, M180 and A15 road networks. It will provide over 18,500sq ft of new employment space across 1.3 acres, with a mix of light industrial units in sizes ranging from 1,270sq ft – 2,500sq ft. West Lindsey District Council’s Director of Planning and Regeneration Sally Grindrod-Smith is delighted to hear the news. She said: “The development of Wharton Place will be a great addition to Gainsborough, and we hope that this will also encourage other businesses to either start-up, re-locate or expand in the area. We look forward to working alongside Stirlin Developments as they continue to grow.” Allocated parking, an electric sectional door, a personnel door and DDA compliant toilet facilities, as well as an eaves height of 5 metres to accommodate a mezzanine floor upon request are all benefits that the units will see.

Geldards reveals leading role on landmark Becketwell Scheme

Geldards law firm has revealed its most recent role in the £200m Becketwell regeneration scheme, acting as legal advisor to Derby City Council. Geldards has been providing legal advice to the Council on its regeneration of the Becketwell area for some time, and construction is already underway on Phase One to transform the former Debenhams site with 259 built to rent apartments. Legal agreements have been completed and demolition has now started on Phase Two which will include the development of a much-needed 3,500 capacity performance venue to be owned by the Council and managed by ASM Global,  which will create over 200  new jobs locally. Geldards’ Public Sector team have advised Derby City Council on all legal aspects of the Becketwell regeneration scheme since the Council acquired the former Debenhams site in 2017. Partner Tiffany Cloynes, who heads the Public Sector team at Geldards led a team of over 10 lawyers in delivering the multi million pound deal which will regenerate a strategically important part of the city centre. Supported by Property Partner Paul Hilsdon and also by Senior Associates Rebecca Gilbert and Clare Hardy, Geldards advised on a wide range of complex legal issues for the benefit of the project from across the firm’s Commercial Property, Planning, Construction and Tax departments. Commenting on the project Tiffany Cloynes, says: “Geldards is pleased to have played such a significant role in this major regeneration project for Derby City Council which will be transformational for the city centre. The work was complex and multi-faceted and required a great deal of specialist legal advice, but we were delighted to be able to work so closely and effectively with the Council’s very supportive  in-house team. “ Paul Simpson, Chief Executive at Derby City Council added: “Becketwell Performance Venue is a landmark development for Derby. It will see the Council funding and owning the 3,500 capacity venue with St James Securities delivering the development and ASM Global becoming the operators on a long term lease. “The deal is key to putting culture at the heart of regeneration in our city, generating an additional £10m a year for the area and diversifying the local economy. Geldards were a key member of the Council’s delivery team and instrumental in developing the partnership.”