People: Hunter Price; JLL; Baltic Triangle Area CIC; Primas Law; Stream Sensing

Manchester consumer products business, Hunter Price International, is continuing to add strength and depth to its team with its latest high profile appointment.

Brand and licensing expert, Nikki Samuels, has joined as commercial director, to help guide the business, which is on target to exceed its £40m sales forecast this year.

Nikki, the former licensing director and founder of character product manufacturer, Sambro, brings decades of experience and knowledge to the Hunter Price team. He joins as part of the company’s ambitious growth strategy across its core product categories, including home and lifestyle, toys and activity and stationery and craft.

Following the appointment, co-founder, Jeremy Winburn, will now take up the role of trading director, to focus on the company’s fast-paced reactionary trading business. Nikki will concentrate on the longer term strategic vision for the business and new business development opportunities.

Jeremy Winburn said: “We are industry innovators – and over the past two years we’ve continued to adapt and evolve, to carve out very clear areas of focus to help us achieve our goals.

“We’ve been strengthening our fantastic teams with the best talent, from buying and design, to sales and marketing. We’ve elevated our whole thought process and approach to enable us to deliver excellence within the industry. Nikki really shares our passion for product and his addition to the team will be invaluable as we start activating our plans over the coming years.”

Nikki said: “When you set foot in Devon Mill, the home of Hunter Price, you’re hit with such an incredible energy of excitement and passion. The talent and drive to create outstanding products is like no other business I’ve known and that’s what brought me here.

“We’ve got really solid foundations as a business and now it’s time to maximise our opportunities and potential across our core categories in the UK and throughout Europe. It’s a really exciting time and we’re looking forward to sharing lots more with you about our plans throughout the year.”

Nikki will also now sit on the board of directors alongside co-founders, Jeremy Winburn and managing director, Josh Eden, operations director, Jonathan Alexander and toys sales director, Richard Belford.

::

JLL has appointed Rhys Evans in the Manchester office agency team to grow its tenant representation capability, following a successful few years advising on some of the largest acquisitions in the market.

Recent deals include Roku taking 120,000 sq ft at Circle Square , the largest inward investor ever to Manchester alongside clients such as BT, Government Property Unit, and BLM who took a combined 400,000 sq ft at New Bailey.

Rhys Evans

Chris Mulcahy, who heads the office agency team in Manchester, said: “Given the number of occupiers that we have and continue to act for, this was a natural progression to appoint Rhys into this role to focus on developing even further our occupier capability. Currently we are representing over 30 active occupier clients covering the full range of sectors accounting for around 400,000 sq ft.

“Now more than ever, occupiers are reviewing their needs and function of the office workspace to encourage employees back to the office. This added focus will benefit our clients.”

Rhys Evans said: “It is an exciting time given the demand changes in the market currently and I am looking forward to extending our local capability, working with our national and international occupier teams to deliver best in class advice.”

::

Liverpool’s creative community group, The Baltic Triangle Area CIC, has appointed its first female chairperson. Award winning journalist Fiona Shaw has been selected to lead the collective after Liam Kelly stepped down from the role.

Fiona has been a key part of the district’s success over the past few years, as well as being a director of WordScapes, a Baltic business providing publishing and copywriting services. She has also played an integral role in the creation of the area’s 2019 vision manifesto that has been crucial to planning and new initiatives for the area that includes exciting plans for a new train station.

Fiona Shaw

Fiona said: “As a business tenant over the last 10 years I’m looking forward to taking on the chair role for Baltic Triangle CIC as we begin to emerge from the pandemic. Baltic Triangle’s residents and businesses have changed over the last two years, and our role is to provide a voice for them all. With a new station in the plans and new businesses, venues and visitors arriving all the time, it’s an exciting time to be in Baltic.”

The CIC was established in 2012 to be the voice of the business community in the regenerated area. In 2022 the Baltic Triangle has a healthy mix of residential and business stakeholders, so it’s the ‘area company’ who will take on the responsibility of updating the vision based on what the community needs.

Area communications director, Russell Gannon, said: “When it came to appointing a new chair, Fiona was the unanimous choice. She is an inspiring community leader with a wealth of experience that will push the CIC into 2022. She has been instrumental in helping us create a vision for the future with big plans such as the new train station, so she’s the perfect forward thinking choice.”

::

North West boutique law firm Primas Law has announced the appointment of a new senior litigation associate in response to growing demand for the service.

Carl Sebastian has joined the litigation team to strengthen its service offering following a period of significant growth for the firm.

Carl Sebastian

An experienced commercial litigator, Carl specialises in finance, mortgage and banking litigation, professional negligence, and construction litigation and joins the firm from Kuits Solicitors. Before training as a solicitor and graduating top in his year at Manchester Law School, Carl worked in property, advertising and the arts.

Carl said: “I’m delighted to have joined such an ambitious and forward thinking law firm, and their growth across the region is evidence of this. I have always wanted to work with such a talented litigation team and this team is definitely one to watch.”

Primas Law is a boutique commercial law firm which specialises in property, litigation and insolvency law, with offices in Manchester, Cheshire and London.

Managing partner, Adam Kerr, said: “Despite a challenging couple of years, we’ve continued to grow as a company and adding Carl to the team is testament to this. Carl’s wealth of experience and knowledge will really help strengthen our litigation offering, driving our growth plans forward.”

::

Manchester-based Stream Sensing, a spin-out of Industrial Tomography Systems (ITS), has appointed Rob Travis as director of business development, following the successful launch of the Stream Line Rheometer in 2021.

This technology enables automated, in-line rheology measurement for fluid process optimisation and is designed to help improve process efficiency in the personal care, household cleaning, food, pharma, speciality chemical and oil and gas sectors.

Rob Travis

To meet growing demand for the new technology, Rob Travis will lead the sales effort and brings a wealth of global experience in key account management, commercial marketing, project management, solution selling and SaaS. His most recent role was with Videojet Technologies, part of Danaher Corp, where he was head of UK&I strategic accounts and delivered growth and developed value propositions for clients. During this time, he was also the winner of the 2020 Elite Award ‘Sales Engineer of the Year’.

Prior to this, Rob was a global commercial marketing manager within Videojet’s strategic accounts team, and before that, a global account manager with responsibility for Mondeléz International and Heineken. He also previously worked for Schneider Electric in various roles. Rob is a Certified Energy Management Professional and Certified Solution Sales Master.

Rob Travis said: “I’m excited to be joining Stream Sensing at such a pivotal time. Digital manufacturing and innovation are key drivers in any global FMCG or food & beverage business and the team has developed a unique solution – the stunning process control advantages of the technology really speak for themselves. Rolling it out with the accounts we are already engaged with, plus other global household names, can propel Stream Sensing into a unique space with a very viable business.”