Jennifer and Stephen discuss Insider's interview with this year's winner of The Apprentice, funding for an online sports retailer and a site featured in Blackadder.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00An interview with this year's winner of The Apprentice, funding for an online sports retailer
00:03and a site previously featured in Blackadder, featuring today's business briefing.
00:13So Jane, you've got an exclusive Insider interview to tell us about first.
00:16Yes, I do indeed. So The Apprentice, we're big fans of it here at Insider. Did you watch the
00:21season? I did, yeah. Really good, really good season I thought. It was. So the latest winner
00:26of The Apprentice, Dean Franklin, spoke with our digital news writer Daniel Zambartis on winning
00:31the reality show with his business ADL Air Conditioning. So Dean founded ADL in 2020 and what people
00:38may not know is that he had applied to be on the show in the series before last, but he
00:42was rejected at the audition stage. So after that, he went on to apply a second time around
00:48for this series and ultimately won and secured the £250,000 investment and 50% stake in the
00:54business from Lord Sugar. So ADL Air Conditioning itself then focuses on the residential sector
00:59as opposed to commercial installations, which Dean identified as the gap in the market.
01:05He said that there is no household name that comes to mind when it comes to air conditioning,
01:10particularly with domestics. And Dean said that the £250,000 investment has gone towards a new
01:15office, expanding the firm's van fleet and hiring new staff, all allowing a smoother operation of the
01:21business. The firm is also now planning an overseas expansion too. And you can read the full interview
01:26with Dan on insidermedia.com, which has gone live this morning.
01:30Really interesting on that, really, really worth reading.
01:33Well, sticking with television, in the Central and East Newsletter, we've got news that a site that
01:38once featured in Blackadder, the sitcom, has been sold. So that site is the former cavalry barracks
01:46in Colchester, which itself dates back to 1862, and once formed part of the historic Colchester
01:52garrison that had been vacant for a number of years. It was previously used as a filming location and
01:57may be familiar to audiences from the opening and closing credits of Blackadder Goes Forth. I don't
02:02know if you've seen Blackadder, yeah? No, but the team were talking about it this morning,
02:07it's meant to be very funny, I hear? It is, it's very good, yeah.
02:09Well, the site has now been acquired by Newell Homes, and they are planning to develop about 70
02:16homes on the site. It already has planning permission, so that should all be in place,
02:21ready to go. The developer was advised on its acquisition by Ellison's Solicitors, and Newell
02:26Homes has said it is aiming to retain the character of the original buildings, while creating high
02:31quality and sustainable homes for the local community. It's a really interesting development there.
02:35Great. Well, over in Wales then, Welch Water has announced that its Chief Executive is to retire
02:42in the spring of next year, which would see a 45-year career in the water sector come to a close.
02:48Peter Perry joined the water provider as an apprentice in the early 1980s, progressing through
02:53a range of operational and leadership roles. He became a Chief Operating Officer in 2013,
02:59Managing Director in 2017, and ultimately Chief Executive in 2020. Since then,
03:04Peter has led the company to some of the most challenging and transformative times in the
03:09company's history. These include the COVID pandemic, growing environmental pressures,
03:15and sector-wide financial challenges. The company has said now that the search for
03:20a successor will begin immediately. Great. Well, last thing from us today. In Yorkshire,
03:25we've got news that an online sports retailer has secured seven-figure funding from HSBC
03:30to support its growth plans. Elite Pro Sports works with a range of football clubs, rugby clubs,
03:35netball clubs, and it also owns the Oxen Sports brand. It has relationships with rugby super league
03:42clubs, such as Holt KR, Losfield Giants, Leeds Ryan, there's the Castrol Tigers, as well as the
03:47Lincoln City and Doncastero football teams. The funding is going to support expansion. It's aiming to
03:51move to a 70,000 square foot warehouse, which is going to provide a significant increase in capacity over
03:56its existing South Yorkshire site. It's also going to support the creation of jobs. The company's
04:01hoping to create about 20 roles, build its workforce up to about 100 people. And the company said it's
04:08aiming to double its turnover to 20 million this year, so a really exciting growth story there.
04:13Great. Well, if you'd like to hear more on all of the stories that we spoke about today, you can head
04:18on over to InsiderMedia.com, where you can also sign up to our newsletters and hear about our upcoming events.