August is meant to be silly season. Full of slow news days where news editors fill their pages with editorial landfill.
Not this August we haven’t. I’m going to be writing a monthly column for the Manchester Law Society on what’s been happening in Manchester business over the course of the month, so I’ll run through some highlights you might have missed whether you were on your holidays in the Algarve, Tuscany, or Prestatyn, after a brief introductory hello.
I’ve been writing about business most of my professional life, I started out interviewing pop stars, artists and models for a music paper in Australia, but even then as a chippy English kid, I only ever gave five star reviews to New Order, Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays.
Through the 90s I was a reporter, then an editor, for the media trade press, covering the rise of satellite TV, Granada Television and the tech revolution in video and film production.
I rocked up in Manchester in 2000 to be the editor of a business magazine based in Minshull Street behind the court house, where I was frequently approached by local ladies to discuss business, but not of the variety I was employed to write about.
I love the life that I’ve built here and remain that chippy northerner. Though I do cover crooks, liquidations and shady deals, I do so from the position of wanting to police the boundaries of a business community so good people aren’t ripped off. I take being a journalist seriously, something I cherish having been offered the chance to return to the frontline after a period as a political adviser.
This August some big exclusive stories came thick and fast.
We’ll start with the big positive one first. The sale of a stake in cult female fashion brand Adanola, which values the Manchester-based business at £400m (US$530m) is a huge lift for the city.
Further south, Dr Nyla Raja known locally as the "Botox Queen" sold her aesthetics business to an American “consolidator”. I’ll keep an eye on this one. She received a stinging assessment from the Care Quality Commission in 2023 for the hair transplant service and she used to be in business with footballer’s wife Dawn Ward, a star of Real Housewives of Cheshire.
The investment into Leonard Curtis by Pollen Street Capital was also a big deal for the city, as a really well-run, deadly focused business in the flux world of professional services looks to an exciting next phase.
I also attended court to get some more insights into the case of Stockport accountancy firm Bennett Verby and the charges they face for failing to prevent tax evasion.
We also saw the conclusion of the scrap to buy Assura, a North West based healthcare property investment business where Primary Healthcare Properties beat off American private equity firm KKR, three initials that are known to send a chill down the spine of even the toughest business executive.
Finally, it was with a very heavy heart that I pressed send on a breaking news alert on a sunny Wednesday afternoon about the Greater Manchester Chamber filing a notice of intention to appoint administrators.
There are plenty of people there who I have the utmost respect for. The reason they gave for their financial perils is that its Chamber Space co-working and meeting room rental venture has become “an unsustainable part of the business” since the pandemic.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted on these stories, and more, on TheBusinessDesk.com.