Top stories of 2020
2020 has been a year full of unprecedented challenges, and as it draws to a close it’s time to look at the top five stories of the last 12 months on TheBusinessDesk.com.
The top story for the year was the news in July that the Leeds-based gym chain Xercise4Less and its parent topco had called in administrators. It was then confirmed the chain had been sold to a subsidiary of JD Sports Gyms Limited.
The second most read story of the year was another administration story that came in March. Creative arts venue, The Square Chapel Trust which operated a centre for the arts from the grade II listed Piece Hall in Halifax. However, the venue was ultimately saved when Arts At The Mill CIC, with the support of Arts Council England and Calderdale Council, become the official owner in September.
Also making the top three was the news that Card Factory’s CEO was to “ousted after four years in charge” in June. Karen Hubbard left the role ahead of the retailer launching its refreshed growth strategy. She has since been replaced the former CEO of Costcutter supermarkets, Darcy Willson-Rymer.
The remaining two stories, were the news that American investor Advent International had bought Leeds-based delivery firm Hermes, and the news that BooHoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani and one of the North’s leading corporate financiers Richard Hughes had reached a deal with Avacta for direct-to-consumer sales of a saliva-based rapid test for the Covid-19 antigen
Away from the top five we also covered the challenges business are facing opening bank accounts, as well as the impact of Covid-19 on the business of sport and the plans to demolish the £65m new university building
We hope you have found our stories interesting and informative and we will be back in 2021 with more of the same and some new features. Until then we would like to wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2021.
