Streets Chartered Accountants will sponsor the East Midlands Bricks Awards for the sixth year running in 2023, backing the prestigious Overall Winner award. Speaking with Business Link, James Pinchbeck, partner at Streets Chartered Accountants, said: “Streets Chartered Accountants, as specialists in property and construction, are looking to build on our reputation for looking after clients in the sector. “Our continued support and engagement with the East Midlands Bricks Awards certainly is a great way to promote our work, support the sector and for us to connect with developers, contractors, agents and other professionals who across the region are engaged in a plethora of exciting, imaginative and innovative projects. “The Bricks has earned an enviable reputation as a must enter awards for those involved in the construction and property sector from across the East Midlands. As such we are delighted to be sponsoring the ‘Overall Winner’ category for the sixth year in a row and are really looking forward to attending this year’s awards evening in September.” The awards, which will take place on Thursday 28 September at the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, celebrate the outstanding work of those shaping the landscape of our region, recognising development projects and people in commercial and public building across the East Midlands – from offices, industrial and residential, through to community projects such as leisure schemes and schools. Nominations are now OPEN for East Midlands Business Link’s annual Bricks Awards. To nominate your (or another) business/development for one of our awards, please click on a category link below or visit this page.

Book your tickets now

Tickets can now be booked for the awards event – click here to secure yours. The special awards evening and networking event will be held on Thursday 28 September 2023 in the Derek Randall Suite at the Trent Bridge County Cricket Club from 4:30pm – 7:30pm. Connect with local decision makers over canapés and complimentary drinks while applauding the outstanding companies and projects in our region, and hear from Mike Denby, Director of Inward Investment and Place Marketing at Leicester City Council, our keynote speaker. Dress code is standard business attire. Thanks to our sponsors:                                                             To be held at:

Chesterfield’s Central Technology has been named as Veeam Software‘s Cloud Services Provider ‘Partner of the Year’ 2022.  Veeam Software is a global IT company which develops backup, disaster recovery and modern data protection software for virtual, cloud-native, SaaS, Kubernetes and physical workloads. Central Technology MD Rob Longden said: “Winning the Veeam Cloud Services Provider Partner of the Year 2022 award is a proud moment for us, and we are grateful to our customers and partners for their support. “We believe that this recognition is a testament to our commitment to delivering exceptional cloud services and to our vision of becoming a leading IT solutions provider in the United Kingdom and beyond. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with Veeam and delivering world-class cloud services to our customers for many years to come.” As a partner-centric organisation, Veeam recognises partners that leveraged customer support and Veeam expertise to deliver Modern Data Protection in increasingly complex IT environments so that the most diverse workload types, data, and applications are protected. Alex Walsh, Channel & Alliances Director UK&I at Veeam, said: “2022 added to the challenges businesses were already facing as they emerged from the global pandemic. Chief among them was the ever-present and rising incidence of ransomware attacks, that left only 24% of UK&I organisations unaffected. With secure, immutable backups the last line of defence against ransomware, protecting enterprise IT across all ecosystems is essential to keep businesses running.” As a long-standing partner of Veeam, Central Technology offers clients Veeam-powered backup and recovery solutions. The firm’s cloud services are built on a foundation of innovation, reliability, and security, with a commitment  to delivering exceptional customer service and technical expertise.  CT’s team of experts provides customers with 24/7 support and proactive monitoring, ensuring that their systems are always up and running. The firm’s customer-centric approach has helped it build long-term relationships with customers, resulting in high customer satisfaction and retention rates.  Central Technology supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 200 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.  

More than 200 Boohoo warehouse workers at the firm’s warehouse in Crick, Northamptonshire, have lodged a collective grievance against the imposition of ‘unconscionable’ shift changes. Unite, the union, said the workers are angry that the new shift patterns will leave the workforce having only one weekend off in every five. The new shift patterns will also leave workers with fragmented single days off, according to the union. Boohoo denies these claims. The grievance was lodged after the company “refused to listen to workers’ concerns” during what was described by employees as a “sham” consultation process. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The shift patterns proposed for Boohoo’s Crick warehouse are completely unacceptable in a modern society. People are not machines and deserve to able to spend time with their families, rest and have a life outside of work. “This is a serious step backwards for a company whose reputation was left in tatters over the terrible treatment of workers just a few years ago. Unite defends our members’ jobs, pay and conditions to the hilt and Boohoo’s Crick workforce will be receiving their union’s complete support in their fight against these unconscionable shift demands.” In what will come as a further blow to Boohoo’s reputation, when the firm’s Crick workers began to organise to oppose the shift changes, they were reportedly asked by management to not join a union. In December 2020, Boohoo was forced to cut ties with 64 garment manufacturers in the UK after it emerged exploited workers producing clothes sold by the brand were being paid as little as £3.50 an hour. The company has since tightened its code of conduct for suppliers, including for workers to able to belong to a union without being subject to discrimination. Unite regional officer Sean Kettle said: “Unite demands that Boohoo apply the same freedom for association and collective bargaining rights to their directly employed workers at Crick that they say they expect for the employees of their third-party garment producers and suppliers. “Boohoo must allow Unite access to the Crick site to organise and represent workers to negotiate ethical and fair shift patterns.”

Company secretarial business Bruce Wallace Associates is joining East Midlands full-service law firm Shakespeare Martineau as part of a shared growth strategy. The union will see Bruce Wallace Associates’ team of five, including its directors Susan Wallace and Martha Bruce, take on the Shakespeare Martineau brand – bringing the team to more than 13. Bruce and Wallace are both Fellows of the Chartered Governance Institute and are regarded as experts in their field. They provide complex advice and support to AIM and main market-listed companies, as well as FCA-regulated and groups of companies. They also regularly contribute to a number of company secretarial and governance technical publications. Also moving to Shakespeare Martineau – which has hubs in Nottingham, Leicester and Lincoln – are Chloe Higgins and Susan Tudor-Coulson, both associates of the CGI, and Hollie Watkins, who is responsible for the compliance and statutory filing obligations for clients. Susan Wallace said: “Martha and I believe this is an excellent move for us and our clients, who will benefit from continuity of service and the 1,200-strong team of experts available across Shakespeare Martineau and the Ampa group. We are keen to grow our team and client base, and the infrastructure Shakespeare Martineau offers will enable us to do just that. “We were also attracted to Shakespeare Martineau’s empowered working principles – focussed on delivery and service instead of strict working hours, which is hugely important to our team. Martha and I set up Bruce Wallace Associates in 2012 from our homes and we have continued to work remotely and build a team of professional staff to support us.” Ben Harber, head of CoSec at Shakespeare Martineau, said: “We are thrilled to have Bruce Wallace Associates joining our team; not only do they have an impeccable reputation, excellent networks and share multiple service synergies with us, but they also share our values and ethos to provide the highest standard of company secretarial and corporate governance advisory services to their clients.” The CoSec team at Shakespeare Martineau provides specialist corporate governance advice and company secretarial services to public companies listed on AIM, AQSE and the main market as well as several large private groups. In financial year 21/22, the team achieved 25% organic growth, with a similar trajectory for this financial year and ambitious targets for 23/24.

After suffering a series of knocks over the past three years, East Midlands businesses are finally optimistic about what 2023 could bring, according to new research into the state of the region’s economy. Uncertainty has been replaced with confidence, there has been a turnaround in sales and companies are now expecting to employ more people once again, East Midlands Chamber’s latest study illustrates. Economic indicators covered by the business representation group’s Quarterly Economic Survey (QES), which is delivered in partnership with the University of Leicester School of Business, have been largely negative since the end of 2021, but they are all now heading in the right direction during the first quarter of 2023. East Midlands Chamber director of policy and insight Chris Hobson said: “Following an uncertain end to 2022, these latest findings demonstrate how businesses are beginning 2023 by displaying signs of growth and an increasing confidence for the year ahead. “Sales and advanced orders are steadily growing, cashflow is improving – although there are still significantly more businesses reporting a decline in cashflow (35%) as opposed to an increase (22%) – and price pressures continue their gradual drop-off. “The relative certainty in the policy environment, at least compared to the constant flip-flopping that came before, is now leading to a significant upturn in business confidence and, therefore, investment intentions, which are crucial if we are to steer the economy back on track and achieve consistent growth. “While the region’s unemployment rate has been at historically low levels in recent times, our research had shown a decline in employers recruiting – mainly due to an extremely tight labour market driven by escalating numbers of economically inactive people since the dawn of the pandemic combined with longstanding skills shortages. “So it’s pleasing to see a positive swing, with a 7% increase in the proportion of businesses recruiting in the past three months and a 14% improvement in those expecting to add to their workforce before the summer, as this generates jobs and prosperity locally. “While all this paints a far healthier picture than at the end of 2022, caution is required as many of these indicators are still down from where we were a year ago. “We are moving slowly in the right direction but Government support is still required to ‘get the basics right’ by knocking down the everyday barriers to doing business, and then backing our firms to grow the economy by focusing on the ‘four Is’ – investment, innovation, infrastructure and international trade – all of which is laid out in our Business Manifesto for Growth.” East Midlands Chamber QES Q1 2023 data Key findings from the Quarterly Economic Survey Q1 2023 for the East Midlands, which was completed by 347 organisations between 13 February and 9 March, included: · UK sales grew by a net 1% between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, with UK advanced orders up by 15%. Overseas sales and advanced orders were both up by 6% quarter on quarter · A net 12% of businesses added to their headcount in the first three months of 2023, marking a 7% increase compared to the previous quarter, while a net 30% of firms expect to recruit new staff in the next three months – a 14% increase · Recruitment problems persist but are dropping off gradually – six in 10 (59%) businesses attempted to recruit in Q1 2023 and, of those, 73% faced problems filling roles, but this was down from 81% in Q4 2022 · A net 52% of businesses expect they will be forced to raise prices as they grapple with rising costs for people, energy, raw materials and fuel – although this is down from 57% in the previous quarter · While a net 13% of firms reported a decrease in cashflow, there was a 4% positive swing · Investment intentions are now trending upwards, with a 12% increase quarter on quarter in the net proportion of firms saying they will invest in training and a 6% rise for investing in plant and machinery · Business confidence is now in positive territory, with a net 39% optimistic about growing turnover over the coming year – a 15% rise compared to last quarter – and a net 8% (up by 11%) expecting to improve profitability. Professor Mohamed Shaban, associate dean for business and civic engagement at the University of Leicester School of Business, said: “The survey results are yet another testament to the resilience of businesses in the East Midlands. “Despite the challenges in the past few years, businesses have successfully navigated their way through the uncertain domestic and global economic environment. “Businesses have endured credit tightening, an inflationary environment, supply chain disruptions and skilled labour shortages, which have collectively hindered the possibilities for growth. “New initiatives are required to support businesses to invest in technologies that help them achieve higher levels of automation, nudge them towards net zero goals and empower them to invest in upskilling employees.”