Phil and Dan discuss an office opening in Scotland, the sale of a European car park operator, revenue increases for a Northern Ireland energy business and a contract win for a construction firm in the North East.
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00:00An office opening in Scotland, the sale of a European car park operator, revenue increases
00:06for a Northern Ireland energy business and a contract win for a construction firm in
00:10the North East.
00:11Welcome to this morning's Insider Business Briefing.
00:15Hi, good morning.
00:20We're going to take a look at some of the big stories this morning from our newsletters.
00:25I'm Phil Cunliffe, one of Insider's business editors.
00:29I'm Daniel Zambartas, digital staff writer.
00:32Well, good to see you, Dan.
00:33Good to see you.
00:34We're going to kick off, I think, with a story from Scotland.
00:36Yeah.
00:37So the Harris Partnership, they're an architectural practice headquartered in Wakefield.
00:41So they've launched plans for a new office in Scotland.
00:44They offer services including master planning as well as interior and graphic design.
00:49So they've got plans for a new office in Scotland, which would mark 40 years in the business.
00:54They've got offices in Manchester here, in London, central and southeast of England as
00:58well.
00:59And they're looking to secure some new clients in the northern border.
01:02So the recent projects you might have seen include the Stockport Interchange and also
01:06a new Premier Inn in York.
01:08And they also manage a portfolio of Aldi projects as well.
01:11So we might be seeing a few new Aldis in Scotland.
01:13Yeah.
01:14Well, that'll be exciting, of course.
01:16I want to highlight two owner-managed businesses, one in Northern Ireland and the other in the
01:22North East of England.
01:24One in Northern Ireland is Cameron Group, which is headquartered in Lisbon.
01:29They've increased their turnover according to their latest figures to £77.4M in their
01:38latest financial results.
01:39This represents a £20M increase in growth on the previous financial year.
01:44Cameron provides innovative and intelligent monitoring products and services for the electricity
01:50and rail sectors.
01:52And it's built a project backlog of over £50M, which will, according to the company,
01:59deliver revenues of around £90M in the coming year and significant profitability increases
02:07as well.
02:08So it's a really great story for Cameron.
02:11It's a great result for them, but also for the energy providers and for consumers in
02:16Northern Ireland as well.
02:18And Cameron, interestingly, were part of our Northern Ireland owner-managed businesses
02:22list.
02:23The top-performing 100 such businesses in Northern Ireland last year will be producing
02:29the 2024 list in October, and I'm sure Cameron will be part of that.
02:36I expect to see them there again, yeah.
02:37I think they will be.
02:39The other business, owner-managed business, the family-owned business in the North East
02:44that I want to highlight is T Manners and Sons, and they've been in business for over
02:47160 years.
02:50They're a construction firm, and they've just won a major contract with Durham County
02:57Council to deliver 500 homes in a £100M housing scheme.
03:03The contract will see them build those 500 homes, which will be a mix of bungalows and
03:08houses that will be affordable and secure tenancies.
03:13The Bishop of Auckland business has a really strong background in this type of area and
03:21this affordable homes sector, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of those sorts of schemes
03:28coming on board, obviously because the government's a new commitment to housing, so we'll see
03:33how many of those are going to be built in the North East and, of course, across the
03:37rest of the UK.
03:38Dan, I think you've got to go from the North East to across Europe.
03:44Yes, so Kew Park, with a carpark operator, they've got about 4,300 facilities across
03:49Western Europe, Netherlands, France, Germany, but also plenty here in the UK, you might
03:53have seen.
03:54So, they've sold a minority stake to Intergo Holding.
03:57They've acquired a 12.5% stake in the company, and that deal will see Interogo become a long-time
04:02investor.
04:03So, Frank De Moore, the chief executive of Kew Park, he's described them as an ideal
04:07partner for their strategy going forward.
04:10The company is set to support their growth plans.
04:12Kew Park has already significantly expanded its electronic vehicle charging infrastructure.
04:18So far, they've installed about 5,600 units, and they're looking for over 10,000 by 2027.
04:23Yes, one wonders whether that's enough, I mean, across Europe, I suspect the demand
04:28will be significantly more than that, but I suppose they'll plan to roll those out as
04:32time goes on.
04:33For sure, yes.
04:34Yes, absolutely.
04:35Well, that's all it for us from Dan and me this morning.
04:38If you want to read more about those stories and all the other stories we have across the
04:42UK, go to insidermedia.com and you'll find everything there.
04:47That's it for us today and for this week.
04:50We'll be back next week for more business stories, so please join us then.
04:53From me and Dan, goodbye.