Adam and Stephen discuss new owners at Salford City, an investment by a Liverpool footballer and expansion for a prosthetics manufacturer.
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00:00New owners at Salford City, investment by a Liverpool footballer, an expansion for a prosthetics manufacturer featuring today's business briefing.
00:13Good morning Adam.
00:14Morning Stephen.
00:14I believe you've got some newsome at Liverpool's recent championship winning team.
00:18That's right, yeah, I'm kicking us off today, pardon the pun of course, with news regarding Cody Gakpo, the Liverpool forward,
00:25is invested in a US-based digital and production asset management firm designed for sports.
00:31The footballer actually participated in a funding round for Scoreplay, which is used by more than 200 sports organisations,
00:38including the Premier League and other groups like FIBA and the MLS.
00:43In its most recent funding round, the company secured $13 million, led by 20VC and 776.
00:50The news, of course, follows Liverpool's title win, its 20th title, so a lot to celebrate for the Dutch international.
00:57Yeah, exciting times ahead.
00:59Definitely.
00:59Well, more news from the world of football and business.
01:02With the announcement there are new owners at Salford City FC.
01:05That has now been acquired by an ownership group that includes David Beckham and Gary Neville.
01:11The former men United players are part of a consortium that also includes US businessman Declan Kelly and Lord Mervyn Davies.
01:17They're part of a group of nine shareholders in total that have now taken control.
01:23The consortium is aiming to build on the work of the class of 92, who I'm sure you'll remember,
01:28invested together with Peter Lim a few years ago, have taken Salford up through the leagues.
01:33Those will no longer be shareholders, but the club have confirmed that Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs,
01:41Phil Neville and Paul Scholes will remain involved in the club in various technical roles behind the scenes.
01:45Now, Concello, an advisory and investing firm founded by Declan Kelly,
01:51plan to work alongside his officers to develop a new commercial strategy.
01:54That's going to be led by Janie Whiteside, who is a former chief commercial officer at Walmart.
02:00So it's a good season for Salford, a fairly good season, just missing out on the playoffs.
02:04The new shareholders have committed to invest in the club, the team and the facilities,
02:08so potentially some further progress in the next few years.
02:11Definitely a big morning for football business news.
02:14Moving on to a different sector now, with a life sciences consultancy having chosen Birmingham
02:20for its new research centre of excellence, Cambridge Healthcare Research's new facility at the Lewis Building
02:26was officially opened by the leader of Birmingham City Council.
02:30Now, the facility will focus on providing strategic research projects for a range of UK and international clients
02:37operating within the life sciences sector.
02:40It represents the company's first facility outside Cambridge and London,
02:45so definitely a big vote of confidence in the West Midlands.
02:49Cambridge Healthcare Research said it aims to create 40 roles for research analysts by the end of 2025 in the city.
02:57The move was supported by the West Midlands Group Company.
02:59Well, in the south-east today, we've got the news that a prosthetics manufacturer is investing £50 million
03:05in a new operations centre in Basingstoke.
03:09Blatchford has been established in the town since the 1960s.
03:12It's now developing a 70,000-square-foot operations centre of excellence at Bilton Road,
03:17which will be close to its existing bond-closed offices.
03:20The move is expected to double the company's operational footprint
03:22and bring its manufacturing, assembly and distribution teams together under one roof for the first time.
03:27The facility itself is expected to increase manufacturing capacity by 50%
03:33and improve overall production efficiency by 30%.
03:36It's expected to be fully operational by the end of the year
03:40and replace an existing facility on Lister Road.
03:43About 180 staff are going to be based at the site.
03:46There's going to be opportunities for upskilling with the new machinery.
03:50The company's also said there's plans for further job creation in the future,
03:54so a really exciting story of growth there.
03:55Certainly. Thank you for that, Steve-O.
03:57And you can read more about that story and the others we've spoken about today
04:00and a whole host of different topics at insidermedia.com
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