South Tyneside crafting company Katy Sue has acquired one of its largest competitors in a significant international expansion.
The company, which is implementing a buy and build strategy to consolidate the fragmented craft market, has completed the acquisition of Austrian mould manufacturer Alphabet Moulds.
Having grown rapidly by acquisition over the past four years, Katy Sue, headed by founder Sue Balfour, has acquired Acrylic Crafts, a maker of laser cut craft supplies, paper craft experts Craft Creations and last year completed the acquisition of paper quilling experts JJ Quilling.
Land and property consultancy George F White has snapped up a Berwick business as part of a strategic move to bolster its presence in the North.
George F White has purchased Tyne and Tweed estate agents, a residential sales and lettings agency based in the heart of Berwick- upon-Tweed, in an undisclosed deal.
As a result of the acquisition, the business now has several offices across the region including Alnwick, Berwick, Newcastle and Durham, providing land and property services including residential sales and lettings services. It also has branches in Barnard Castle, County Durham, and Bedale in North Yorkshire.
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The merger follows rapid growth for George F White, which has seen residential sales increase by 56% and lettings grow by 31% over the last two years.
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Commercial property and investment company LCP has swooped to buy the Galleries shopping centre in Washington from M&G Real Estate in its biggest acquisition to date, also taking on Wales’ largest shopping centre, the Cwmbran Centre, as part of the deal.
The North East portfolio includes the Galleries Shopping Centre, which has more than 200 units spread over 535,000 sqft, anchored by Asda and Sainsbury’s, and the adjacent 158,000 sqft Galleries Retail Park, which has 16 retail units, including Aldi, Matalan and River Island.
The shopping centre has 2,500 free car parking spaces and a dedicated bus station, while the retail park has 600 car parking spaces. Marketing materials issued ahead of the sale also revealed how the site has the potential for the construction of up to 6,000 sq ft of new accommodation at the park.
County Durham immersive technology company n-gage.io has secured a £150,000 investment to transform how customers experience entertainment, sport, visitor attractions, hospitality and retail.
n-gage.io has worked with Growth Capital Ventures (GCV) to secure £150,000 investment to develop the mobile technology platform.
Founder Bryan Hoare said: “Mobile optimised experiences strive to increase engagement, yet many are still lacking innovation in technology and content delivery, failing to meet audience expectations. Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of technology more than ever; showing how important it is to maintain links with your audience when a national and global crisis disrupts business.
“While the pandemic has accelerated views around technology adoption, more needs to be done to address market affordability and ease of deployment where low levels of technical expertise and lack of resource are often barriers.
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“We’re developing n-gage.io to transform audience engagement and the visitor experience leading to more loyal and engaged customers for our clients.
“Through our technology we’ll be improving the experience, deepening learning and engagement and building audience loyalty and ultimately revenues for the operator.”
Northumberland firm Britishvolt will work with sports car manufacturer Lotus on an electric vehicle for the luxury car maker.
The battery maker - which last week announced that it had raised the £1.7bn needed to make its battery gigafactory near Blyth a reality - has signed a memorandum of understanding with Lotus to develop its lithium-ion for Lotus vehicles.
The partnership will see the two firms work on a battery cell package that will power the next generation of electric sports cars from Lotus. It comes after Lotus invested £100m into the development of electric sports cars.
The deal is also the first public contract between Britishvolt and a first-tier automotive brand, with the company saying other announcements are set to follow in the next few weeks.
Oliver Jones, chief commercial officer at Britishvolt, said: “Britishvolt is excited to be working with such a prestigious and highly acclaimed OEM (original equipment manufacturer) as Lotus.
“This MoU demonstrates that the legacy one-size-fits-all cell strategy is no longer valid in the rapidly developing electric mobility market. It also reinforces Britishvolt’s differentiation strategy of close customer intimacy and partnering to fully optimize battery solutions and enable the differentiation so important to these iconic brands and products.”
Technology giant Sage has announced a multimillion-pound deal to sponsor the conference centre and arena being built on the Gateshead Quayside.
The company, which has sponsored the Sage Gateshead music centre since its opening in 2024, has agreed a £10m deal to name the new centre, which is hoped will create 2,000 new jobs and provide a £70m annual boost to the local economy.
Sage, which champions the small business sector that make up many of its clients, has linked its sponsorship to a number of benefits for SMEs, including work in the construction process for North East firms and access to future conferences for small companies.
The naming rights deal will see the entire development on the Gateshead Quays called The Sage. It is likely that the Sage Gateshead will be re-named when the conference centre opens in 2024 to differentiate it from the new facility.