Business successes help banish the wet weather blues

IN a week dominated by the West Midlands’ wet weather, the opportunity to bask in the warm glow of the regional business community’s successes made a welcome distraction.

Hundreds of people put away their umbrellas and donned dinner suits to celebrate the best of the West Midlands at TheBusinessDesk.com’s annual Business Masters Awards.

The awards, now in their fifth year, saw the headline Ambassador award posthumously bestowed on the former leader of Sandwell Borough Council, Darren Cooper, in recognition of his work as an architect of the new West Midlands Combined Authority.

There was also the small matter of the Queen’s Birthday Honours, which in this special celebratory year saw recognition for the West Midlands across both the public and private sectors.

Elsewhere, bathroom manufacturer HiB announced that it had completed a major deal with IM Properties to pre-let an 80,000 sq ft unit on the Birth Coppice Business Park in North Warwickshire. The new unit will enable the business to more than double in size.

Providing capacity for growth was also the motivating factor in the submission of a planning application to Dudley Borough Council by London & Cambridge Properties, owner of the Pensnett Estate, Kingswinford. The company plans to create an additional 260,000 sq ft of warehousing and industrial space at the site, which is already one of the largest business parks in the UK.

Birmingham’s burgeoning hospitality sector has prompted one hotel operator to try and cash in on the current popularity.

BLOC Hotels, which already operates a boutique hotel in the Jewellery Quarter, displayed its lofty ambitions with the submission of a planning application to build a 25-storey tower opposite the revamped New Street Station.

BLOC Grand Central would be built on the site of the current Gallan House in Hill Street and dominate the skyline surrounding the new station.

Shopping centre owner Intu, outlined ambitions of its own with an audacious £410m bid to acquire the half share in the Merry Hill Shopping Centre which it does not currently own.

Another Black Country institution which could be set to change hands is single price retailer Poundland. A plunge in profits following its acquisition of the rival 99p Stores last year appears to have made it vulnerable to a possible takeover, with a South African group eagerly buying up shares in what is expected to be a bid for the business.

Another firm to have undergone upheaval is Staffordshire software supplier eg solutions, which saw its shares take a dip when it was rocked by the resignation of four senior directors – including its chairman and CFO.