Crain's Manchester Business - 19-23 April 2010 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S LIST Corporate Finance Deals First Quarter 2010 Page 14 STARTS ON PAGE 11 Education & Training MBS tackles slide down rankings CRAIN’S MANCHESTER BUSINESS VOL. 3, ISSUE 16, APRIL 19 - 23, 2010 CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk £2 What’s News ■ Warrington-based civil engineering firm Daniel Contractors Ltd recorded a dip in turnover and pre-tax profits in the year to September 30, 2009. Turnover dropped to £141m, compared with £180m the previous year, and pre-tax profits decreased to £1m, against £3.3m in 2008. The business was impacted by losses incurred on a number of contracts in the energy sector, which led to an overhaul of the company’s contract controls. The firm completed it biggest ever project to date for National Grid, however, at Milford Haven. The firm’s founder, Conal Daniel, passed away during the year, which chief executive Andrew Ball described as a “very personal loss felt throughout the industry”. ■ The Manchester office of Lambert Smith Hampton has been appointed to market the BBC’s New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road. No official announcement has been made by either party, although one is expected when the building is officially brought to the market in the summer. The corporation will move 800 staff out of the building into its new offices in MediaCity in 2011. ■ Andy Dodd, director and founder of Ask Developments, has resigned from the board at Manchesterbased SKV Communications. Dodd had been on the board since the firm was established in 1998. Andy Spinoza, managing director of SKV, said: “Andy Dodd is a busy man and his role was always in the background. He has stepped down to let me and the other directors, Daniel Kennedy and Geraldine Vesey, focus on the future of the business.” ■ Solicitors acting for investors in the failed property developer Manyoo LLP, which was planning to build 1,000 flats on Salford Quays, have started plans to issue claims for the return of their deposits. One investor who contacted Crain’s said letters and forms had been sent out by their legal representatives to make claims from Zurich Insurance, as Manyoo is no longer able to fulfil its part of the contract. ■ Two directors of Wilsmlow-based Total Fitness Group have resigned from the company’s board. Companies House filings show that Michael Mowlem, who joined the company following Legal & General Ventures’ (LGV) £80m buyout of the business in 2004, resigned from the board last week. Zoe Clements, an investment director at LGV who replaced Ivan Heywood as the private equity firm’s representative on the board, is also no longer a director. Crain’s contacted the company, but did not receive a reply. Solicitor shot after quitting failed law firm Ex-Wolstenholmes lawyer targeted at his home by pair of balaclava-clad gunmen BY MICHAEL FAHY A former solicitor who worked at Cheadle-based law firm Wolstenholmes was shot in the leg at his Salford home within months of leaving the firm to set up his own practice, Crain’s has discovered. Gavin Wall, who worked at the firm between February and July last year, left to start Swinton-based Home Solicitors in August — a two-partner practice which he co-founded with Darren Rich. It is not known whether the shooting was related to Wolstenholmes and Wall declined to comment on the matter. Greater Manchester Police confirmed to Crain’s that a man was shot in the leg at Wall’s home address on October 23 last year. “The victim heard banging at his door and when he opened it, two men wearing balaclavas were outside,” the police said. “One was carrying a handgun and shot the victim before they both ran off.” A GMP spokesman said that two men were subsequently arrested in connection with the incident, but there was insufficient evidence to bring any charges. It is not pursuing any other lines of enquiry, but has appealed for anyone with any information relating to the incident to report it. Wall’s new firm specialises in the same area — bulk conveyancing — as Wolstenholmes did prior to its closure by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) on December 23. Five partners from Wolstenholmes were suspended by the SRA following its intervention for “suspected dishonesty and breaches of the Solicitors Accounts and Practice Rules”. Wall has adopted many of the same web-driven tactics to generate leads as Wolstenholmes and even recruited several former colleagues to help him build the business. Despite this, he argues that comments on various consumer Sean Keefe of Strength & Performance SEE WALL, PAGE 18 Government office calls in Tesco’s Trafford plan BY SIMON BINNS Lancashire Cricket Club has been stumped in its plans to redevelop its Old Trafford stadium and lure test cricket back to the region. The Government Office of the North West (GONW) has written to Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council to inform the authority the government is calling in its decision to allow a 160,000 sq ft Tesco store near the stadium. The store is crucial to the redevelopment of Old Trafford because the retailer would have paid the council £21m for the proposed site, which would then have been used to fund the works at the ground. The club is hoping to attract test cricket back to Old Trafford in time for the next Ashes in 2013, but has already missed its own self-imposed start date of February. The biggest delay has been a row with Isle of Man-based Derwent Holdings, which wants to build a 100,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s on its White City retail park, which is 600 metres from Old Trafford. Last month, the council refused its application in the same meeting that it approved Tesco’s plans. Ged Carney, spokesman for Derwent Holdings, said the firm was “pleased” with the latest developments. “Given that the planning inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State, rejected a store half the size of the new proposal on the same site a few years ago, it’s inconceivable that this proposal would not be called in,” he said. “Derwent has long maintained that the timetable from the club to TYRED OF THE GYM? BY SIMON BINNS PHOTO: MARTIN O’NEILL/STUDIOFIVEFOUR.COM SEE WHAT’S NEWS, PAGE 2 new back-to-basics fitness facility based in a former mill in Stockport is aiming to become the latest household name in the professional fitness sector. The two founders of Strength & Performance, which uses traditional methods and equipment including tyres, hammers and concrete dumbbells instead of treadmills and exercise bikes, said they founded the business as a response to “toxic” fitness club chains. Sean Keefe and Zoran Dubaic are both directors and 50 per cent shareholders in the business, which opened its doors in Meadow Mill on Water Street on March 1. Dubaic said the business cost just £10,000 to set up and Keefe is hoping the firm can roll out the brand to more than just bricks and mortar: “We’ve been planning it for about two years. We both worked at fitness clubs for 10 years but we just felt that gyms do things that are totally counter-productive to getting results.” “You see people reading newspapers while running on treadmills and it’s totally infuriating. Gyms that allow that to happen are toxic to people who actually want to get in shape. A SEE CRICKET, PAGE 18 SEE GYM, PAGE 18 Leading Page 3 MCPHERSON TO RELOCATE ETHEL AUSTIN AFTER £1.25M BUY-BACK http://CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Manchester Business - 19-23 April 2010

Crain's Manchester Business - 19-23 April 2010