In Brief: Endless Abbey Dash team raises thousands; Morrisons selects Midde Age cheese; Funding boost for Calderdale; Cobbetts predicts M&A market

MEMBERS of Yorkshire’s corporate community have raised thousands of pounds for good causes after running the 2011 Leeds Abbey Dash.

Around 80 people from businesses and organisations joined the Endless team.

More than £6,000 has been raised by the runners, which will be matched pound for pound by Leeds-based investment and turnaround business Endless.

Donations will go towards installing a new climbing wall for children at Lineham Farm in Leeds, and putting five homeless or vulnerable people through an academy launched by social enterprise Create.

To donate, visit http://www.justgiving.com/TFAbbey2011.

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SHEPHERDS Purse Cheeses has won a national contract with Morrisons to supply its Monks Folly cheese. 

A traditional mould rinded, soft cow’s milk cheese originating from Middle Age monks has been reproduced by the Thirsk-based cheese makers and will be stocked nationally in Morrisons stores for Christmas.

Monks Folly will launch on November 28 and the supermarket will also list the company’s latest innovation, Bells Bluemin White, across all Yorkshire stores.

Katie Matten, managing director of Shepherds Purse Cheeses, said: “Luckily for us, monks in European monasteries revived the practice of cheese making during the Middle Ages. As true researchers and innovators, monks greatly improved cheese ripening and ageing techniques.”

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BUSINESSES in Calderdale looking to innovate and grow are set to benefit from more than £2m of investment that aims to help them work with leading local universities to develop new products or adopt new processes and technologies.

The Business Growth Calderdale project will also deliver intensive and specialist assistance, advice and mentoring to local businesses in the creative and digital, advanced engineering, environmental technologies, healthcare technologies, professional and financial services, and visitor economy sectors.

The Business Growth Calderdale project is managed by Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, working with Leeds Metropolitan University, the University of Bradford and Community Partnership Solutions.

The aim is for the project to support some 300 businesses, create around 120 new jobs and safeguard a further 150 jobs by 2013.

The project has secured £1.13m from the European Regional Development Fund which is managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government with another £1.28m of match funding from the partners.

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LAW firm Cobbetts expects international trade buyers and private equity firms to continue to dominate the M&A market for the next six months.

Cobbetts expects the trend after completing deals valued at more than £1bn in the first half of its financial year.
 
Richard Hepworth, corporate partner at Cobbetts in Leeds, said: “Our order book for the second half of the year is strong, which would indicate that we are likely to see an even busier M&A market than we have over the last six months.”