In Brief: ADD; Lupton Fawcett Lee & Priestley; YBS; Sett

THE countdown is drawing closer for budding Yorkshire businesses to apply for the September 16 deadline of a ‘Dragon’s Den’ investment competition which will power the growth of three successful companies who will each receive a £5,000 cash injection.

The venture is spearheaded by Advanced Digital Dynamics (ADD) – an IT supplier specialising in computer hardware and data destruction, whose £15,000 investment extends to also providing training, mentoring and development to entrepreneurs who are hungry to fulfil their potential.

QU2, Leeds Metropolitan University’s hub for high growth businesses, is supporting the project by offering the winners a year’s free access to its business accelerator programme. Shortlisted companies will present their goals and vision to a judging panel which includes ADD operations director Julie Pickersgill and Margaret Wood, MD of ICW on September 26.

Innovative start-ups and ambitious businesses founded in the last three years will qualify for the funding and training. ADD, which boasts a 24-strong team across its headquarters at Harrogate’s Pannal Business Park and a sales office at Cheshire’s Daresbury Science Par, is seeking a minimum 5% equity in each of the three successful ventures and will provide commercial advice spanning critical areas such as innovation, strategy, sales and recruitment.

To download an application form visit http://www.qu2leeds.co.uk/add.htm.

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LUPTON Fawcett Lee & Priestley, the Leeds and Sheffield-based commercial law firm, has acted for Hand Picked Hotels in its acquisition of the Grade one listed Fawsley Hall Hotel and Spa in Northamptonshire. The asking price was originally pitched around £15m.

The acquisition is part of a strategic expansion by Hand Picked Hotels, owned by former city lawyer Julia Hands, to enhance its present portfolio of some 20 country house hotels.

The hotel will be operated and managed by Hand Picked Hotels. This acquisition comes on the back of the purchase of St Pierre Park Hotel & Golf Resort in Guernsey in June and Bailbrook House Hotel in Bath last year.

The multi-disciplinary Lupton Fawcett Lee & Priestley team was led by director and sector specialist Russell Davidson. Commercial property advice was provided by associate Zoe Lang with corporate finance advice being provided by director Daniel McCormack and employment matters being dealt with by Alexandria Quigley.

Liz Brassington of Penningtons acted for the vendor, Simon Lowe, with property support provided by Lyndsey Smith.

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YORKSHIRE Building Society is continuing its high street expansion plan with the opening of a new branch in West Yorkshire.

In the last 18 months the business has opened six new branches across Yorkshire, and this month, will be opening another new branch in Yeadon.

The group is continuing to grow as it opens a head office in Leeds, which will see up to 1,000 colleagues based in the city centre, as well as investing £11m in its principal Bradford site, and £5m in head offices in Cheltenham and Peterborough.

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A FAST growing software development company has launched a new user experience service to add to its services portfolio.

The Sett UX Lab is the only user experience consultancy and service provider in Bradford and builds upon the success of the Sett Group by offering customers a way to ensure that their software, web or apps are working in the best way possible, improving business and return on investment.

Sett Group said: “The power of Sett UX Lab is its ability to help us to understand how real people use the interfaces we create, helping us to base what we do on science and understanding rather than simply our own “art”, and this is a service that Sett UX Lab will offer to website owners, design and creative agencies and marketing departments across the region and further afield.”

Sett UX Lab exists for anyone selling online or the creative agencies that support businesses to sell online.

“When investing in an app, website or piece of software businesses need to know that this is going work for them when it comes to selling, and not just look pretty. Using cutting edge technology Sett UX Lab generate an understanding of how your users relate to your marketing or product in order to make recommendations for improved performance,” the company said.

Sett UX Lab services include website user experience, software user experience, mobile user experience, user focused design, and analytics.

Rob Walters, managing director of the Sett Group, said: “Sett UX Lab builds on our work in developing cutting edge web user interfaces, and developing software to understand consumer behaviour. We’ve always had a strong interest in user interfaces – designing manufacturing production systems which prevent errors, developing apps which work intuitively and creating web applications which use advanced functionality to create a rich web interface. All for not much more than the cost of a website.”

Founded in 2008, the Sett Group provides business and technology services including web design, web development, software development, database development, consultancy and analytics services.