Surge in new orders keeps region’s recovery on track over the summer
New orders placed with firms in the East of England rose at the fastest pace in eight months in July, helped by a large rise in new business at service sector firms, according to a purchasing managers survey. The rate of job creation was also one of the strongest on record.
Output across the region’s private sector economy continued to expand at a marked rate in July although the pace of growth slowed slightly. The Lloyds Bank East of England business activity index fell from June’s 59.0 to 58.5 in July. Meanwhile, the rate of inflation slowed slightly since June although manufacturers and service providers both faced higher input prices.
Steve Elsom, the bank’s area director for SME banking, said: “Companies in the East of England started the third quarter on a strong footing, with output and new orders continuing to increase at strong rates. Despite a further solid rise in workforce numbers, some companies noted capacity constraints, which led to a small accumulation of unfinished work. A closer look at the sector data highlighted that we currently have a two-speed economy, as service providers reported considerably stronger growth than their manufacturing counterparts.”
Banks support Essex-based care homes business
Barclays has supported Essex-based Runwood Homes with banking facilities of £96m to maintain its portfolio of care homes across the UK and develop new homes. Based in Hadleigh, Benfleet, Runwood Homes has over 65 residential care homes and day centres, supporting 4,000 residents across England and Northern Ireland with an equal number of employees. Around 75 per cent of residents have a level of dementia and the company has created a special dementia care services team. Logan Logeswaran, managing director Runwood Homes, said: “We have been able to achieve the right level of cost-effective funding in partnership with Barclays, meeting both our day-to-day financing and longer-term growth needs.’’
Steve Pleass, relationship director, corporate banking at Barclays, said: “With the UK’s population ageing at its fastest rate yet, supporting the operation and expansion of quality care has never been more important. The banking facility agreed will allow the company to continue their vital work and enable it to open further homes in the future.” Barclays took a leading role as mandated lead arranger, lender, facility agent and security agent through the provision of £96m of the £120m syndicated debt alongside Santander. Barclays is also the clearing bank.
Law firm advises on insurance acquisition
Suffolk law firm Greene & Greene has advised Nexus Underwriting Management on its acquisition of EBA Insurance Services. The Greene & Greene team was led by Simon Ratcliffe (photo, right) , an insurance specialist partner in the corporate team in Bury St Edmunds, supported by solicitor Andrew Cooper and employment partner Selene Holden. Nexus is one of the largest independent specialty managing general agents in the London insurance market with its gross written premium due to exceed US$135 million in 2015, having grown organically and by acquisition since it was founded in 2008. London-headquartered EBA also has operations in France and Italy, underwriting on behalf of Lloyd's syndicates and other insurance companies, as well as placing insurance in the Lloyd's market. Colin Thomson, group chief executive officer of Nexus, said: "We have been impressed by the enthusiasm that the EBA management team have for joining us at Nexus and are excited about the prospect of growing our business further. Simon Ratcliffe, Andrew Cooper and their team at Greene & Greene have been a great support to me and my fellow directors through this process and over the last seven years as advisers to our company, for which we are very grateful.”
Simon Ratcliffe added: "We are delighted to have helped Nexus finalise the acquisition of EBA and to continue our support of Nexus's growth strategy. This is another great acquisition for Nexus, who remain a highly valued client of the firm.”
Photo: Greene & Greene managing partner Simon Ratcliffe
Industrial space in demand
Growing property investment activity and strong demand for warehouse space meant two freehold properties investments have recently sold on Ransomes Europark in Ipswich above the guide price. Currently let to Thompson & Morgan, 40 Bluestem Road (photo, right) sold following an informal tender at a price well above the guide price of £1.4 million. A smaller property, Unit 5 Bluestem Road, let at a rent of £19,000 per annum, was also sold at a price above the guide price of £250,000, on a net initial yield of just over 7.1 per cent. Alistair Mitchell of agent Fenn Wright’s Ipswich office said “…there are a large number of investors with cash funds immediately available to invest in the industrial/warehouse sector. The significant increase in tenant demand, scope for rental growth and reduction in void periods has had a very positive effect upon the local market and yields which can be achieved on the sale of industrial/warehouse investments across all lot sizes.”
Busy first half for property agent in Cambridge
Savills has reported a 28 per cent rise in underlying profit before taax to £38.4 million in the first half on revenues up 27 per cent at £547 million. Transaction advisory revenues grew 55 per cent as strong performances in the US, UK commercial and Asia Pacific offset weaker UK residential activity. Rob Sadler, head of office in Savills Cambridge, said: “Savills in Cambridge has had a busy start to the year transacting some significant deals including the acquisition of strategic land company Catesby Homes on behalf of Urban & Civic. Construction of a new 50,000 sq ft R&D facility for Takeda, the first pre let building at Cambridge Science Park for many years, was completed in July and on the residential side of the business, strong market conditions continue in the city and surrounding villages, particularly in the southern fringe and below £1.5 million.”
New contracts at Norse
Norfolk-based Norse Commercial Services and its UK subsidiaries have added over £2.3 million worth of new cleaning contracts in the last month. They include two major new contracts in Norwich and Cambridge, and three others through its joint venture companies in Enfield Medway and Devon. The three-year agreements cover educational establishments and empty housing stock being prepared for new tenants. “Premises cleaning is worth around £25m a year to Norse and we are seeing significant wins in competitive tenders around the country,” said sales director Geoff Tucker. “We are providing employment for almost 10,000 people across the UK and over 6,500 within East Anglia.” The company will be investing around £40k in new equipment to run the contracts, mainly with local suppliers.
Separately, for the third year running, Norse has won the Employment Outcome Award for getting 70 per cent of its ‘Project Search’ initiative students into employment. Each year Norse takes on up to 12 students with moderate to serious learning difficulties. The project, which started in the USA, is a partnership with City College Norwich Remploy and Norse. For the 2014 intake Norse found direct employment within the company for four students and worked with other local employers to find places for the others.
See Profile Norse Commercial Services
New concrete plant near Norwich
Eastern Concrete is opening a new ready mix concrete batching plant near Norwich at a depot close to Wymondham, next to Longwater Quarry. The plant can mix more than 50 m3 per hour of quality assured concrete and the wet batch system allows the concrete to be moved to point of discharge as soon as the load is complete. Managing director Tom Baker said the new plant”…will offer new and existing clients a comprehensive service right across the eastern region”. Eastern Concrete has existing plants at Bury and Cambridge.
Facelift for law firm’s office
Gotelee Solicitors’ office at Hadleigh in Suffolk, where it has been trading since 1934, has had a facelift, inside and out. The exterior of the listed building at 6 Church Street has had repairs to the rendering and its windows have been repainted, to make the most of its 19th century features. The interior is now more client-friendly with a new reception desk, improved lighting and freshened with a re-decoration. Further changes will happen later in the year. Alistair Lang, Gotelee’s CEO said: “There have been many changes at Gotelee as a whole over the last few years, with an expansion of the teams at our Hadleigh and Ipswich offices. We have also opened a new office in Felixstowe. With more staff offering our full range of legal services to businesses and individuals alike from our Hadleigh office, we believe these changes will make our clients’ experience of visiting the Hadleigh branch more enjoyable and comfortable.”
Photo: Some of Gotelee’s Hadleigh staff (l to r) Jayne Tawell, Diana Sayle, Claire Bartram, Sally Pryke, Sam Lawrence, Rhonda Pryke, Jo Barlow, Pat Smith and CEO, Alistair Lang.
See Profile Gotelee Solicitors
Family business event
Law firm Birketts is holding a free family business event on September 17 at The Suffolk Food Hall where the firm’s family business team will be joined by guest speaker Alex Menhams of The Ideas Centre .The session will also cover: do you really want to be a director?; the need to address historic culture, attitudes and behaviour within a modern family business; successful succession; cultivating a high performance culture. Registration from 3.30pm, presentations begin promptly at 4pm.
www.birketts.co.uk/events/events-and-seminars/5761/fambiz4-the-generation-game/
Firm shortlisted for R& D award
Haverhill-based Cambridge Nanotherm, which produces thermal management technology, has been named as a finalist in the R&D 100 Awards. The team was selected by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D magazine for its nanotherm DM technology in the ‘mechanical devices and materials’ category. It is the only British firm in the category and is competing against majors such as MIT, The Dow Chemical Company and Toyota Motor Corporation.
