In Brief: Student cuts it with mentoring; Businesses step closer to ‘Broadband Britain’; and more
MENTORING from the Yorkshire Association of Business has helped University of Sheffield student Jennifer Ashton move a step closer to opening her business.
Kolours is a hair and beauty salon concept which will specialise in Afro-Caribbean hair and skin treatments.
Ms Ashton was encouraged to pitch at a panel event organised by the Yorkshire Association of Business Angels, the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University and her prize for winning the event was some mentoring time with business angel Steve Naylor.
He said: “Jennifer won because we were really impressed with her business plan. She had a good idea, had done her market research and had some great plans to scale up the business. During our mentoring time, I helped to distil Jennifer’s elevator pitch and to focus and define the core strengths of her business plan.”
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‘BROADBAND Britain’ is a step closer for thousands of the region’s businesses as TalkTalk Business announced it has introduced 149 new super-fast broadband exchanges across Yorkshire in the last 12 months.
With over 2,000 exchanges already providing coverage for 80% of the population, the Next Generation Network (NGN) operator is aiming to roll out a further 700 exchanges across Britain over the next two years.
Paul Lawton, managing director of TalkTalk Business, said: “The rapid increase in our number of super-fast exchanges across Yorkshire is a major shot in the arm for thousands of local companies which regard ‘business grade’ broadband connectivity as the lifeblood of their business.”
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LAW firm Shoosmiths has provided legal advice to one of the region’s developers behind a £400m project set to create a major inland port in Yorkshire.
Alongside developers Helios Europe and SEGRO, York and Leeds-based Shepherd is behind the project to create the 5.5m sq ft Rossington Inland Port, near Doncaster.
Featuring bonded warehouses, customs clearance facilities and a rail freight hub, the inland location will link to east coast sea ports and create a major logistics centre for retail operations.
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SOFTWARE development specialist 3Squared is bucking the trend by announcing a record-breaking year in which turnover has doubled.
The past 12 months have been hailed a “huge” success for the Sheffield-based company, thanks to increasing demand for its iPhone, iPad and Android development services.
Managing director Tim Jones said: “We are very pleased with the company’s performance over the last year, especially in light of the challenges businesses are continuing to face.”
