46 BusIness AUGUST 2019
In case you mIssed It...
A round up of the biggest news stories from the last month
strong start for
catalan
r estaur ant tast
Manchester Catalan restaurant
Tast is celebrating a successful
first year of trading, which has
seen more than 50,000 guests
through its doors.
Under executive head chef
Paco Pérez, patron of two
restaurants in Catalonia with
two Michelin stars, Tast creates
food that incorporates the
history and heritage of Catalan
traditions.
The restaurant business is
backed by Pep Guardiola, Txiki
Begiristain and Ferran Soriano
alongside Tomas Maunier,
director at the independent
Fazenda group, also having an
active role within the business.
Mr Pérez said: “We’re really
proud of everything we’ve
achieved over the past year;
the jobs we’ve created, the
team we’ve built and the
passions for Catalan cuisine
that we’ve ignited.
“We have seen lots of visitors
from within the city, but the
restaurant is also proving a real
draw for visitors from further
afield, which is a testament to
the unique offering.”
trafford Is tops
for employment
growth
Towns in parts of Greater
Manchester are seeing a surge
in employment – and Trafford
is faring the best.
New figures released by the
Office for National Statistics
(ONS) have analysed the
population, employment, and
income deprivation of 1,082
towns across England and
Wales.
The analysis revealed that in
Urmston in Trafford,
employment growth soared by
180.9% between 2009 and
2017.
It means employment grew
18 times faster than the
national average across
England and Wales (10.0%).
There were 62 towns across
Greater Manchester included
in the analysis – and six of the
top 10 were all in Trafford.
After Urmston, employment
rose fastest in Milnrow in
Rochdale (108.7%).
That was followed by Eccles
in Salford (60.6%), Worsley in
Salford (58.1%), Standish in
Trafford (57.8%), and Platt
Bridge, also in Trafford (51.5
%). Despite Trafford’s success,
the two areas of Greater
Manchester that have seen the
biggest fall in employment
growth were also towns in the
borough.
Hale’s employment growth
slumped by 23% between 2009
and 2017, while in Stretford it
fell by 14.5%.
The ONS also ranked towns
based on their income
deprivation score and placed
them into 10 categories.teledata uk
achIeves record
pIpelIne
A Greater Manchester data
centre operator has reported a
record order book in the first
half of the year.
TeleData UK revealed it has
achieved 77% of its 2019 new
business revenue target within
six months.
It also increased cloud
revenues by 28% in the same
period while also cementing
several long term colocationcontracts with
well-known
PLCs within its
data centre
facility in
Wythenshawe.
A record
pipeline value
also indicates
a strong
second half for
the business,
which is forecasting a record
year following the strong
growth it has achieved in H1
already.
As a result, the firm has
expanded its team
significantly, with the technical
and sales teams set to double
in the next 12 months.
Commercial director
Matthew Edgley told the
M.E.N: “This growth comes at a
time of significant investment
for TeleData, with over £1.8m
being invested into resilience,
energy efficiencies and cloud
product development by early
2020.”cloud ex pert
doubles revenue
In record year
Manchester-based Cloud
Technology Solutions (CTS)
has doubled its revenues
following a record year of
client wins, new products and
its merger with a Dutch firm.
The company, which is
based in Lowry House,
reported a 50% rise in revenues
for the year ending March 31 to
£27.5m.
CTS said the growth followed
new client wins, the launch of
new software solutions under
the rebranded CloudM
product suite and a merger
with Netherlands-based
machine learning experts
Qlouder – creating one of the
largest full-stack Google
practice in Europe.
CTS, which consults globally
and enables businesses to
work collaboratively,
modernise IT systems and
innovate with data through
predictive analytics and
machine learning, also secured
a significant investment from
NorthEdge Capital earlier last
y e a r.t ur nov er
r e ac h e s £10 0m
for natIonal law
fIrm gateley
Revenue at commercial law
firm Gateley has exceeded
£100m for the first time.
The firm, which has an office
on King Street, Manchester,
announced revenue increased
to £103.5m, up 20.2% from
£86.1m in 2018, in its
preliminary results for the year
ended April 30.
Adjusted earnings before tax
also increased 15.7% from
£16.5m in 2018 to £19.1m in
2019, while profit before tax
increased 8.9% from £14.6m to
£15.9m.
Gateley said its acquisitions,
of housebuilder specialists
GCL Solicitors, non-legal
human capital consultancy
firm Kiddy & Partners and
non-legal inward investment
consultancy International
Investment Services, among its
operational highlights for the
financial year.cds and dvds
sales rIse
as tradItIonal
medIa makes a
comeback
Physical media such as DVDs
and CDs are ‘back for good’
as retailer Poundland and its
entertainment provider
musicMagpie report a surge
in sales.
Poundland said sales of
CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and
books had risen 22%, sincethe start of 2019, smashing
the widely held belief that the
physical media market was
dying.
Following considerable
growth since 2015, aided by
seasonal sales during the
summer holidays and
Christmas, DVDs have been a
particular hit and it expects to
sell 24 million by the end of
2019.
Rolling back the years, CDs
are now following the groove;
with Poundland reporting a
73% sales increase so far this
year. Top titles sold include,
Beatles No 1 album, Ed
Sheeran and Abba Gold.The value retailer has
steadily increased the
number of physical DVDs
and CDs it offers over the past
four years resulting in sales
passing 10 million in just the
last year itself.
It’s not just CDs and DVDs
that are on the rise, despite
the advent of streaming,
Blu-ray is hitting sales highs
at Poundland and forecast to
reach 675,000 in 2019 alone.
●●Poundland trading director
Tim Bettley said: “Our
partnership with
musicMagpie is showing
there’s real life in the sales of
physical media.”Tast on King StreetMatthew Edgley