Leicester-based business Thomson Hayes Retail Display Ltd has entered administration.
The company designed and manufactured retail display sets, predominantly for cosmetics brands, for use in department stores and shops. Clients included L’Oreal, Dior and Lancome. The firm was established in 1989 by directors Chris Thomson and Frank Hayes and employed 26 people.
The pandemic was instrumental in the downturn in bricks and mortar retail sales as consumers were forced to switch to online shopping. This, along with rising costs, impacted on the business which has been unable to recover.
Prior to the appointment of administrators, the company had taken the difficult decision to wind down its business and to ultimately cease to trade. The directors of the business endeavoured to honour outstanding contracts and to fulfil outstanding orders for some customers to maximise returns for creditors and stakeholders.
However, the directors’ endeavours to do so became increasingly problematic, resulting in the appointment of Tyrone Courtman and Deviesh Raikundalia of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP as joint administrators on 22 February 2023, who are now exploring the feasibility of doing so.
The administrators will also be seeking any expressions of interest in the sale of the company’s remaining business and assets as a going concern, if at all practicable.
Unfortunately, 15 employees have been made redundant and the company will, in all probability cease to trade, during the week ending 10 March following completion of all outstanding works after which all of the company’s remaining employees will be made redundant. The joint administrators are liaising with the company’s employees to provide relevant redundancy support.
The administrators at RSM said they are working to secure the best outcome for creditors and all the company’s stakeholders.
The Environment Agency has prosecuted a construction company for polluting a local brook whilst engaged as contractors at the East Midlands Gateway development site.
At Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 1 March 2023, Winvic Construction Limited, of Tenter Road, Moulton Park, Northampton, admitted causing pollution and was fined £160,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £25,577.79.
The court was told that the company were contractors at the site near Kegworth when Hemington Brook became highly turbid and discoloured with clay solids.
A biological survey revealed that the discharge of contaminated run off from the site had caused “gross and chronic” pollution adversely affecting invertebrates.
A member of the public alerted the Environment Agency when the brook started “running red with silt pollution” on or before 27 September 2019.
The source was traced to an outfall near the development site which was the responsibility of the company.
Staff told officers from the Environment Agency that a drain blocker had failed. This had allowed the contaminated contents of two ponds to drain and discharge into the brook via a flood attenuation basin.
Officers from the Environment Agency attended the site again on September 30 2019, and found that the discharge had not been stopped.
Analysis was carried out revealing that the level of suspended solids in Hemington Brook had measured between 1200 – 1400 mg/l downstream.
By comparison, historical sampling data from 2019/20 indicated an average level of 50 mg/l suspended solids with a maximum of 240 mg/l.
High levels of suspended solids in water inhibit plant photosynthesis and lower oxygen levels.
Solids can clog and irritate fish gills, further increasing stress. They can also smother fish spawning areas and invertebrate habitat.
The Court accepted that the offence was due in part to unprecedented rainfall in the local area.
Ian Firkins, senior environment manager for the Environment Agency’s East Midlands Area, said: “We welcome this sentence which should act as a deterrent to other companies who breach environmental legislation.
“As a regulator, the Environment Agency will not hesitate to pursue companies that fail to meet its obligations to the environment. The conditions of an environmental permit are designed to protect people and the environment.
“Failure to comply with these legal requirements is a serious offence that can damage the environment and harm human health. If anyone has environmental concerns they should call our 24/7 hotline on 0800 80 70 60 or Crimestoppers anonymously and in confidence on 0800 555 111.”
PwC has launched the latest figures for stores opening and closing across Great Britain (GB). Created in association with the Local Data company, the twice-yearly research tracks over 200,000 outlets in over 3,500 locations to gain a picture of the changing landscape of high streets, retail parks, shopping centres and stand alone outlets.
Throughout 2022, 493 shops opened across the East Midlands, compared to 702 closures, creating a net decline of 209 (-1.4%), the lowest since 2017. This highlights a great improvement since 2021, where the East Midlands saw 528 store openings and 1,146 closures, a net change of 618.
The East Midlands performed third best out of the regions across GB, following the South East and Scotland in first and second. The West Midlands was the worst performing region overall, with a net closure rate of -2.3%, below the national average of -1.4%.
Speaking about the East Midlands report, Sarah Phillips, PwC partner and consumer markets leader for the Midlands, says: “It’s pleasing to see the East Midlands retail and hospitality sectors experiencing slower rates of closure and the difference between openings and closures narrowing.
“We’re seeing recovery through a bounce back in a variety of sectors, most notably takeaways, convenience stores, DIY and pet stores, helped by pandemic trends. Retail parks and shopping centres are holding strong, and the East Midlands benefits from multiple strong locations.
“High Streets are also recovering well and we’re seeing more innovative store openings, embracing technology and creating experiences for younger consumers. There is a trend of combining multiple offerings and better utilising space, mixing fashion with lifestyle, beauty and hospitality.
“There are challenges ahead with a potential recession and the cost of living crisis continuing, however we have seen how quickly the tide can change and there is positive growth for retail across GB, as more people return to work and offices, boosting the high street.”
Small businesses across the Derbyshire Dales are braced for the triple whammy of UK recession, the ongoing energy crisis, and the end of June deadline when much needed European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) business support ends.
The ERDF programme backs projects that create jobs and local growth including the ENSCITE programme, jointly offered by the University of Derby and Aston University, helping firms in the automotive, aerospace and rail sectors.
Entrepreneurs and business leaders across the region have now added their names to an open letter from University Alliance to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt urging him to prioritise funding for small regional firms who are currently benefitting from the university-led scheme which offers workshops in strategy, leadership, and productivity.
Local business woman Deborah O’Donovan, CEO of Chater Smart, a startup executive recruitment firm in London and Derby, said: “Female entrepreneurs are much less likely to be backed by external investors so programmes like ENSCITE make a huge difference. Funding regional business support programmes is an essential part of the promised levelling up agenda.”
The open letter was sent to Jeremy Hunt last week from the University Alliance and backed by 300 business leaders across the Derbyshire Dales and rest of the UK who are hoping the government will agree to provide replacement funding before June to ensure regional businesses continue to grow, create jobs and thrive despite the looming recession.
Leicester clothing retailer Wellgosh, which has stores in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham, and a major online presence, is set to close.
On Twitter, the company announced: “It is with a heavy heart that we must announce the closing down of Wellgosh.
“For over 35 years, Leicester has been the beating heart of our brand and we are grateful to our store teams and the dedicated community that we have created.
“Our website and stores will close shortly.”
Wellgosh was established in 1988 in Silver Arcade, Leicester, originally specialising in sourcing vintage and original clothing and evolving to become a major destination store for elevated street, skate and sneaker brands.
It was bought by JD Sports in 2021.
Tritax Big Box REIT has sold three investment assets for £125 million, including a Worksop warehouse.
The purchaser is a “leading global investor in real estate.”
The 330,000 sq ft Worksop property, which is let to Cerealto for a further 12.5 years, was acquired by Tritax Big Box REIT in November 2017 and was constructed in 2007.
The other buildings in the deal consist of a 470,000 sq ft site in Skelmersdale, let to DHL, and a property in Knowsley, with a ground floor GIA of 578,000 sq ft, let to Matalan.
Colin Godfrey, CEO for Tritax Big Box, said: “We constantly seek ways to optimise our portfolio to crystalise value and redeploy capital into higher returning opportunities. The disposal of three assets for £125 million, in line with their book value, demonstrates the ongoing effective implementation of our strategy and the attractiveness of our assets.
“The sale to a leading global investor in real estate provides further evidence of the growing stabilisation within the UK investment market. With the UK’s largest logistics focused land portfolio, we have a significant pipeline of higher returning development opportunities we are able to recycle capital into.”
A new £3.8 million facility that will revolutionise the world of manufacturing, making it more efficient and cost-effective, has opened at the University of Nottingham.
The state-of-the-art OMNIFACTORY, a concept factory where different digital technologies are implemented to improve traditional manufacturing practices, was officially opened on Wednesday 1 March 2023 by Brian Holliday, Managing Director at Siemens Digital Industries and co-chair of the Made Smarter Commission, with a keynote contribution from George Freeman MP, Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Situated on the university’s Jubilee Campus, OMNIFACTORY is home to a bespoke test bed floor, developed in Nottingham, that provides a unique reconfigurable environment. The floor autonomously adapts itself to the next product’s environment and specifications, reshaping itself through a combination of digital technologies, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
“OMNIFACTORY is a unique facility that will allow us to develop, demonstrate and rapidly implement the latest digital manufacturing technologies in industry,” said Svetan Ratchev, director of the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing.
Svetan continued: “Working closely with our industrial partners, we aim to transform current practices and improve productivity across different sectors by developing the next generation of smart, highly agile, and efficient factories, which will also support localised manufacturing supply chains.
“By leveraging technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics, we can dramatically accelerate the development and sustainable manufacturing of new products and deliver significant societal, economic, and environmental benefits.
“Manufacturing processes have a significant impact on the environment, with a large proportion of the carbon footprint of some products being created during their production and logistics. By creating a new generation of smart, highly efficient factories embedded in local supply chains, we will contribute to the net-zero agenda and make a significant step towards the circular economy.
“OMNIFACTORY is a national testbed for future factory technologies, and we welcome new businesses to join us and explore the future of manufacturing.
“We have already received an incredible response from industry working both with large original equipment manufacturers and highly innovative local SMEs.”
The five-year project has been funded by Innovate UK and aligned to the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme, but OMNIFACTORY’s facilities can be applied to other sectors, such as food and automotive.
“OMNIFACTORY is a game-changing facility, which creates a blueprint for how future factories will dramatically enhance the productivity and competitiveness of British manufacturers,” said professor Alan Norbury, chief technologist at Siemens Digital Industries.
Alan continued: “Based on the foundations of excellent research conducted at the University of Nottingham, this new space will support industry in developing, testing and validating new digital manufacturing applications and their rapid implementation across all sectors. We’re incredibly proud to support this unique development and to see Siemens’ core technologies being deployed to showcase the future of UK manufacturing.”
The facility is already working with several businesses that operate in a variety of sectors, including Airbus, and GKN, which is utilising OMNIFACTORY for the ELCAT project.
Andrew Portsmore, technology director of Assembly Systems at GKN, said: “We developed the vision for the ELCAT project with the University of Nottingham, which sets out to enable flexible manufacturing systems without the need for expensive ‘black box’ integration, by fusing real-world industrial experience with game-changing theoretical proposals backed by academic analysis.
“Now, OMNIFACTORY will allow this thinking to be taken to a point of physical reality, maturing and de-risking the associated technology threads to a level ready for final development and adoption in GKN.”
The Access Group, a Loughborough-based provider of business management software, has appointed two new board members.
Marko Perisic joined The Access Group board in the latter part of 2022 as chief product and engineering officer (CPEO) taking over responsibility for product and engineering, while Fabrice Dreneau joined at the same time as chief customer success officer (CCSO) to help further strengthen the customer experience.
Marko joins from Zellis, where he was most recently chief product and technology officer. He has decades of experience in the technology space, having had a long and distinguished career at Microsoft before that.
Commenting on his position at Access, Marko said: “Everything I have observed about The Access Group points to an incredibly successful business, with many people who feel passionate about software to make customers’ working lives easier – a passion that I also share. What stands out the most is the culture at Access – everyone I have spoken to speaks very proudly of working for the company and that is one of our strongest assets.
“I’m learning every day from my colleagues and sharing my experience as we take The Access Group’s product portfolio into its next phase of growth, powered by Access Workspace as a unifying platform, and the best-in-class experience for our customers.”
Marko takes over from Steve Lane who has retired after a 40-year career in IT and six years at The Access Group. During this time he created a world-class product and engineering function that has grown from 200 people when he joined, to over 1,700 people.
Fabrice joins The Access Group from Qlik, where he was senior vice president and led a global customer success and renewal team. He is passionate and client-focused and has previously held senior positions at Autodesk and Dassault Systems and has substantial international experience including a five-year assignment in Japan.
During his career, he has achieved a reputation for ensuring the effective adoption of outcome-based repeatable solutions to increase customer loyalty and revenue growth.
Fabrice Dreneau
Fabrice said: “I’m excited to lead Access’ Customer Success on the next stage of its journey in providing the very best service to its customers.
“At Access, we succeed only when our customers succeed. Through embedding new technologies, enhanced education and training, robust reporting and analytics and strategic engagement, our team endeavours to support a seamless client journey across all our divisions.
“From SMEs to midmarket and large multi-product customers, it is our mission to make our customers’ voices integral to the overall experience and instrumental to achieving desired outcomes through successful partnering with Access.
“I look forward to using my expertise to help the company’s growth continue in a direction that benefits everyone – our employees and our customers.”
Welcoming the new appointments, Access Group CEO, Chris Bayne, said: “Both of these appointments to our board show our commitment to developing the very best in technology and taking our product, engineering and hosting teams into the next phase of our growth, as well as keeping each of our customers engaged with our products and ensuring they are receiving the best service possible.
“Marko and Fabrice are already making a hugely positive impact on their teams and the company as a whole.”
The number of new technology companies incorporated in the East Midlands increased 38% in 2022, according to analysis of Companies House data by audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK. A total of 1,390 tech businesses were incorporated in the East Midlands last year, up from 1,009 the previous year. Sheetal Sanghvi, partner and head of innovation reliefs in the Central region at RSM UK, said: “It is great to see East Midlands at the top of the table with the biggest increase year-on-year.“The region has always benefitted from a thriving technology sector, particularly in fintech and medtech. This is largely due to the quality of the local incubator hubs, universities and the scale of global businesses from which experienced individuals go on to build their own businesses. “Like many regional cities, the cost of workspaces in the East Midlands is more competitive than the capital. For start-ups and small businesses tight on cash, this has been a huge factor when setting up their headquarters and is reflected in the numbers published. “New businesses also tend to attract younger demographics and the region has a generous pool of young talent to hand. In addition, with many workers moving away from the bigger cities during the pandemic and post-pandemic, triggered by the rise in remote working, regions with lower costs have become an appealing option for tech workers.“This is another key driver in the decision-making process for businesses when deciding where to locate their new business.”Nationally, 46,474 tech businesses were incorporated in 2022, up from 38,240 in 2021. The total number of incorporations in 2022 is nearly double the 23,531 companies in 2020, demonstrating sustained growth in new tech incorporations year-on-year. The data cements tech as an area of huge growth across the UK. All regions in the UK saw an increase compared to 2021, with London being home to the highest number of tech incorporations (24,783). Eight of the ten regions in the UK saw increases on or above 22%.Ben Bilsland, partner and Technology Industry senior analyst at RSM UK, said: “Despite the obvious economic challenges, it’s been another strong year for the tech industry. Whilst it is no surprise to see London at the centre of new tech incorporations, growth across all regions outside the capital is further evidence of the UK’s thriving tech industry. “There is clearly appetite from entrepreneurs to start up new, innovative businesses and become part of the UK’s booming tech industry. “This crop of early-stage businesses will need support to scale. Access to funding will be crucial and the UK government will need to ensure that UK tech is an attractive place for both domestic and overseas investment. “For many young innovative companies, R&D tax incentives are crucial cash inflows. For many, the recent changes to UK R&D schemes that reduced the amounts small companies can claim were not seen as a positive step towards supporting the early-stage ecosystem.“Innovation requires a world-class talent pool and UK tech will look to both education and immigration to build their workforces. Support from our universities and schools to build skills in STEM subjects and emergent areas such as Artificial Intelligence will be essential. Clarity over immigration policy will be required to ensure a healthy inflow of tech talent to fuel growing companies.”
A health and safety manager who previously worked on oil rigs and in car and construction equipment assembly lines has taken on his first role in the rail industry by joining depot maintenance company MTMS.
Steven Ostle has been appointed as the company’s new health, safety and environmental manager, with responsibility for ensuring that MTMS’s engineers and sub-contractors continue to work safely at rail depots all over the country.
MTMS services and maintains rolling stock and specialist depot equipment at over half of the UK’s rail depots, serving such familiar names in mainline rail as First MTR South-Western Railway, Hitachi, Arriva and Siemens, and is the proud owner of an excellent safety record.
Steven’s role will be to review and update its H&S policies, offer training and advice and make site visits to discuss any issues with staff in the field, while also drawing up specific health and safety procedures for minor engineering projects carried out to improve the depot infrastructure.
He will also help the company attain the coveted ISO 45001 international standard for health and safety at work.
Although his previous two roles involved working indoors in the vehicle manufacture industries, Steve has previously worked outdoors, when he was the health and safety liaison officer working offshore on oil rigs and on the Irish Sea Pioneer – a giant lift boat which supports drilling operations off the coast of Liverpool.
But he says many of the skills he puts into practice relate back to his days serving in the British Army, which he left in 2012 having achieved the rank of Captain, a role which relied heavily on upholding rules and being able to communicate them clearly.
He said: “The rail industry is a new industry to me but it is a sector where health and safety is of paramount importance and it’s enjoyable doing something different after working in factory settings for the last five years.
“While the majority of my work will be supporting our engineers undertaking their routine maintaining rolling stock at rail facilities, I’ll also be planning health and safety frameworks for one-off infrastructure projects.
“This role fits well with my military career, because the Army also relies on rules and regulations, and requires the ability to understand the work culture in order to be able to communicate them effectively.”
MTMS advertises itself as a pro-military employer and has been awarded the Silver Defence Employer Recognition scheme for its commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant, and Matt Forst, Managing Director of MTMS, says Steve’s military background and vast experience were key to him getting his new role.
He said: “Steve’s CV shows that he is incredibly well-qualified and has an understanding of how to undertake his health and safety role in a range of different and challenging settings.
“We’re delighted that he has joined us here at MTMS, where we’re confident that he will help us maintain our proud safety record and enable us to achieve the ISO 45001 standard.”
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