20
BAROMETER UP
▲ Clitheroe-based Bare Bar, which manufactures natural personal care products aimed at men, has secured additional funding to build on its early successes. The company received a £4,000 start-up loan in May 2021 from Hyndburn Enterprise Trust, a delivery partner of the British Business Bank. After achieving triple-digit growth in its second year of trading Hyndburn Enterprise Trust has now granted a further £15,000 of funding to be used to scale its website and improve the customer experience.
▲ Morecambe Winter Gardens has secured a £2.78m grant from the Cultural Development Fund to help bring the historic theatre back to prominence. The Grade II listed venue first opened in 1897 and for decades attracted the biggest music and variety stars of the day, helping Morecambe become one of the best-loved seaside resorts in the country. The venue, which can hold 1,600, closed in the mid-1970s but a group of volunteers formed the Preservation Trust in 2006 and have since worked to clean, restore and raise funds. The drive to secure these latest funds was led by Vanessa Toulmin, professor of entertainment history at the University of Sheffield, who was born and grew up in Morecambe. Planned work includes a two-storey extension including toilets, accessible lifts and a new fire escape, full electrical rewiring, new AV and lighting equipment, including an acoustic shell for the fly-tower and other essential conservation work.
▲ Blackburn-based Farleys Solicitors has acquired Mulderrigs Solicitors of Rawtenstall. Mulderrigs, which has operated in Rossendale for more than two decades, specialises in serious injury and professional negligence claims. It will retain its trading name and all employees while helping Farleys expand its footprint.
▲ Ribble Valley-based Key Finance & Leasing, better known as KeyFleet, has been acquired by national fuel and green energy supplier Greenarc. Keyfleet has specialised in vehicle leasing and fleet management services for more than 15 years and currently employs a team of 22 around the UK.
▲ Kirkham-based energy procurement and management specialist Inspired registered £88.8m in group revenues for the year ending December 31, 2022. The company cited spiralling energy costs and an increasing appetite for businesses to achieve net zero targets for the more than 30 per cent year- on-year increase. Adjusted profit before tax increased four per cent to £14m and EBITDA increased six per cent to £21m.
▲ Wyre Council has approved planning permission for 343 homes in Great Ecclestone. The development, led by Bellway Homes and Duchy Homes and supported by planning consultancy Lichfields will feature a mix of one- to five-bedroomed properties, including 102 affordable homes, on a 35-acre plot of land.
▲ Edge Hill University has secured more than £200,000 of government-backed funding to develop an AI-based smart learning platform for The Progress Group. The grant will be used to develop an intuitive smart learning platform which will allow the education provider to tailor its delivery to each specific student by understanding their current attainment levels and learning style, before developing a learning plan that is bespoke to them.
▲ Leyland-based Aston Services Group has been awarded three new shopping centre contracts worth a combined £1m per year. The independent facilities services provider has begun work with Ladysmith Shopping Centre in Ashton-under-Lyne, Prince Bishops Place in Durham and Lakeside in Doncaster.
▲ Developers HBD and Barnfield Group have acquired a 25-hectare site in Preston with a view to building an 800,000 sq ft industrial and logistics scheme. The project will see the pair reunite with Preston City Council following the success of the EAST development.
▲ Preston City Council says that it has entered into an agreement which will see it reopen the Guild Hall to live events for the first time since 2019. The venue had been under council control since 2014, when local entrepreneur Simon Rigby paid £1 to take ownership. However, the company which he established to run the venue went into administration in 2019. Simon Rigby died in 2020.
▲ Blackburn-based Your Castle Caretakers has been acquired by the Oltec Group of Wigan. Your Castle Caretakers was established in 2013 and specialises in commercial cleaning, facilities management and maintenance for clients operating in both the state and independent education sectors in the North West.
▲ Ribble Valley Council unanimously approved Muller Property Group’s plans to build a new care home, featuring 70 ensuite rooms, a cafe, cinema and beauty salon, on 1.1 acres of land in Clitheroe. Worthington Brougham Furniture, which is currently located at the site, will remain trading there until the end of 2023 before moving to a warehouse outlet in January 2024.
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