North West business briefs: Race Equality Hub; Thornley Groves; Business Enterprise Fund; Manchester Airport; MolMart

Liverpool Combined Authority Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has announced the biggest ever investment in tackling racial inequality in the Liverpool City Region. A £3.2m Race Equality Hub will target employment inequalities and remove barriers in the labour market.

The Hub, one of the first of its kind in the country, will focus on training, employment support and business assistance for people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. The work would also see the city region’s 22,000 local government staff receive race equality training.

Creation of the hub is a key part of the combined authority’s Race Equality Programme, which was established by the Metro Mayor in the wake of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. The programme aims to tackle systemic racial injustice and inequality in the city region. It is estimated that addressing race inequalities could add around £300m to the Liverpool City Region economy each year.

Mayor Rotheram said: “We’ve all seen in the past few weeks, with the abuse directed at black footballers, that there is still a lot of work to be done to tackle racial inequality in this country. In the Liverpool City Region, we’re trying to lead the way. Through the Race Equality Programme we launched last year, we are taking practical, proactive and positive action to level the playing field and overcome bigotry and discrimination.”

Joanne Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool and combined authority portfolio holder for education, skills, equality and diversity, said: “The evidence of the negative social and economic effects of racial inequality is overwhelming. We want to ensure that everyone in our city region has equality of opportunity and the Race Equality hub will deliver a programme of interventions to make that happen.”

Moni Akinsanya, LJMU’s equality, diversity and inclusion manager who initiated the Reciprocal Mentoring Programme, Positive Action Programme and the LCRCA’s Black, Asian, and Minority Staff Leadership Development Programme, said: “The Race Equality Hub is a desperately needed initiative. Many organisations wish to proactively address the issue of recruitment, progression and retention of people from Black, Asian and Minority communities but don’t really know how and who to approach. The hub will provide the urgently needed support and answer as it will bring together experts and consultants from diverse communities to work with organisations and people of colour themselves in addressing pertinent issues.”

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Jason Watkin (right) with the Didsbury Tiger team

Altrincham-based estate agency Thornley Groves has launched a new branch in Didsbury Village, South Manchester, after acquiring the portfolio of letting specialists Tiger Property Partners, for an undisclosed sum.

The chain, which is marking its 30th anniversary, has also acquired the sales and lettings business of Carr and Hume in Swinton, Pad Residential and Mint Properties in Manchester city centre, and Allison & Co covering Salford and Swinton.

Chief executive, Jason Watkin, said: “We are proud of our local roots, so we are delighted to extend our customer service to new buyers and sellers, tenants and landlords, across these prime locations. As well as inheriting a first class portfolio of properties, we are also pleased to welcome the teams from other agencies into the Thornley Groves family.”

The Tiger acquisition takes the number of North West offices to seven. The Carr and Hume purchase has given Thornley Groves the opportunity to relocate its branch to the bigger and higher profile base formerly occupied by Carr and Hulme in Folly Lane. This office will trade as Thornley Groves with Carr and Hume for the short term, drawing on the long standing Swinton pedigree of Carr and Hulme, which was established there more than 35 years ago.

Established in 1991 from a single estate agency branch in Altrincham, the company now employs more than 100 staff. In 2020, it sold £108m-worth of property, let more than 1,700 properties and managed in excess of 2,700 houses and apartments.

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Stephen Waud

Business Enterprise Fund has almost doubled its investment in the Northern economy over the past 12 months as entrepreneurs have created more businesses during the COVID pandemic.

From April 2020-2021, the independent, not for profit loans provider has invested £70m in the region’s economy – a year-on-year increase of £25m – helping 286 new businesses launch, 52 more than the previous year. Also, 3,524 jobs across the north have been created or safeguarded thanks to its provisions of resource to small businesses, with more than a quarter (26%) of the investment going to the construction industry.

CEO Steve Waud said: “You plan for the worst and hope for the best. Clearly this has been a particularly challenging year but the optimism and creativity of northern SMEs and start-ups shows a real resilience and determination.”

BEF provides funding, support and advice for growing businesses across all sectors. Its aim is to deliver flexible finance to businesses in geographical areas that need it most, by providing unsecured business loans when other lenders such as mainstream banks cannot fully assist.

It revealed that 26% of the support over the past 12 months has been to construction companies, 14% to business services, 12% to hospitality, and 11% to healthcare and beauty. Retail, logistics, creative, education and manufacturing organisations have all benefited from BEF’s investments.

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Aegean Airlines will become the latest airline to relocate to Manchester Airport’s new-look ‘super-terminal’ today (July 27).

Additional cafes and retailers are also opening in Terminal Two as passenger footfall is forecast to increase over the summer.

The Terminal Two extension opened to the public on July 14, with Jet2.com and TUI operating from there in the first week. Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Brussels Airlines, airBaltic and Ethiopian Airlines have all now followed suit in moving their operations to the new terminal.

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines will become the ninth airline to operate from the ‘super-terminal’, offering services to Athens on a thrice-weekly basis beginning today. As summer progresses and international travel restrictions ease, further airlines will move across.

Meanwhile, World Duty Free Express opened in Departures over the weekend. The main World Duty Free unit, which has been operating since the new terminal opened its doors, remains available for those wishing to browse the full selection of the brand’s stock. Those passing through Arrivals will also have additional choice in the near future, with Pret-a-Manger and Starbucks units due to open in early August.

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Markella Mikkelsen

Life sciences SME, MolMart, has launched its pioneering pre-natal genetic testing products, following support from GC Business Growth Hub’s innovation team. The Alderley Park-based business is developing bespoke solutions to detect rare diseases in children and adults.

MolMart was launched in 2016 by molecular geneticist Markella Mikkelson, who specialised in pre-natal genetics in both the NHS and the private sector, and her business partner Harry Kontos. The pair wanted to bring innovative, cutting-edge technology to the field of genetic testing.

Markella said: “At MolMart we are committed to making a difference to individuals’ health and the health of their families. We want to help people to make important decisions at crucial stages in their lives, like when they are having children. Our products will help, by providing them with the knowledge to make important decisions at critical times.”

Since 2019, the Hub has supported Molmart through the Innovation Voucher funding scheme, designed to bolster business innovation by encouraging new research and development activities. MolMart secured £5,000 to help fund a product validation project with the University of Manchester’s School of Health Sciences. The MATMED programme, which brings healthcare innovations to market more efficiently via transnational collaboration throughout North West Europe, is also supporting the company’s next stage funding rounds, while the Boost4Health programme, a northern European life sciences network that ran until 2019, enabled MolMart to connect with a specialist in non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) platform in Denmark and provided 15,000 Euros to fund further studies.

Yvonne Grady, innovation lead at GC Business Growth Hub, said: “Innovation – the successful exploitation of a new idea, either in the market or within your business – has never been more important for SMEs. But it’s often difficult to get new ideas moving. And that’s where we’re proud to be able to help businesses like MolMart to overcome the barriers, identify the opportunities for collaboration, and accelerate the route to market.”