six months of 2022. Hotter Shoes, which accounts for the entirety of the group’s income, increased sales from £25m in the first half of 2021 to £27.6m in the first half of this year.
Blackburn-based Sales Geek is to
provide its sales training services for IAG Cargo, with the new contract representing its largest win to date.
will be located in the North West, on its way to delivering eight new nuclear power plants,. The positions include engineers, technicians, and project managers involved in decommissioning of nuclear technologies and building of next-generation plants.
Ian Dixon Access to finance specialist
@a2flancashire access-to-finance-lancashire
USING EARLY-STAGE TRACTION METRICS IN
Work has begun on a £4.5m project Employee benefits provider Aceso Health
and Group Risk, part of the Attis Insurance Group, opened a new office in Blackpool. The new base will serve as its specialist healthcare hub. Gemma Field joins the office as development director and Emma Cain has been appointed as business development manager.
to bring 42 apartments to Morecambe’s West End. Placefirst worked in partnership with Church Lukas Architects to design the scheme and has appointed Tyson Construction who will use local tradespeople to build the development.
EQUITY FUNDRAISING Business traction is often misunderstood by founders considering early-stage equity fundraising. Traction is defined as the progress and momentum of a start-up.
For many investors the current economic climate has brought into sharp focus the importance of traction in decision-making. It’s not just about demonstrating developed products or services, product-market fit or a clear execution strategy. Traction is the most positive evidence a founder can promote that they can execute on their vision and a critical element of any pitch presentation.
TikTok recruited CIPS Business
Training, part of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, to provide training sessions to its procurement team. Members of the chamber team travelled to London to present to 30 employees of the social media giant.
Blackburn-based paper products
manufacturer Accrol increased annual revenues from £136.6m in 2021 to £159.5m for the year to April 30, 2022. The pre-tax loss of £2.5m was a reduction on the previous year’s £3.1m loss.
Blackburn-based Assystem is set to create 450 jobs, of which more than 120
The first fundraising ball held in support of Blackpool’s Trinity Hospice following the Covid-19 pandemic raised £86,382. A total of 560 guests contributed via a silent auction, a gala auction, prize balloons, a raffle and golden ticket chocolate boxes.
The University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) plan to create a four-storey, purpose-built veterinary school has been approved with conditions by Preston City Council’s planning committee.
An American income fund acquired Units 1 and 2 at Mariners Way Retail Park in Preston for £3.62m. The property is let to Pets at Home and Halfords, producing an annual rent of £244,124. The deal represents a 6.3 per cent net investment yield for former owners Glenbrook Investments.
DOWN Shh!, the 1920s speakeasy-style bar
is to close for good just months after announcing that it would move into larger premises owned by Blackburn with Darwen Council. Council leader Phil Riley says he is confident that a new tenant will be found after £350,000 was invested in the town centre venue’s refurbishment.
A new study by Begbies Traynor
revealed that there were 10,307 distressed businesses in Lancashire in the third quarter of 2022 - the highest level in more than a year.
Half-year profits at Boohoo, which
operates a major distribution hub in Burnley, declined 90 per cent to £6.2m, down from £63.8m last year. The company cited the cost-of-living crisis for a 10 per cent drop in revenues, from £975.9m to £882.4m.
Lanzet Interiors, the Darwen- based kitchen company, entered into administration, with no further details made public. The company’s Primrose Mill premises had earlier been subject to complaints from local people over excessive noises made by its machinery.
Early-stage investors want to know two things, do customers want your product, and can you take the product to market? Traction is critical to answering both questions. Founders should recognise that fundraising efforts can be negatively impacted not by insufficient traction, but by insufficient discussion and visibility of traction in investor presentations.
In early-stage fundraising traction is more important than long-term vision and financial forecast. Use traction metrics to differentiate your pitch deck. Identify the key KPI’s to track progress but don’t lose sight that these KPI’s are rarely perfect. The KPI’s important to any pitch to investors include engagement (churn, pageviews), growth (users, transactions, revenue) and scalability (cost per customer acquisition, lifetime customer value, customer profitability). It is important to differentiate between actual and forecast KPIs.
Inclusion of traction metrics demonstrate an ability to track progress and display transparency. Focus on key KPI’s is valuable in determining future strategy. Investors value teams that experiment to improve product-market fit even though data may be unfavourable.
In summary, early-stage investors focus on opportunities where founders are clear and transparent about traction.
For more information please visit
a2flancashire.growthco.uk
or call 0808 196 5099
LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK
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