News in brief: Friday May 30
AIM-LISTED Infoserve, the online marketing specialist for SMEs, has added search engine optimisation (SEO) to its portfolio of services following a strategic partnership agreement with Harrogate-based, The Web Marketing Group.
As the official advertising sales partner for Yahoo! Local and only the second company in Europe to be appointed an authorised Google Adwords reseller, Leeds-based Infoserve is already the UK’s leading company helping SMEs get their business featured on the two main search engines, covering 97% of the search market.
By teaming up with SEO specialist, The Web Marketing Group, it can now also help companies improve their search engine rankings organically.
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TIM Campbell – former winner of the BBC’s The Apprentice – is to host a Be Inspired event for Business Link Yorkshire, Harrogate.
The event – which take place on June 5 – is free and is open to anyone who who has their own business or who is interested in starting a venture in Yorkshire.
Mr Campbell – who won the £100,000 a year job in the 2005 series of the show has since launched his own male grooming company as well as launching the Bright Ideas Trust – a fund designed to supprt and nurture disadvantaged young people with entreprenuerial ideas.
For more information e-mail events@businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk or call 0845 6048048.
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LEEDS businesses are backing proposals for the formation of a new Further Education college in the city through the merging of Leeds College of Technology, Leeds Thomas Danby and Park Lane College.
The proposed Leeds College, which is being consulted upon by the Learning and Skills Council for Yorkshire and Humberside, aims to cater for up to 40,000 students in a multi-site operation across the city of Leeds and in surrounding areas including Keighley, where Park Lane College has a campus.
It aims to build local “centres of excellence” in areas that may have previously lacked local educational provision.
The consultation period will last until 16 June, with the individual college boards voting on the proposal in July. If the merger is agreed a formal proposal will then go to the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills with a view to forming a new Governing Body for the single college from January 2009.
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ACTING for Wolseley UK, DTZ has advised on the acquisition of new trade counter premises at Wheatley Hall Business Centre, Wheatley Hall Road in Doncaster.
Brandon Hire, Wolseley’s tool hire business, has taken Unit 27, Wheatley Hall Business Centre comprising a newly built 6,000 sq ft trade counter / industrial unit.
Paul Mack, associate director at DTZ, said: “Wolseley, and more specifically its subsidiary Brandon Hire, identified a business need to expand its offer in the South Yorkshire region and enter into the Doncaster tool hire market. Wheatley Hall Road (A630) is one of the major arteries into Doncaster town centre and over recent years has developed into the prime destination for trade counter operators, with almost every national and regional operator having a presence in this location.”
