Crain's Manchester Business - 12-16 April, 2010 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S LIST Media Buyers Page 14 STARTS ON PAGE 11 Corporate Recovery CVA fixes DIY chain CRAIN’S MANCHESTER BUSINESS VOL. 3, ISSUE 15, APRIL 12 - 16, 2010 CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk £2 What’s News ■ Toby Whittaker, managing director of property broker Dylan Harvey, which saw its residential arm go into administration owing £9m to investors, has been cleared of two counts of insurance fraud. Whittaker was prosecuted after a burglary at his home last year, following which he submitted a £21,000 insurance claim. On Friday a jury at Preston Crown Court found him not guilty of conspiracy to defraud Zurich Insurance and dishonestly making false representation to make personal profit. ■ Another two partners are to leave Manchester-based law firm Halliwells. Michelle Stevenson, who was a partner in the firm’s real estate department, is leaving to join social housing provider Progress Housing Group. Julie Bowker, who was a partner in the firm’s commercial litigation department, is also leaving the firm but has not disclosed her future plans. Two weeks ago Halliwells lost Mike Edge, the head of its property department, to Pinsent Masons. ■ Manchester-based business telecoms firm Unicom will move part of its operations into new premises after completing property renovations. The firm bought 5,000 sq ft of space across three buildings at Sharston Industrial Estate in October, which will now be used to house part of Unicom’s administrative operations. The firm wants to recruit 200 people nationwide, with 30 more employees needed in Manchester. Operations director Chris Earle said: “We are determined to continue our expansion – both in terms of staff and customer numbers – and this commercial property purchase was a vital part of this process.” ■ Stephen Harris was paid £443,000 including a £20,000 bonus in 2009, his first year as chief executive of Bodycote Plc, the Macclesfield-based heat treatment group. His predecessor John Hubbard, who retired last April, was paid £706,000 in 2008, when he oversaw the sale of the group’s testing business for £417m in cash to Clayton, Dubilier and Rice, the New York-based private equity firm. Bodycote posted a pretax loss of £54.5m in 2009, compared with a loss of £55.3m in the prior year. Revenue fell 21 per cent to £435.4m. ■ Packaging company Linpac Allibert is cutting 19 jobs, or about 7 per cent of the workforce, at its plant in Winsford, Cheshire. The transit packaging maker has entered into a 30-day consultation, saying it “necessary to resize the organisation in keeping with the demand for our type of products in a recessionary market”. Parent Christie does £14m deal with US giant Hospital Corporation of America joint venture is first of its kind with the National Health Service BY SIMON BINNS The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester has agreed a £14m joint venture with an American partner to develop its private patient services. The trust is finalising a deal with the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which is based in Denver and operates 173 hospitals and 108 outpatient facilities, servicing 14 million patients a year. It recorded a turnover of $26bn in its last financial year. Caroline Shaw, chief executive of The Christie, said the deal would lead to an improvement in patient care as well as boosting profits from private services. Since 2005, the trust has seen revenues from private care grow by around 14 per cent to £9.8m a year and it now accounts for about 8 per cent of total income. “We saw an opportunity in the private market and the potential to grow our private patient services,” said Shaw. “We thought another private care operator would take that opportunity if we didn’t. “HCA will be investing £14m and will be expected to manage all private patient services and insurers as well as providing capital investment. We think there is the potential to at least treble our private patient income to more than £30m. “I think the government will probably be watching to see how it works out. This is the first joint venture of its size and scale in the sector and if it works, I think there’s scope for us to take on more private partners in other areas. “If the private sector can improve the performance of the NHS and we can learn a few lessons from it, that’s a good thing. It also gives us the ability to increase the amount of research and development we can undertake. It’s good for us to have diluted funding streams.” Shaw said The Christie’s share of the profits made by the partnership, Tatiana Karelina in her new salon SEE CHRISTIE, PAGE 18 Cartel clients claim cash back on their credit cards BY MICHAEL FAHY Clients of suspended financial claims company Cartel Client Review are trying to reclaim their lost fees from credit card companies. The business, which had its licence suspended by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) last month, took upfront payments of up to £495 to handle an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 cases. The Ardwick-based firm may have raked in more than £20m over the past two and-a-half years. Customers who have desperately been trying to recoup money paid to the firm are now attempting a different tactic, by requesting that credit card companies refund the payments made. They are arguing that they have not received the service for which they paid and are therefore entitled to a full refund under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. Julie Blackmer, who paid Cartel £3,590 to investigate eight loan and credit agreements, said that she is pursuing a claim against Barclaycard. Like many Cartel clients, she was encouraged by her advisor, a Cartel sales agent, to use a credit card to make the upfront payments and then to pursue a separate claim to have that debt written off as well. Stephen Roper, a partner in Brabners Chaffe Street’s commercial department who is an expert on consumer credit legislation, explained that the Section 75 claims relate to debtor-creditor-supplier agreements, where a debtor who uses credit to obtain goods or a service which is not satisfactory can then recall payments made to a creditor. “If a supplier defaults, is in breach FROM RUSSIA WITH LOCKS BY JAMES CHAPELARD M SEE WHAT’S NEWS, PAGE 2 oscow University linguistics graduate Tatiana Karelina hopes northern girls’ love of glamour will underpin the growth of her new hair extension salon in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Karelina, from a small town outside Moscow, has opened up in Manchester following the success of her first branch in Kensington, London, whose celebrity clients include singer Jamelia, Bernie Ecclestone’s daughters Tamara and Petra, film producer Martha Fiennes and Miss Great Britain Gemma Garret. The London branch of Tatiana Hair Extensions has annual sales of £500,000 but she believes turnover in Manchester could be higher. She said: “Everything shows that it could be bigger than London. The girls in Manchester really like to look glamorous all the time. People in London are a little bit more casually dressed when they go the pub but here the girls are always glamorous.” The salon on Port Street has six chairs, but Karelina hopes to add beauty therapy rooms and a special private room to treat hair loss victims on the first and second floors. Her initial target is sales of £15,000 per month and despite the reces- SEE CARTEL, PAGE 18 SEE HAIR, PAGE 18 Leading Page 3 FUNDING STAND-OFF LEADS TO EXIT OF NURSERY CHAIN BOSS http://CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Manchester Business - 12-16 April, 2010

Crain's Manchester Business - 12-16 April, 2010