Remy and Simon discuss news of the appointment of a consortium to oversee Trafford Council's new Old Trafford masterplan ambitions; Popeyes opening half a dozen new venues in the Midlands; funding for a 2024 North West 42 under 42-er and the acquisition of a Preston-based manufacturer.
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00:00News on Manchester United's new home, expansion for Popeyes, a 4,242er gets funding and a manufacturing acquisition.
00:09That's what's coming up on today's Daily Business Briefing.
00:18Hi, I'm Simon Keegan.
00:20I'm Remy Griesley.
00:21So Remy, one of the big stories locally has been Manchester United's proposed new stadium.
00:27I understand there's been a few developments on that.
00:31Yes, so there's all the sort of talk about the actual stadium itself, but when it comes to the actual master plan, that master plan has now taken a step forward in a sense really,
00:43because Trafford Council have appointed a consortium to develop it and they've brought in an architect by the name of Allies and Morrison to develop the master plan for the surrounding area,
00:56which is supposed to bring in things like, well, what you'd expect really, some build houses, you know, sort of a commercial space, all that that you want to see in a wider regeneration.
01:07So it's real place-making, as they say.
01:10And then, yeah, so it's supposed to be one of the biggest growth opportunities in the country, really.
01:15So if they can get that right, it doesn't even really matter what the stadium does.
01:21Oh, that's interesting.
01:22Yeah, yeah, for the redevelopment of the area, very interesting.
01:26Well, something else that's quite interesting is the West Midlands is welcoming six Popeye's chicken venues.
01:37It's going to create 500 jobs.
01:39Now, one of the things that's quite interesting, I think, is that they're opening the first branch at a UK airport, which is a Birmingham airport,
01:50because I think you get much the same at airports, don't you?
01:53It's nice to have a bit of variety, I think.
01:55But this is part of a partnership that they're doing with the SSP group, whereby they're opening outlets in different travel locations around the world.
02:06Are you a Popeye's man?
02:09I would say I am, actually.
02:10I prefer it to KFC.
02:12I had a Popeye's this Monday as well, so it kind of makes me feel like, or maybe seem that I have it a lot.
02:19Right, because it's still fresh in your mind.
02:22It's still fresh in my mind.
02:23Yeah.
02:23Lovely chicken.
02:24Other fast food is available.
02:27What other news have you got for us, Remy?
02:28Yeah, so obviously we run our 42 under 42 every year, and this most recent cohort, so last year's cohort, one of them has now got $5.7 million in Series A funding for their business, which is a Rift, which is a payments platform.
02:47Because this is a Northwest 42, isn't it?
02:49Yeah, Northwest, of course.
02:50So it's founded by 42, Sadra Hosseini, and his business partner, Alex McKenzie.
02:59So Sadra and Alex, they previously set up a business called Butler, which they sold to OrderPay in 2021.
03:07And so Rift is their newer business, and they've now been through Series A funding, reached a figure of about $5.7 million, which will really help to develop their new technology.
03:21Get them on that scale-up path.
03:23Yeah, and it's one of them that may be quite specific, so I'm not even going to try and say this better in my own words.
03:29But the technology will accelerate the development of technology for acquiring banks to automatically manage payments between numerous parties at scale.
03:40So that's what they do in their own words.
03:42That sounds great.
03:43Yeah, perfect.
03:45Exactly.
03:45Well, something that I think we can put into our own words is a recent manufacturing acquisition.
03:52So again, sticking with the Northwest, it's actually a food processing business in Preston.
03:58It's been acquired by Sugar Rich, which is a reprocessor of surplus food products.
04:03So basically what that means is they recover food that would otherwise go to waste, and then it's used for livestock.
04:13So like, you know, gets fed to the pigs, I imagine, that kind of thing.
04:18So they've been acquired by, or rather, Sugar Rich have acquired the former food processing business of J.D. Bambay.
04:30Who isn't the American vice president.
04:33He is not.
04:34He is not.
04:35But you never know.
04:35It might be a cameo appearance.
04:38We all need a side hustle.
04:39So, yeah, Sugar Rich worked with food manufacturers to reduce waste, repurpose the products.
04:47So that's great to see, and a nice acquisition there for the Northwest.
04:51Now, talking of Northwest manufacturers, I just want to draw people's attention to the Made in the Northwest shortlist, which has gone out.
04:59Wow.
04:59So these Manufacturing Awards will be held on May the 22nd.
05:04It's at Hotel Football, just to bring it back to…
05:07Great-looking venue as well.
05:08Yeah, amazing.
05:10And there's some great companies on the shortlist.
05:14Yeah, we've got the likes of, we've got some of the big guys that you'd expect.
05:18Jaguar Land Rover, of course, in the news lately over the Trump tariffs.
05:22Bentley as well, who we recently had on the cover with their first foray into electric vehicles.
05:30But we've got some of the, should we say, more up-and-coming companies as well, the likes of Spice Kitchen, Incinerate, Simply Donuts, Faith in Nature, Fuel Hub, and My Fabulosa.
05:47So some really great Northwest names on there.
05:52And obviously, it's not a case, you know, manufacturers don't need to think, oh, I'm nowhere near as big as Bentley, for example, because there are categories particular.
06:03You know, there's big manufacturer, there's startups, there's particular ones like food and drink.
06:08So there's really a category for everyone.
06:10So, particularly if you're shortlisted, you know, you should get tickets to that event.
06:16And then the winners of Made in the Northwest go through to the national final, Made in the UK, which I think I'm allowed to say is in Liverpool this year.
06:26So I'm not far to go to that as well.
06:28No, I'm looking forward to that one.
06:29That'll be great.
06:31Oh, yeah, you and I both there, aren't we?
06:32That'll be really good.
06:34So I think that's all we've got time for.
06:36So if you want to look at any of these stories, you can see them on insidermedia.com.
06:42And why not give us a follow on LinkedIn as well?