North West business briefs: Keenans Group; Primark; Immotion Group; Forbes Solicitors; Leasing Options; Palletower; Slater Heelis
North West estate and letting agent, Keenans Group, has expanded into West Lancashire with a swoop for Preston-based Letting Locations, for an undisclosed sum.
Letting Locations, which trades as Guildhall Residential Lettings, operates from Blackpool Road in Ashton-on-Ribble and has 350 properties under management. Its managing director, Robert Shields, is being retained by Keenans on a consultancy basis following the deal.
Keenans is an independent, family-owned group which, until now, has focused on Greater Manchester and East Lancashire, with 10 branches covering 115 postcodes. It deals with more than 2,500 sales and 400 lettings per year and employs nearly 100 staff.
Matthew Catterall, a corporate partner at North West law firm, Taylors Solicitors, advised Keenans on the acquisition. Andrew Tabernacle, of Bishops Chartered Accountants in Blackburn and Blackpool, provided accounting and tax advice. Matthew said: “This transaction will enable Keenans to continue its impressive growth and extend its reach into West Lancashire.”
Paul Keenan, managing director of Keenans, said: “Letting Locations is a great fit with our current branch network and it expands our lettings management portfolio. The staff have tremendous experience and are passionate about the lettings industry. Their commitment to excellence for landlords and tenants alike aligns perfectly with our ethos, and we extend a warm welcome to them as part of the group.”
He added: “The advice from Matthew and Andrew throughout the process has been invaluable, and we look forward to working with them on future acquisitions as we continue towards our growth target.”
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Primark, Market Street, Manchester
Discount retailer Primark will launch its new Click + Collect service in 22 selected stores located across the North West and North Wales before the end of the year.
The mix of Primark stores taking part in the new trial ranges from large city centre and out-of-town stores to smaller high street locations.
The trial will offer customers the opportunity to shop an extended kids’ range – spanning everything from clothing and accessories, to decorative nursery products and toys – and will also include hundreds of items exclusive to Click + Collect.
The launch will mark the first time that Primark has offered customers the option to buy online and then collect in store. Customers will be able to browse the range online, choose their preferred collection day and then collect from a dedicated collection point at their nominated store.
Kari Rodgers, Primark UK retail director, said: “We’re thrilled that customers will soon be the first in the country to get the chance to try out our new Click + Collect offer. From launch, they’ll be able to browse and buy from our extensive range of kids clothing and nursery products, from the comfort of their own home, before coming to collect from one of our chosen stores.”
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Immotion Group’s VR technology
Salford-based virtual reality entertainment group, Immotion, Immotion has signed two new zoo partners.
They are Dallas Zoo, where Immotion will install its first 12-seat outdoor solution, and Oklahoma City Zoo, which will be an eight-seat ‘Gorilla trek’ installation.
Both zoos have more than one million visitors per annum and the installations are planned for the fourth quarter of this year.
The current pipeline of potential new sites remains strong and, as the business comes out of the busy summer period, partners are now ready to enter into contract negotiations pending installation in fourth quarter 2022, and quarter one 2023, prior to the seasonally important spring break and Easter period, Immotion said.
The group has 136 motion platform seats in stock and, with the benefit of the strong cashflow from summer trading, the group says it is well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
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Pauline Rigby
Forbes Solicitors has opened a new office in Blackpool as it expands its services across the Fylde Coast.
The new opening sees the law firm grow its footprint to 11 offices, which stretch from Leeds to London, and right across Lancashire.
Located at Metro House on Blackpool’s Metropolitan Business Park, the new office will specialise in Forbes’s criminal law services, which retained a ‘Tier 1’ ranking in the recently released The Legal 500 for the UK. The Blackpool office will support Forbes’s commitment to delivering a 24-hour on-call service for serious crimes and provide individuals and businesses along the Fylde Coast with more convenient access to its team and extensive practice areas.
In addition to criminal law, the new office will support the delivery of the firm’s other legal specialisms. These range from corporate, commercial property and employment law, through to business immigration and dispute resolution, as well as personal law services including wills, probate, tax and trusts, family law, conveyancing, and clinical negligence and personal injury.
Pauline Rigby, managing partner at Forbes Solicitors, said: “Demand for our services has been growing along the Fylde Coast and it was a logical next step to open our first office in the area. Our team takes pride in working closely together with clients on often complex and confidential matters and having a more local base fits perfectly with this.”
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Josh Ashton
Worsley-based car leasing company, Leasing Options, is working to support its colleagues and help look after their mental health wellbeing by enlisting its first mental health first aid officer.
Josh Ashton, from Horwich, a mental health first aider, is on hand to all the team at Leasing Options to provide a safe place to talk about any challenges they are experiencing and will signpost to relevant sources to secure additional support. Also, Josh uses his training to observe behaviours and proactively identify and approach colleagues that maybe struggling but not feel able to seek the help they need.
Mike Thompson, COO of Leasing Options, said: “COVID has had a huge impact on everyone in so many ways, so as we are now in the new chapter of ‘living with COVID’, we want to make sure that we support our colleagues in adjusting to the ‘new normal’ and provide support for any staff who find elements of life, post-lockdown, challenging.
“We’re committed to supporting our colleagues and their mental health and are demonstrating this by securing Josh’s role as mental health first aid officer within Leasing Options.”
The introduction of this role is the latest initiative implemented by Leasing Options after the company teamed up with LifeWorks, a Total Well-being Solution, to provide advice and support on a variety of issues including coping with change, future proofing finances and tips to deal with worry and anxiety.
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Matthew Palmer and Travis Teague
Sale-based Palletower, a manufacturer, stockist and supplier of storage and logistics equipment, has partnered with Horen Group, China’s leading moulder of returnable packaging, to become the biggest seller of UK moulded collapsible plastic box pallets.
Horen Group has partnered with Birmingham-based IPL Global to manufacture the plastic box pallets, and Travis Teague, sales director at Horen Group, said: “In a post-COVID world localisation is more important than ever. With rising costs of materials, exchange rates and energy prices fluctuating and continuous delays in delivery times, our decision to move production to the UK has helped tighten our partnership with Palletower. Going from strength-to-strength, we look forward to bringing new products to our UK manufacturing facility in the future.”
Matthew Palmer, managing director at Palletower, said: “Manufacturing the collapsible box pallet in the UK is a great step in the right direction for the UK manufacturing sector. Due to the large quantity of stock we carry and our manufacture of the collapsible plastic box pallets through our mould partner in the UK, IPL Global, who provide an end-to-end service, we will continue to offer extensive choice and rental options to suit all warehouse, distribution and storage needs.”
Matthew said he is also acutely aware of the positive environmental impact this will have due to cutting transport costs at both ends of the supply chain.
Palletower has seen incredible growth over the past two years. Matthew said: “Our turnover will grow from £20m in 2020 to £34m by the end of 2022. We always have over £10m of products in stock across our warehouses, which has allowed us to fulfil all orders throughout the COVID pandemic.”
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Rachel Fletcher
Manchester-based Slater Heelis Solicitors has been engaged by The Rugby League World Cup 2021 to provide advice, assistance and representation should it be required over the course of the competition, which starts tomorrow, October 15, when England take on Samoa at St James’ Park.
The firm’s criminal defence team, led by Rachel Fletcher, will be providing 24/7 support to the teams and players involved in the tournament should they require legal services during the five-week duration. Thew Rugby League World Cup will see 61 matches across 21 venues, featuring 32 teams from 20 unique nations.
Slater Heelis has been proud corporate partners of Rugby League Cares for the past 18 months in a collaboration to provide support and advice on all legal issues to past and current players and their involvement in the World Cup is a natural extension to an already successful partnership.
Rachel Fletcher, partner and head of the crime and regulatory team, said: “Slater Heelis has really nurtured Rugby League Cares and its members and we are delighted to be able to extend our relationship with rugby league.”
Dean Hardman, tournament director from The Rugby League World Cup, said: “Working with Slater Heelis over the course of the tournament gives us the confidence and reassurance that our players will be looked after should they need legal representation. Knowing the calibre of the team reinforces the fact that we are working with the very best and we are pleased to have their commitment to us.”
