2017 in Review: January to June

We take a look back at the stories that hit the headlines in the first half of the year across TheBusinessDesk.com’s Yorkshire region.

January
1.Rugby league club Bradford Bulls owed £1.84m when it collapsed into administration, it was revealed, which led to a court injunction and directors’ suspensions.
2.Leeds vehicle leasing business Zenith was acquired in a deal worth £750m. Owners HgCapital agreed to sell to private equity investor Bridgepoint just five months after Zenith denied rumours of a sale.
3.Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani, who bought a 50% stake in Leeds United, declared he would look at buying back Elland Road.
4.A Harrogate businesswoman was handed an eight-and a-half year jail sentence after committing investment fraud totalling more than £6m. Morris ran Morris & Hale, a Killinghall-based financial and real estate management company alongside secretary William Morris.
5.Hull-based Hall Construction Group, which was established more than 100 years ago, filed for administration after posting a loss of more than £2m in its annual accounts.

February

1.Sir Ken Morrison died aged 85 following a short illness. Sir Ken helped grow supermarket Morrisons from a small grocery chain into one of the UK’s largest retailers.
2.Private equity firm Livingbridge bought a majority stake in Harrogate-headquartered divorce specialist Stowe Family Law, for more than £10m.
3.The property developer behind collapsed plans to develop a £100m hotel resort in North Yorkshire was declared bankrupt.
4.Darren Broadbent was a director of Skelwith Leisure, the company behind the failed Flaxby resort plans that had ambitions to create a 300-bed golf hotel and resort.
5. High performance supercar manufacturers McLaren announced its move into Sheffield with a £50m investment in manufacturing facilities, creating 200 jobs.

March
1.From major innovators, to excellent SMEs, overperforming exporters and upstanding professional services businesses, the business community came out in force for the Yorkshire Business Masters 2017.
Held at The Queens Hotel in Leeds, a packed room full of shortlisted companies and leaders came together to celebrate the crème de la crème of the region’s businesses.

2.Eight Yorkshire locations staked their place in the Best Places to Live in Britain list compiled by The Sunday Times:
Helmsley, North Yorkshire
Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Horsforth, Leeds
Malton, North Yorkshire
Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire
Richmond, North Yorkshire
Saltburn, North Yorkshire
Fulwood, Sheffield

3.Leeds credit lender International Personal Finance was excluded from the FTSE250 list.
The lender was demoted In the latest review of the FTSE100, 250 and 350 lists, after results which showed a decline in pre-tax profits.

4. Victoria Gate in Leeds was named as the Best Shopping Centre in the World at MIPIM 2017, having been opened just five months.

April

1. £230m staffing agency Transline, which was embroiled in the Sports Direct employment scandal, announced it was on the brink of administration. The Brighouse-based firm was later bought by Russell Taylor Group in a pre-pack deal.

2. Frozen foods group McCain saw revenues and profits rise just weeks after it announced a £100m investment in its Scarborough factory. Pre-tax profits increased to £63.8m for the year to June 2016, from £58.3m the year before.

3. £21m-turnover yarn manufacturer, Sirdar, was acquired by London-based private equity group BlueGem Capital. The deal saw the Wakefield-based firm become part of a group of three companies running collectively trading as DMC Group.

4. Muse Developments agreed to sell 100,000 sq ft of speculative industrial space to Leeds City Council. Construction on the three units is due for completion in spring 2018.

5. A 157-year-old South Yorkshire building firm closed its doors with the loss of 57 jobs. Mexborough-based George Hurst & Sons had been a family firm since it was founded in 1860 until a management buyout in 2008.

May

1.Leeds Bradford Airport was reopened after a bomb disposal team carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious package. The terminal was evacuated and flights were diverted after the alert was raised.
2.Leeds United manager Garry Monk resigned, just two days after Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani completed his takeover of the Elland Road club.
3.The shortlist for TheBusinessDesk.com’s 2017 Rainmaker Awards was revealed ahead of the annual dinner which celebrates the successes of Yorkshire’s corporate finance community.
4.A proposed £200m energy park in East Yorkshire was given the backing on major employers including Vodafone and IBM as planning applications were submitted for the site.
5. Leeds City College acquired land at Quarry Hill to develop a 160,000 sq ft campus following a major commitment from the LEP. It will house the college’s digital, creative arts and health sciences departments, and allow the expansion of Leeds College of Music.
June

1.The winners of this year’s corporate finance Rainmaker Awards, including the coveted Rainmaker and Rising Star categories, were revealed at TheBusinessDesk.com’s glittering awards ceremony which honours the best of Yorkshire’s corporate finance community.
2.An independent brewery entered administration after a Company Voluntary Arrangement it was operating under collapsed. Tom Woods Beers, which brews around 170,000 pints a week from its base in Melton Ross near Barnetby, called in CRG Insolvency & Financial Recovery of Grimsby to look after the day-to-day running of the firm.
3. It was announced that Nisa Retail was headed for a shock sale following the appointment of bankers to get a deal off the ground.
4. Sheffield City Council gave a development surrounding the Sheffield United stadium the green light.
Planners applied back in February for permission to build a four-storey residential building and a ground floor 6,600 sq ft Blades ‘superstore’ on the site.
5. Retailer Next opened its new 55,000 sq ft flagship store at the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds.
The fashion and home retailer invested £6m in the development of the store after upscaling its previous site.