What's News - Crain's Manchester Business

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1:00 am, August 18, 2008
What's News

Plans by JD Williams, a subsidiary of listed home shopping group N Brown, to extend its warehousing facilities at Lilac Mill on Beal Lane in Shaw, Oldham, have been recommended for approval by Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council planning officials. The company resubmitted a planning application for a multi-storey car park and high bay warehouse to service its mail order distribution service. The company plans to expand its European distribution operations and estimates it will create an extra 400 jobs by 2011, many of them based at the Shaw site. It has made contingency plans to move away from the site, however, should the application fail again, and is understood to have looked at Kingsway in Rochdale, Salmon Fields in Royton and Stakehill in Middleton as possible alternative locations. The new application will be heard by Oldham MBC's planning committee on Wednesday.

Upmarket travel operator Kuoni is to open in Manchester's King Street. The operator plans to open 10 outlets in cities across the UK following the success of its High Street Kensington store in London. Nick Hughes' Kuoni managing director for the UK said: “We will continue our strong partnership with the trade but we want to offer customers the chance to talk to us.”

Weber Shandwick's Manchester office has won the national PR account for grocery retailer Aldi in a six-way pitch. It will handle Aldi's corporate profile raising, run its product sample rooms and promote its food ranges. The agency will also help to launch three new products online. Managing director Jo Leah would not disclose the value but said it was the agency's biggest PR win in the region to date. “It's certainly the biggest regional win in my career,” she added.

MaxBox, the Altrincham-based digital kiosk group bought by Andy Egan after it was put into administration by former owner Felix Group, has signed a deal with Advanced Integrated Systems (AIS) to provide 300 digital retail kiosks for the Jamaican market. The three-year distribution deal gives AIS exclusive rights for distribution of MaxBox kiosks across the whole of the Caribbean and the group hopes to have 500 kiosks in place before Christmas. AIS will initially focus on Jamaica and then expand into other parts of the Caribbean.

Virgin Trains has concluded a three-week trial of a new boarding card scheme for train passengers travelling between Manchester and London. For three consecutive Fridays, boarding passes were handed out on a first come, first served basis to passengers wanting to travel on the 18.35 from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, irrespective of the tickets held by waiting passengers. The 18.35 service can be used by travellers with a £61.40 saver ticket or a full price £115 fare. The new system is designed to beat overcrowding, but some critics have labelled it unfair. A Virgin Trains spokesman said the issue was “a drawback” and customer reaction to the trial would be gauged over the coming months.

Eon UK Plc has taken a five-year lease on a 7,157 sq ft unit at Kilmartin Property Group's Hyde Point industrial park in Tameside, which the firm will use for the storage and distribution of gas and electric meters. The company is paying a rental of £6.75 per sq ft. It is the fourth deal to be completed in three months at the park. Jim Bryan, director at Kilmartin Property Group, said: “Given market conditions, to have secured four deals in such a short time is encouraging.”

Flights from Manchester Airport are under threat after a decision by First Choice and Thomson Holidays' German parent TUI Travel to cut capacity for next summer by 15 per cent. TUI reported a 39 per cent rise in third-quarter profits to £65.4m and said there was no evidence that consumers were trading down or curtailing their holiday plans because of current economic conditions. Even so, the UK business will also cut capacity by 21 per cent for this winter and plans to offset rising fuel costs offset by operating six fewer aircraft in winter and 11 fewer next summer.

Three taxi firms, Mantax Radio Taxis of Catherine House, Corbett Street, Clayton; Radio Cars (Manchester), of Whitworth Street West; and Street Cars Manchester, of Sackville Street, are to share an £800,000 contract to provide private hire and hackney carriage service for officers and members of Manchester City Council.

The Lumiere Tower in Leeds, designed by the Manchester office of Ian Simpson Architects, may be resurrected next year, according to the developer behind the ambitious residential scheme. Leeds-based KW Linfoot delayed work on the tower, which would have been the largest residential skyscraper in Europe at 559ft, last month, but said it was still committed to finishing the development and would stick to the original plans. Richard Dean, joint managing director of the Leeds-based city living specialist, said: “We're planning for Lumiere to get back on site in the first quarter of next year.”

ING Real Estate Investment Management has sold Central Retail Park in Bolton to a joint venture between Riddell TPS and PJKI for £14.1m. The 87,589 sq ft park is fully let with seven tenants including Focus, Pets-at-Home, Maplin, Carpetright and Bratano. ING REIM managed the park on behalf of the General Motors Pension Fund. Philip Bach, fund manager at ING REIM, said: “This sale is a good result for the fund in what is a difficult market. Following the completion of all identified asset management initiatives, which have been carried out over the last five years, the sale is in line with the fund's strategy to reduce its weighting to retail warehousing and we are very pleased to have sold at valuation.”

The University of Salford has awarded a £157,000 contract to quantity surveyors Acardis AYH, based in Manchester's Portland Tower, to provide cost advice for the fit-out of its planned new building at Media City in Salford Quays, which is due to open in September 2011. Acardis previously worked on the Emirates Stadium and the 1 million sq ft Paddington Central office development in London. The university has also appointed RPS Gregory, of Exchange Quay, Salford, as lead mechanical and electrical engineering design consultant for the project on a contract worth £358,288. Halcrow Group, of Handforth, has been appointed structural engineering consultants on a contract worth £74,318.

A new report claims Manchester is still a popular location for hotel developers. Knight Frank's Hotel Review Summer 2008 said hotels in key regional cities such as Manchester could continue to perform relatively well this year, so long as “new supply does not outstrip demand.” The report said there is “a weakening risk of such a scenario developing due to tight credit markets. As a result, some new hotel developments may struggle to attract funding and will fail to be built.” The due diligence process is taking longer in the hotel sector, the report said, and greater emphasis is being placed on established turnover and profit, as opposed to predicted or potential trade, as funders tighten their lending criteria.

Warth Industrial Park on Warth Road in Bury is to be comprehensively refurbished. Hamilton Heath Estates, which owns the park and is based there, will refurbish the existing industrial units and bring an existing car park back into use. A mill, which forms part of the park, will be renovated to provide office and light industrial space. A new mezzanine level with a café will also be installed. The plans were approved by Bury Metropolitan Council last week.

Trading Standards in Wigan is clamping down on shops that sell tobacco products to children under the age of 18 after figures showed that 30 per cent of retailers in the borough were in breach of the regulations. Since October last year it has been illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under 18, up from the previous 16. Over the coming weeks, Trading Standards will be working with specially trained volunteers under the minimum age to oust those who are breaking the law.

Jacobs Engineering Group, the New York-listed construction consultancy, has agreed a multidisciplinary framework consultancy commission with Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. The commission is for four years, extendable for an additional year with agreement. Jacobs will provide project management, cost consultancy, urban realm design and technical services including, transportation planning, architecture, engineering, and transport systems.