North West business briefs: Castore; TVD Group; GC Business Finance; Aperture Doors; Verastar; Rosebud Finance
Manchester-based premium performance sportswear brand, Castore, has launched a new specialist golf collection to coincide with the 2023 Masters, which began on April 6. Created with unique technical fabrics and advanced engineering designed with golfing professionals in mind, the new collection features a total of 62 products, ranging from polo shirts, gilets, tailored shorts, and trousers.
Derived from the concept of ‘Better Never Stops’, the collection supports the players and golfing novices who demand the best and want to unlock greater potential.
The new golf apparel collection launched on the April 5. Castore’s Golf SS23 collection coincides with the brand’s signing of Malaysian two-time Olympian and professional golfer, Gavin Green. As Castore continue global expansion, Green will be showcasing the latest SS23 golf collection during his upcoming fixtures.
Castore has also launched a range of reflective activewear for training sessions.
It says its Prism collection is designed with visibility in mind, allowing athletes to stay safe during nighttime exercise.
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Following another record-breaking year, Bolton-based technology solutions business, TVD Group, has facilitated the transition of a 51% stake in the company to employees, with the Brown family retaining a 49% share.
The arrangement sees the creation of an Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) that holds shares of the business on behalf of employees, with every member of staff with 12 months of continuous service becoming a co-owner of the business. The move follows other famous brands in the electrical sector, such as Richer Sounds, that have seen the business go from strength to strength under employee ownership.
After more than a quarter of a century of growth as a family business, TVD owners Mat and Dan Brown announced the restructure as the foundation to the next chapter for TVD. CEO Mat Brown said: “Growing TVD into the business it is today has taken huge focus, dedication, and hard work over the last 27 years. We can’t think of a better way to secure the future and independence of the business than to make the people that drive the business forward every day co-owners.”
Managing director, Lucia Maguire, said: “This is a really exciting time for TVD. We have a superb team, who, as co-owners, will be able to help drive the business forward for the next 25 years and beyond. We want to be able to provide organic, sustainable growth for the group and having a structure that gives the business longevity, as well as being proven to facilitate engaged and motivated employees, puts us in a great position.”
TVD Group completed the transition to being employee-owned in March and while day-to-day business continues unchanged, the journey of employee-ownership has begun with a series of presentations and plans to set up a TVD Trust Committee to facilitate greater engagement and cooperation for the co-owners of the business. Employees working across TVD, TVC and Mitchell & Brown will also be rewarded with a share in the profits of the business through a new profitability partner bonus scheme.
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Start Up Loans, part of the British Business Bank, has confirmed Manchester-based responsible lender, GC Business Finance (GCBF), as a national Business Support Partner (BSPs) for the Start Up Loans scheme, in addition to its continued work in the North West. GCBF will work with the Start Up Loans programme to deliver funding and support for small businesses across the UK over the next two years.
The scheme has a 10-year legacy of delivering funding at a fixed interest rate of six per cent and mentoring to recipients in their first years. Since inception, the scheme has delivered more than 12,500 loans worth more than £115m to businesses in the region, and its delivery partners, now renamed as Business Support Partners, have always been critical to its success.
Start Up Loans’ impact has been particularly noticeable among individuals who might find it difficult to secure loans from traditional lenders, which has always been a priority for the scheme. GCBF shares – and will help deliver on – this ambition of providing support tailored to all demographics of in society.
Richard Bearman, managing director, Start Up Loans, said: “I am delighted to announce that GCBF has been successful in securing the contract for loan delivery nationally and in the North West, and will be fundamental in helping us ensure that anyone wanting to start a business has the opportunity to do so, regardless of their economic or social background.”
Alex Mearns, head of Startup Lending at GCBF, said: “The team at GCBF has always been committed to supporting SMEs across the North West, and with this new contract we’re now well positioned to continue this work on a national scale.”
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Luxury door company Aperture has opened a new showroom in Knutsford with an investment in excess of £150,000, creating employment for eight people.
The company said its goods some of the most energy efficient doors available in Europe with U Values of 0.8. It has a patented Home inclusive 2.0 system where it can perfectly colour match a front door, garage door, fencing and gates with one of 16 unique colours.
Aperture Door owners, Doug and Lillie, have been in the door industry for a couple of years and are both experienced in the service industry, with a wider team that has decades of experience in the window and door industry.
They said: “We are so excited following the official unveiling of our new showroom. Our friendly and professional team are ready to start creating bespoke doors for our clients. We can’t wait to show everyone just how stunning our doors really are.”
The new showroom, on King Street, was opened by former Mayor, Cllr Stewart Gardiner.
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Lee Hull
Manchester-based UK small business essential services provider Verastar has seen a drop in its median gender pay gap result to 4.2% from last year’s figure of 7.2% and against a national average of 14.9%.
CEO, Lee Hull, said: “Continually striving for gender equality improvement over the past 12 months has paid off and I am delighted to report that our median gender pay result is now 4.2% vs the UK national average of 14.9%. This is a significant improvement against our result from the previous year when our pay gap was 7.2%. This result reflects our continued focus on recruiting and rewarding the best people irrespective of gender or any other personal characteristic.”
At this time, Verastar employed 610 colleagues nationwide to deliver services including telecoms, energy and water to more than 160,000 small business customers.
Hull added: “Our mean pay result has also improved significantly to six per cent, this is an improvement of 46% on last year’s 11.1%. This demonstrates that all the changes we’ve been making to ensure our workplace is accessible, inclusive, and free from bias are helping to drive change in the right direction.”
In its fifth Gender Pay Report last year Verastar set out a number of commitments that were felt needed to improve the imbalance and the company believes these latest figures demonstrate they have had a positive effect.
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Jonathan Nelson and Digital Britain staff
Rosebud Finance has provided £1m to businesses across the 12 boroughs of Lancashire this financial year, beginning July 1, 2022.
Delivered by GC Business Finance, Rosebud’s flexible approach to finance for businesses of all shapes and sizes across Lancashire has enabled local businesses to expand and has directly resulted in the creation of new jobs and opportunities throughout the region. It provides loans of between £10,000 and £300,000 to growing businesses across Lancashire.
The £11.25m fund aims to create more than 100 jobs per year across 12 local authority areas in Lancashire. It focuses on sectors such as aerospace, advanced manufacturing, digital and creative, energy and environment, health innovation, and financial and professional services.
In March, Rosebud surpassed £1m delivered to 14 businesses across the region, with forecasts of more than 120 jobs created. The team, led by Jonathan Nelson, also has £1.5m of loans in progress. The milestone marks a 158.6% increase in loans delivered when compared with the same period last year.
Jonathan Nelson, fund manager at Rosebud, said: “From high end restaurants to home security providers, children’s play centres and IT recycling firms, there’s no end to the variety of brilliant businesses across Lancashire. We are proud to play our part in supporting the business ecosystem and helping to drive wider economic growth.”
