Crain's Manchester Business - 1-5 February, 2010 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S LIST Waste Managers & Recycling FOCUS Page 11 Page 14 Green Business Demand for geothermal energy heats up CRAIN’S MANCHESTER BUSINESS VOL. 3, ISSUE 5, FEBRUARY 1 - 5, 2010 CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk £2 What’s News ■ Manchester should be one of the first cities outside London to see a return to growth for office rental values, according to Drivers Jonas. Howard Richards, head of the firm’s national investment team, told a seminar in Manchester last week that the city was attracting the interest of foreign investors, particularly from Germany. “Property has re-established itself as a favoured asset class and there is a significant weight of capital overhanging the market from both UK institutions and property companies trying to buy good property in just about all sectors, as well as a range of overseas investors keen on Manchester offices,” he said. ■ The former chief executive of Manchester Science Park-based Expansys has sold his stake in the firm to majority shareholder and BBC Dragon’s Den star Peter Jones. Butterworth revealed he was leaving the firm last Thursday when the company announced improved interims. However, announcements to the stock exchange on Friday showed that Butterworth had sold all of his shares and that Jones’s stake had climbed from 70.25 per cent to more than 75 per cent. The firm appointed a new chief executive, Anthony Catterson, last week. He is a former managing director of Phones4U and of London-based Carphone Warehouse’s retail division. He lives locally in Cheshire. ■ The TV21 bar in Manchester’s Northern Quarter was bought out of administration by one of its former directors for just £18,000, according to a new report filed by administrators at Clarke Bell. Adrienne Bennett acquired the business and assets TV 21 Café Bar Ltd, a company she used to run with her ex-husband. A prepackaged sale meant that the bar has remained open and continued to trade, although unsecured creditor claims of £169,000 have so far been received by administrators. ■ Euro Football Apparel, a supplier and importer of sportswear based in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, has gone into administration with debts of £780,000. The Manchester office of Zolfo Cooper was appointed as administrator last month and was able to raise £111,000 for preferential creditors, which meant the Royal Bank of Scotland will lose most of the £800,000 it is owed by the company. ■ Manchester-based Landwood Group has been appointed to handle the sale of bikes and other stock from Suzuki dealer Clarkes of Accrington, which closed in January. The firm has been appointed by Begbies Traynor to Asda 21’s equal value claim could cost retailers billions BY CRAIN’S STAFF REPORTER UK supermarkets may have to pay billions of pounds to lowly paid store workers if 21 women from the North West are successful with an equal value claim against Asda. The case went in front of an employment tribunal in Manchester last week for a pre-hearing review and was adjourned until September. But the GMB union, which is backing the claim, said it was confident it had a strong argument. Women store workers take claim for pay parity with distribution centre staff to tribunal “The impact of this could spread right through the retail sector,” said Giovanna Holt, GMB senior organiser for the North West and Irish region. She said the claimants, who all work in stores in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, receive about 40p above the minimum wage, whereas the mainly male workers in distribution centres at Wigan and Skelmersdale receive between £1 and £2 above the minimum wage. Holt said if the women win their case, it would cost Asda hundreds of millions of pounds because pay rises would be backdated six years. Asda, owned by US-based WalMart, has 100,000 staff in its UK stores. If they work about 25 hours per week on average, a rise of £1 per hour would cost the company £130m per annum and the back dated claim would amount to £780m. Similar cases in the public sector have seen local authorities pay out millions to women who were paid less than men even though the work they do was deemed to be of equal value. SEE PAY, PAGE 18 Recession: Cost to Whittaker is £740m BY JAMES CHAPELARD John Whittaker’s Peel Group has seen at least £740m wiped off the value of its assets as a result of the recession. Recently filed accounts show the value of the Trafford Centre alone has fallen by £409.4m to £1.4bn following a revaluation by Cushman & Wakefield in December 2008, which directors said was still current in March 2009. It was last valued in April 2008 at £1.8bn which means its value has slumped by 18.5 per cent during the recession. Even its new Barton Square extension, opened in May 2008, saw its value plummet by £24m to £85m after being revalued in March 2009. The revaluation at the Trafford Centre and other key Peel assets only emerged last week when a series of accounts were filed at Companies House, including Peel Holdings (TCL) Ltd which owns the 240-store shopping centre. The Trafford Centre is one of four main divisions of the group, which also includes Peel Airports, Peel Ports and Peel Land and Property. According to Peel’s own website the group has assets valued at £4.5bn while according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 John Whittaker is worth £1.3bn, making him the country’s 28th richest person. Peel Holdings (Land and Property) Ltd, a property investment and land portfolio consisting of 9 million sq ft of investment property and KLARIUS DEAL DRIVES ON BY MICHAEL FAHY Left to right, Klarius Group’s David Cheetham, finance director, Tony Wilson, chairman, Andrew Jones, managing director and Paul Hannah, business development director T SEE WHAT’S NEWS, PAGE 2 ony Wilson, the Tarporley-based businessman who owns exhaust manufacturer Klarius Group, is on the verge of completing his second major acquisition from a US-based automotive parts group in three years. The company is buying the Leicester-headquartered Quinton Hazell group of companies from USbased Affinia Group Inc for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will take turnover at Klarius to more than €350m. The firm, which recently moved into new headquarters in Preston, currently has a turnover of around £111m, of which £60m is in the UK. Klarius will be acquiring a Europe-wide group with operations in seven countries including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Quinton Hazell manufactures a range of car parts including suspension and braking systems, and the stable of brands being acquired include Lipmesa shock absorbers, Wix Filters and Krooklok security systems. “Klarius sees this acquisition as a perfect fit as there is very llittle crossover between the Quinton Hazell products and its existing range,” a source told Crain’s. The source said that Quinton Hazell delivers 40,000 parts per day to more than 5,000 delivery points in SEE MERGER, PAGE 18 SEE PEEL, PAGE 18 Leading Page 3 CANADIAN FIRM MAKES APPROACH FOR PEEL AIRPORTS STAKE http://CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Manchester Business - 1-5 February, 2010

Crain's Manchester Business - 1-5 February, 2010